Well Tomo, perhaps not all of us endorse your casual attitude to equipment selection. The intentions of the original rulemakers aside, I am not aware of the avid involvement of the Boy Scouts of America in the class. My guess is that kids who are interested in r/c sailing are at least as internet savvy as anyone who posts to this thread, if not more so. Also, never underestimate the power of “please, please, please!” to circumvent allowance restrictions.
I’ve pointed this out before but it bears repeating, the rules are there to ensure that the boats entered in a regatta all conform to a set of predetermined limitations. They are intended primarily for those individuals who travel to races in other towns or countries who don’t want to make the trip only to find out that they can’t compete because their boat is not legal at the race site. At the club level I find the rules are not always enforced to the letter, and thats o.k. if thats what they decide to do as a group. If one individual of that group wants to sail somewhere else then that person has to make sure that their boat measures in. All the tinkerers out there who don’t intend to race seriously shouldn’t be too concerned about which servos the serious racers use.
Here a servo or so of almost amy kind is affordable by most teenagers with a little ‘please, please’ and a littkle ‘save, save’. What depresses me about all the waliong about costs is that a) they are in absolute terms tiny and b) they come from what is allegedly thr richest country in the world. It is as if America had a fetish about saving 2 cents as it trundes along in its 5 litre motor car.
If you’re realy that poor, free-sailing Footys are great fun and faster than R/C ones. You’ll also get more exercise, be able to cut your health insurance costs and be able to buy a couple of (vane!) Marbleheads into the bargain.
The Boy Scouts was aren’t involved, AFAIK. The idea (again) was to develop a boat that kids could build, and maybe even kids like Cub Scouts could build them as a group project.
Tomo,
I bought a Hitec HS55 for about $14 & a Futaba 3003 can be had for about $10. The HS55 is alot lighter (by 29 g) & plenty strong enough to turn a balanced rudder. I really don’t think that a $4 price difference will prevent anyone from building a Footy & the weight savings is well worth the cost.
Have you completed your Footy yet? I assume from your comment about buying 3 packs of servos at the hobby store, that you now have the electronics installed. We’d sure like to see a picture.
Bill K