Richard sent an email and said his hatch was found.

Remember boys and girls when you use a leaf blower to clean out your shop, your small parts could run and hide.

Rick

Originally Posted by Fairwind900

Richard sent an email and said his hatch was found.

Remember boys and girls when you use a leaf blower to clean out your shop, your small parts could run and hide.

Rick

Good news.

Now you tell me, I used a leaf blower to clean my bedroom.
Now I can't find my cats.

Yo Commodores!

We had Gary from Merced CA join us today for our happy meal and sailing. Gary is new to the hobby and wanted to visit the club. He was sitting next to Rick when I got to the Holiday Inn for breakfast. Richard, Garth and Tim joined us to round out the table and join in the conversation. Gary's main goal in joining us today was to learn a bit more about r/c sailboats. So there were lots of questions and everyone chipped in giving input. Very handy!

It was spritzing a bit just as we finished eating so we sat around a bit longer. The weather let up and for the most part stayed dry the rest of the day.

At the pond we had 2 Canterbury J's , a Fairwind, Tugboat, 3 Vics, Seawind and ODOM out sailing. The winds were very light with some fair air in the 3-5 range. That was okay because we wanted to spend time getting Gary a tour and let him try different boats.

Richard, Garth, Tim had sailed some long course runs. The low sun angle this time of year makes it even trickier to judge distance to the marks. I had seen a couple of boats turn a bit early.

While sailing I had a call from Mr Buckler saying he was calling a sail day for Hobie AI's on Wednesday at 11. Apparently there is something going on that could hinder sailing on Thursday.

It was good to see Richards hatch returned to the deck of his CJ. Apparently a leaf blower maybe too much wind for your garage/sailboats. Commodore Don had reported that a leaf blower maybe too strong to clean your bedroom and his cats may need more ballast too.

Tim had a problem with his CJ rudder. He made a new spacer for it and after some minor adjustment at the pond his newly added rudder spacer did it's job.

I've been using Safeway batteries in my boats. $9 for 40 AA batteries. I think I'm going to go back to buying AA from Costco. The Safeway batteries are cheaper and a bit shorter in length but I'm not getting as long on a set.

I've also noticed I need to go back and review some of my boats my ODOM and Victoria especially. The sail sheet on both boats wants to wrap around things when slack is introduced by folks going from full sheet out to full sheet in.

It will be interesting to see what rc sailboat Gary ends up getting.

It was a good day at the pond. I hope Don finds his cats.

Rick

Great pictures & report.
The cats always come home at feeding time.

I heard Gary picked up two used boats this week. A Victoria and a Northwind 36. That should be a good start of a collection.

Rick

Yo Commodores!

It was a busy morning and we were glad to have Gary back for his second week. Gary joined us for breakfast along with Tim, Bill and myself. Garth was heading to sin city, Rick was recovering from something and Richard sent a message he would be late but see us at the pond.

So we continued the discussion about the two boats Gary just bought a Victoria and a Northwind 36 from a guy in Clovis. While working on our happy meals. We were all curious about these two new additions but Gary warned us they were not in perfect condition.

I mentioned that I had installed a new sail servo in my pedigreed Fairwind and it was in the truck ready to sail. I was anxious to see how it would do.

We headed over to the pond and found parking places and Gary pulled out his boats. It is always interesting to see how folks build boats. Something unique on the boas were the 6 AA batteries in the boats power supply. Both the Victoria and the Northwind had a Futaba 3801 sail servo more than enough for the requirement. It looked like the boats were built with the instructions in mind but not quite followed.

It took a while to untangle and rigging on both boats but it gave us time to look them over. The Northwind once on the water sailed well with it's narrow hull design. We didn't put the Vic in the water until later and it did okay but suffered from too much sail and not enough room for the boom to swing freely.

I think Gary was glad to see both boats working and being able to sail. He said he would bring them over to the shop on Tuesday so we could start making them better boats.

Tim brought his Voyager II and his Victoria. Bill had his Seawind. Richard sailed his Canterbury J. I sailed the new Fairwind and after making some adjustments it sailed fine. I had a Vic in the truck along with an ETNZ but didn't sail them.

The weather was better than I expected and we had more wind than predicted yeahhh. It was fun seeing different boats all sailing at the same time.

I had a great time setting up boats and checking them out. Tim jumped in and adjust Garys Jib.

Richard said something about a Hobie AI. Who knows.

I took another shot at passing out the sailing magazines that Bob C. had given us a while back. This time more seamed to be taken home. Yesss.

Next week we should see Rick and Garth back in the group. I think Gary is hooked.

Good day thanks guys!

Rick

I wouldn't recommend using six AA batteries to power your boats radio and servos. I have seen a AA battery when fresh produce 1.7 volts that would mean running the electronics at 10.2 volts that were designed for less than 7 volts.

Great report & pictures.

Yo!

A new member of ours asked me about the Fairwind II/900 today and I was thinking I should snap a few pictures of my boats and maybe answer his question.

Let me start with the Cox Tradewind, that I consider the Fairwind I. I don't know what the relationship was between the Cox company, the brand name on the box of the Tradewind and Kyosho who makes the Fairwind, but they used many of the same parts including the mast, sails, booms, rudder as well as having the general look of the same boat. The Tradewind is different from the later Fairwind II and 900 in that it is made from foam. It has more beam and has a removable keel (unless it is rusted in place). The deck on the tradewind has groves for the planked look. It also has two compartments to access the rudder and one for the servos.

The Tradewind has a mild temperament on the water because of the amount of beam, it wants to sail upright and behaves nicely.

I want to talk about a boat made by Team Tropic. They made a Wind Dancer that to me appears to be a Fiberglass Fairwind from it's looks. These guys out of Florida did a great job of dressing the boats up. There is a wooden mast, colorful sails, and lots of deck details. Mine even has a no slip decking and wooden rub rails.

This boat is heavier than the Tradewind and the same profile as the Fairwind. It sits down on the water and looks great. It is not a performer in terms of speed and it is tender in wind. But it is good looking boat and I'm glad to have it my collection. To me Team Tropic did a nice job of creating this look alike and did a superb job of detailing it.

The Fairwind II and the Fairwind 900 are to me the same boat. The Fairwind 900 came out second and I think it had more chrome plastic parts than the Fairwind II. This plastic boat is the second boat I owned and I think it made a great club boat and it looks like so many other full scale boats that many are drawn to it because it reminded them of a boat they admired. It looked good on the water and as a display piece.

It performs better than the Tradewind or the Windancer on the water. It can be dressed up with deck railing and chrome helm or stripped down for racing.

The Fairwind III did not come out as a kit but a ready to sail boat and is made of Fiberglass. The keel is a hair deeper than the Fairwind II/900. The boat sails a bit more tender and I think it could use more ballast. But the paint job and the details on the boat are a knock out. I don't own a Fairwind III but my buddy Richard has one and I have worked on it.

Here are some photos of the boats. I hope this helps you some.

Rick

Very well written and documented article on the Fairwind Rick. I think I even recognize a SMYC multi owner boat in there, LOL.
Lookin forward to coming back up, however, gotta wait till "Fog" season is over now. See ya all later. Oh, is there going to be a "Christmas Tug" Regatta this year? Ron

Great history report on the Fairwind.

Thank You

Great report and pics. Nice boats for sure.

BTW: a Christmas tug parade would be great.

Happy Holidays.

Rules to sail by:

Pick your crew wisely
Steer clear of trouble
Give a new skipper room to fail
Sail in your own wind
When becalmed wait for the wind
Overpowered and can't turn, let go of the sails
Sail a smart line and don't give up
In strong wind don't cleat
Sail inside your ability and your boats limits
Sail and sail often.

These are “more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules”

At the pond last week, team said we out to call your new Fairwind Plumb Crazy....

Well tonight he showed up with a new decal for the back of the boat...


Thanks Tim, it looks great! Nice font too!

Rick

Ha, ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,
Now I'm wondering? Is this the name of the boat, or the owner??? Either way, -------I LIKE IT!!!! Ron