Originally Posted by seefest

Thats the replica. The original is long gone. Didn't know that Conner bought her. I know he's been very involved with the classic stuff for the past 5-10 years or so.

Very cool.

I forgot to mention that Seefest. Thanks for pointing that out.

Dennis said in talking about her that she cost six milllion dollars to build. He did not say and I did not ask how much he paid for her.

He had all of the Oracle guys out on her sailing off the coast when they were here for for the America's Cup World Series races held on San Diego Bay.

The yellow boat is a US1M FG over balsa Hull-16. After years of building balsa gliders this was my first attempt building a boat. The hull design is great. Gusts just cause her to heel without noticeably rounding to weather. I learned a lot building this boat and have now retired it in favor of subsequent builds.

The orange boat is my latest one; a FG over gelcoat US1M from a mold loaned to be by a local club member. The designer is gone from the area so little is know about it as far as design philosophy. It has a fairly wide beam and sits very high in the water with both the stern and knuckle free of the surface so it does well in very light conditions. At its first race last weekend it took 1st overall for the day in 0 -2 mph winds. When the wind picks up it can be a handful even with a B rig.

The last picture is a shot of my Infinity-54 taken on her first day racing last summer . The Infinity is a one-design class with most of the boats built from the mid '80s through the 90's by John Amen in Santa Rosa, CA. This boat was a kit that had never been completed until I purchased it and got it into the water. She is on the large size at 54" LOA and 15.5 lbs with a remotely adjustable backstay. The Infinity is a dream to sail and can be adjusted for all wind conditions up to about 20 mph, when it starts to imitate a submarine

FC

There used to be a guy here in San Diego that had a very nice Infinity 54 that he would sail sometimes at the rc boat pond. Great boat in my opinion.

I remember when the I-54's first came out. They were a strict OD(like every OD should be), with everything included in the kit. I believe even the radio board was a class required molding.
They were supposed to be an answer to the arms race in the M class. Still a high performance boat, but a OD that isn't obsolete in a year or two. Nice boat.

SFMYC at Spreckles Lake in San Francisco has a whole fleet of Infinity 54s that they race.

Off topic: What are your marks made of?

RE: Infinity-54's....There have been about 100 boats built by two officially licensed builders. The original designer John Amen, built all but about four of them and the second builder, Doug Hutchins (sp?) did the others. The latest builder, Adrian Olsen of GRP Products, has the molds, but AFAIK he has not built any boats to this point. His website has listed the I-54 with "coming soon" for over a year, but would probably build one made to order. There is an active I-54 group on Yahoo! Groups that links some of the boats that have scattered around the country. If you are interested in a used boat drop in there as we try to post boats that are for sale there first.

Both the Sacramento Model Yacht Club and the San Francisco Model Yacht Club still actively race the boat, but with so few boats produced, it is a constant struggle to keep the class alive and get boats the starting line. Four or five boats is about all each club can muster for a race. Too bad, because it is a really great boat and since it is a strict one-design, the first boats that were built in the mid-1980's are still competitive with the last boat built, unlike the "vintage" Marbleheads, that are not competitive with the modern versions. Radio and servo systems have changed a lot over that time, but the I-54's live on.

RE: The radio board. The class rules are very strict, but do not require the OEM radio board as long as your rigging and total weight remain the same, so about all you can do is move items around on the board. I replaced my ply board with printed circuit board material and as long as it does not improve the the boat's performance, which it does not, it is legal.

RE: Marks. They belong to the Sac club and AFAICR they are hard styrofoam float rings (source unknown, but I think they were pool toys - I can check at our first race next Sun.) with ply vanes glued to the foam. The vanes are painted different colors to waterproof them and so you can see them rotating when they are "kissed" by a boat. They have a line with a weight attached and are placed and retrieved by a club member in a dink equipped with a trolling motor.

Now....back to boat pictures.

FC

B rig day last weekend

good close racing.
More at http://www.ohope.co.nz/iom/

great photos on this thread!

Some photos of my US12

Originally Posted by k4s

B rig day last weekend

Very nice, bottoms up
wish I had some liquid water around

Schrott,

we are going sailing tomorrow at Confluence Lake in Delta. It's supposed to be 63 degrees F. and 7-10 knots of wind. I wish you could join us.

Regards,

Randy

Randy,
That was not very nice, Friday night I had a balmy -12 with 20 miles of wind, than we had 55 on Monday and yesterday 2 inches snow.
But I go me a new boat hauler .