HEY, did you guys see THIS? Totally incredible! If you haven't, look for the "royal william" thread by Yancovitch in the Scale Boats forum. You must see this!!

WHAT scale boats forum?

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=611006

WOWZA! Incredible ship.

We went out today because the weather (72 degrees, winds NNE at 6-10) was perfect to practice sailing--since the challange from Dan to race against his brig I had to fine tune the sails and learn more about handling this ship.

All I can say is even with reduced sail this thing runs away from the bass baby. I first tried with the main course furled and the gallants up and noticed I was getting some gusts that tended to slow things up while the ship recovered from healing. I then struck the main gallant and set the main course and tried again. I was astonished how this thing took off and I sailed on more of that lake today than ever before, there was just no stopping this ship today.

I will post a video later on You Tube as I got some fantastic footage today. Meanwhile here are a few still photos. Again it is the same old stuff but it always seems new to me.

01 September 09: Shipmates--I have made a short video of the ship sailing on 31 August at Cedar Creek Lake and a few shots from 13 August.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=.../0/CRoFYd-6oTY

Seems she was ready for her close-up Mr DeMille.

Jerry: She doesn't have all the paint and jewelry that a certain young thin blond brig so real close ups are generally left for the younger stars. That will be the case in a few weeks when we get a day to film a broadside from that young thing up nort.

I ran across these pictures of the Blue Angels, but of course I was more interested in the background.

Great photos, RayC, thanks!

Spent a perfect weekend at our lake with some fine other ships - Details and a lot of pictures will be published soon...

BW
Very nice work on the figure. What figures did you use?
Great gun carriage detail too. Can't wait to see all your other pics.
Very nice to see that another boat is out sailing.
DanL

The Conditions: Mild temperature (20 degree Celcius), mostly sunny, steady winds from west on Saturday, calm to light winds on Sunday.
The Organisation: Tents and tables for the ships, a club house for their owners with drinks and delicious food and a great surprise cake (see foto). The participants came from Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. About twenty-five ships were on display, some of them in different stages of construction.
The Ships: Most of the other boats were models of fishing boats, recreational crafts as yachts and a few merchant ships or pilot ships. There was also a replica of the oldest swiss paddle steamer from a member of the French speaking part of Switzerland. As you can see on the pictures all of these models are extremely well detailed and perfectly build. The scale ranging form 1:87 up to 1:8. There was just one other square rigged ship, a german merchant ship from the late 19th Century, all the other were fore and aft rigged. It was just exciting to see how the different designs worked under the changing conditions. On Sunday there were up to ten ships on our small lake and there were to collision but fortunately without any damage.

The HMS CALYPSO: Due to the stronger winds on Saturday I sailed without the topsails. The designs still works very fine and I managed to steer around the lake like the other boats which is not easy with a square rigger. The year before my brig was repeatedly caught in irons or thrown on the rocks, actually driven into the weeds, something that didn’t happen this time. Due to the lighter winds the ship was not as fast as this spring, but so the sailing was also more relaxed.
For those still building the ship, don’t get frustrated during the first attempts. You will learn how to handle her to get her on course, just be sure to catch her when you loose control either on a accessible shore or with a boat. But once you have managed your first tackings and wearings it becomes such a fun to sail her.
As you can see on the pictures – yes I also bought a new camera – a few more details were added and especially the CALYPSO now got a crew. The figures are fixed with small brass pins through their legs into holes in the deck, so they can be removed for cleaning the deck. Many people came by and admired the ships and the CALYPSO. The kids just loved the “Pirate ship with the many guns”.

More pictures still ahead...

BW -
What a great bunch of models. The Calypso looks great on the water.
I like your description of learning to sail - after just a bit of experience, you see how maneuverable the brig really is. It's a great boat to sail.
Keep posting your experiences and learning.
Where did you get your crew figures? They are really nice looking.

This Thursday, Paratrooper (Ray), Beneteau (Don) and DanL are sailing the Surprise, the Syren and Don's schooner (converted SC&H brig) on Grand Lake near St. Cloud MN.
We'll be chasing each other around the lake and Paratrooper is arranging to get video. We'll also get pics. The brig has 18 firing guns this year, so we're hoping for some smoky broadsides.
Temps look to be upper 70's, winds SW at 5-8 knots, mostly sunny.
Report, pics and videao later.
Off to gunnery practice....
DanL

B_Wave - great pictures - Calypso looks wonderful! I always find it impossible to take pictures because I'm so busy dealing with my own ship, so I am very impressed with your efforts.

It must be fun to have the MiniSail meeting in your own city! Were any of the other ships at 1:24 or 1:25 or were the scales fairly random? What kind of interest did the fact that Calypso was built from an American-produced kit generate amongst the other model builders?

I would be interested in any of the sensible feedback you received, although I am sure most of it was directed at your excellent model making skills rather than the kit you started with.

Paratrooper, Beneteau and I sailed yesterday at Grand Lake, the same location as last year. The day was beautiful, but winds were light - two to four knots and waning in the afternoon.
Even in light winds, Don's schooner rig was really maneuverable. And Ray's Surprise, with a full set of studding sails, moved along on the slightest hint of breeze.
We had no collisions this year and absolutely no mechanical or electrical issues. Batteries held out all day, too.
A key learning this year was that using a single fishing boat with outboard as a chase boat/camera platform doesn't work. It is best to have a very small, more maneuverable boat with an electric trolling motor (like Ray's "baby bass boat" or a kayak) to separately track each boat (or at most two boats), given the spread of the vessels on the water, clear lines of sight, and the variety of courses when tacking, etc.
It was a great day - Syren delivered four broadsides into Surprise, but she sailed on undamaged. Ray has video that he will post.
And thanks to Mr and Mrs Paratrooper for providing a great steak lunch!
We're looking forward to another sailing session this Sunday, too.
DanL