Did someone say Tehachapi? It has to be "Cub Lake" with the Bear Valley Group. I didn't even know they were still sailing anything? Do you have a contact? The only other lake we have that is sailable would be Brite, however, I wouldn't even consider putting a RG-65 in there. LMK whats happenin. Ron

PS, Hey GPZY, the offer is still open, if you ever want to drive half-way to Tehachapi, then we'd get you the other 2 hours to breakfast. I'm sure Bob's ready to go up too. Possibly even Wayne. Ron

Yo

I worked on my Cj for a bit today. You might recall I bought a aluminum picture frame at Hobby Lobby and cut it to make an L brack and a T bracket for the Canterbury.

I first tried my hand at marking and drilling the L brackets but it didn't come out the way I wanted. I almost came back in the house and ordered chain plates on the web. But I took a walk and came back at the problem again. This time I setup my small drill press with a 2-way Cross Slide Machine Vice and fashioned two Chain Plates.

It is the first time I have used the vice. After getting things lined up and clamped down things looked good and drilling was the easy part.

I need to take a grinder to the plates so I can round and smooth out the corners.

WOW Rick,
Your usual very nice work!! Its good to see you getting your CJ ready for the water. Walking away is a good thing! Sometimes even on the cars, ya just gotta step away for a minute, and come back later. Excellant pics, keep em coming. Ron

Great job on the chain plates.

Terry

Nice metal work.

Yo Commodores,

Sunday comes so quickly, I packed up boats and tossed in the marks and the starting tape today. I figured if Richard wanted to race next week I had better practice setting up for one. I pulled up to the pond behind Bill. Ricks truck was there but he must have gone to the Holiday Inn ahead of us. So we walked over and found Garth, Rick and waiting and Tim showed up to round out the breakfast club.

Richard didn't make it. We all hope he is doing okay. The weather is breaking and the sun was out. As we finished up and headed to the pond to setup there came Mr Tyler and his Dad. I think I saw Tyler driving. That can't be. I saw Marc get out with his footy and what looked to be Tylers taller older brother get out with Tylers yellow Snipe. Tyler couldn't have grown a yard since we saw him last, could he?

David showed up with his Grandson Nicholas and that rounded out the group for the day. I think we had 8 boats on the water today again. It started off a bit cool but the sun soon warmed up and there was a breeze, life is good.

We again had a good selection of boats on the water. Tim's Voyager II, Bill, Garth and I sailed ODOM's, Rick had his Vic, David and Nicholas had their Westward, the Snipe and Footy for Tyler and Mark.

I went ahead and setup the starting line in case any wanted to try a race start. I used a small MP3 player and a Pod speaker and it worked out pretty good. This was the first time hearing a start tape for some. It was fun with a mix of boats. As usual boats didn't always go the way you wanted them to at the start and folks were trying to get to the best place on the line.

We ran a couple of single lap races, if we were wanting a longer course a double lap would probably be closer to what some other clubs do. Overall I think we did okay, and we should be able to pull it off next week.

I had a sample board with different attachment (screw Eyes and chain plates) that I wanted to get input on for chain plates. Everyone concurred with Mr Ron and I guess I'll go with the aluminum rack I made for the Canterbury J.

I saw a new transmitter on Hobby King that looks good. $65, computer transmitter using just 4 batteries. It is a see through yellow that transmits DSM2 i think. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...y_Mode_1_.html I've been thinking I wanted a transmitter that only required 4AA batteries at a reasonable price. This might be it.

The day seamed to pass very quickly as the last week did. By 2pm it was time to pack it in. I have a birthday party to go to tonight for my buddy Johnathan that turned 13. Happy Birthday J.

Okay Charge up your batteries and we will see you at the pond next Sunday.

Tyler driving, no way.

Yo!

Okay the vote was in on the screw eyes or racks and it was unanimous to not use the screw eyes. It would have been easier. I had the chain plates made but need to make the Jib Rack and the back stay attachment point. So messed around in the shop today and have the new fittings made. I still need to paint them.

Rick

Looking good !!!

Ditto.

Rick, I love your deck. Would you share what you used for your "caulk"? I'm also interested in a material for a black "caulk" because I haven't made up my mind which I like better. Any thoughts on that?

black drawing or painting paper does very well. Make sure that that paper absorbs glues and laquer well. Test that.
If your deckplanks are 2mm thick cut the paper in 4 or 5 mm strips, makes it easier to handle. The excess you can later either sand off or cut of with a sharp blade.
Enjoy

Yo Commodores!

We had a Grey day to start with and a few sprinkles fell as I drove to the park. When we got to the Holiday Inn for our Happy Meal things seamed to clear up. The weather reports promised wind would be in the 4-7 mph range which for a race day would be good.

Rick, Richard, Garth and I rounded out the Happy meal group. Tim had sent a text message that he would be late, thanks Tim. As we finished up and headed to the pond Tim pulled up to join us, Yahooo!

Some problems cropped up:

Richard was having a transmitter RX problem, but that was quickly solved by replacing the transmitter and rx with a back up radio system and he was good to go. It may not have been the Tx or TX but a poor solder point at the switch. So we took the switch out too!

Garth had battery trouble seams his 5 cell Nicad pack didn't take a charge, but that too was remedied with a new battery pack, thanks Tim.

So on the water today we would have Garths White Vic #88, Ricks White Vic with stock sails, Richards Green Vic, Tims Yellow Vic and My Red Vic to round out our little fleet.

We did some tune up sailing and setup the course, and the electronics for the 2 min AMYA count down clock. We were ready!

The course was setup reverse of our normal sailing pattern with the start heading toward the street to the first windward mark. Then off to the large stand pipe at the West end of the pond and then to the stand pipe at the East end of the pond and back to the start/finish line. It was a good distance and it gave time to make a mistake and recover and get back in the hunt.

We ran the first race and the race committee decided to change to all port rounding. The change worked out well and that was the pattern for all the following runs. We ran about 6 races and took a bit of a break when a family came up to watch. We turned over our transmitters and watched them enjoy the hobby too.

I can tell you that the First Mark was a bear. It was short run but a crowed start line and a tough narrow short run to the windward mark. The second mark was a problem too as it is a long distance to it and some misjudge the turn. The way back was a reach to a down wind sometimes and then the last mark, wasn't bad but then you had to head up wind to the start finish line and it was very tricky.

After racing for a while Tim had lost a nut on his mast for his shroud. We took a break and that gave him time for repair. Thankfully he had the right nut in his tool kit to fix it and he was back on the pond.

A nice large family came up and we handed over our transmitters so they could enjoy the hobby too, maybe we could hook them into the hobby. The guy said they were from Lemoore and had a C15. So I told him about our full size club too.

Tim and Garth ran one race on their own and it was a good match. You could have tossed a beach towel over both boats at many points in the race, including the finish. What fun.

Okay I know you want to know who won as we did take almost meticulous records of the event. I want you to know this isn't the official results yet as the tabulations are still being reviewed by the entire race committee but here is what we have so far for our First race day in a long long time:

Race to the Holiday Inn,
the race results were:

Score sheet Pts
Rick H 1
Rick M 2
Richard 3
Garth 4
Tim DNS

Rick was first to arrive at the Holiday Inn, I came in second, then Richard then Garth. Tim had sent a text message that he would be late. So the trophy this week goes to our very own Rick Harvey! Way to go Rick!

I had a great day, I think the consensus was to race again next month!

Charge up your batteries!

Great report & race pictures.

Yo,

Rob had made some wooden servo stands for Tim's Cj and they looked great. Today I was wondering if I could get a 3" PVC pipe cut so it would do the same thing. There is a weight savings going with the PVC 9 g vs 29 g for the sail servo but in the scheme of things on this boat that isn't much.

But it is fun playing in the shop.

Rick