Might as well make this a weekly thread and report on the goings on at Hansen Dam Lake!

04/06/2006:

Richard brought his "Damsterdam" as he calls her. It's the Latina "Amsterdam II" but he has sunk it, broken stuff off it, etc. So that's his nickname for her. Still, a great looking boat and Richard really knows how to build nice ones. This tug had a very realistic sounding horn that is actived at full rudder movement.

Cap'n Bob was there with his "Jaws" fishing boat, and amphibious car. "Jaws" the shark that was always hanging off the boat got torn off and he has not replaced it yet which is a shame as it always what 'made' that boat.

The usual sailboat reprobates were there hogging frequency time with their slooooow azzzz sailboats.

I brought the redecorated and battery heavy Bristol Bay and she ran fine for about an hour then started getting weird glitching. Couldn't quite figure it out. If she ran on the opposite side of the dock, no glitching. I was letting Brad run her so I could shoot some pictures. He has never had a boat with reverse I don't think. He kept running in reverse a lot. After about 20 minutes of him running the boat it started making funny sounds. When I pulled it out of the lake and opened the ahtch, the inside was full with 2" of water and the motor was almost submerged! The brushes at least got a good seating as the water was nearly black!

The lake was closed for fishing today and tomorrow because they are having a fishing tournament Saturday. While we were there, the truck that stocks the lake with trout showed up and dumped his load right where we run. It was fun to watch the trout jumping out of the water around the r/c boats! Some trout did not look like they were in very good shape though. They would just hang nose up in the water.

The submarine guys have been gone for 3 weeks. Need to have them come back.

Videos:

Click here to watch Damsterdam

Click here to watch Fun-on-the-Lake

Well, you guys were lucky to be able to get out there yesterday! Up here in the mountains we got dumped on with over a foot of snow and thunder and lightning!
Bob

You reverse that long in many real boats and you'll have the same effect! LOL!

Watch out for "Jaws" lol....

Videos added to first post.

It was a rather warm and sunny day today, temps around mid 80's and no breeze when I arrived around 12:30. Steve C. and Micronaut had boats in the water. Steve was running a Saito steam powered scratch built boat. Don't know what type but it was designed to be a paddle wheeler. The 2nd one he is building will have the paddle wheel config. Micronaut was running his Amsterdam tug. There was another boat in the water, but I could not see anyone else on the pier. Then I saw what was going on. All the irregulars were hiding under the shade of a tree in front of the public restrooms, about 100 feet away from the pier. I called out to them that they were a bunch of sissies and candy azzez but they didn't seem to care, lol....

So the other boat in the water was the Jaws hunter piloted by Cap'n Bob. I set my B'Bay in the water, pulled up a camp chair and started boating! In the sun. Anyway, had a few onlookers and one family came up and was asking all the typical questions. I let a boy who had the most interest drive my boat and he was really enjoying it and I think he had his Dad convinced to go to the hobby shop and buy one. Heh-heh, another one addicted! After about a half hour I moved into the shade because I wanted some conversation.

I never ran something so long before that made my hand cramp up but it did today. I ran my B'Bay for 2:45 straight and still had lots of battery left but it was time to go! She ran perfect today and since no one was backing up there was virtually no water in the hull today. Just a tiny bit from the couple times I had to reverse to avoid a buoy or pier. I am thoroughly enjoying this model and it is currently my favorite.

Cap'n Horrible still is working on a TV show I presume and so he was not there. His scallywag mate Steve N. also didn't show up again.

The wind picked up around 1:30 and a couple of the sailing ships went out and another one of the irregulars, Richard, had his Atlantic Tug there but was spooked by the wind and choppy water and so did not launch her. The B'Bay was being pushed hard by the wind, it's amazing how those little rolled up sails are affected by it.

No pics or video this week, I just drove instead.

Hee hee, just watched the B-Bay, in action on your video! with performance like that, you know the catch will be fresh when it hits the docks!

Kmot -- I drive the 210 regularly from Valencia to Irwindale. Is the exit to the area where you sail the Osbourne exit? When I was coming back yesterday (northbound), I could see what looked like some water and a waterslide further behind that. How would I find your group If I should run down to Hansen Dam on a Thursday extended lunch break?

Pete G.

Pete: Yes, get off at Osborne. Northbound, turn left under the freeway. Southbound, turn right from the bottom of the offramp. It actually puts you on Foothill Blvd and you are heading toward Osborne. When you get to Osborne (traffic light, and public library on your left) you turn left onto it. Head up to the next light, which is the entrance to the park. Take the entrance road to the stop sign. Turn left. Travel that road past all the parking lights to the next stop sign. Turn right. You are now approaching the water slide you saw which is part of the swimming pool area (massive). Turn left into that parking area and next to the swimming area is the fishing lake. That is where we run. We are on the dock. You will see us there.

I brought out my Villain EX to run. Been a year or so since it was in water. Had new props from Offshore Electrics. Man, that boat moved out nicely with the upgrade. I also was using a pair of new 4200Mah 6-cell stick packs and I must have run for a half hour on them and still had some left when I had to leave.

Cap'n Horrible was back. With another new sub! This one was killer! A Robbe U-boat that is over 6 feet long and looked sooooo cool in the water.

Cap'n Bob had a scratch built Mayflower like what the pilgrims sailed over from England. Amazing detail and looked really neat on the water. The sails on his boat are amazingly efficient as it motored around in almost zero wind! <G>

The usual reprobates were sailing their yachts and I had fun whizzing around them and inbetween them with the Villain EX.

I was in Yosemite this past Thursday. Any of the other Irregulars got anything to report?

K, whats the model in the jaws post ??

That is the Latina "Amsterdam II"

looks good K,

Hello all, Thursday this week was quite pleasant after all. The weather was threatening , but once we all decided to climb out of our trucks the sun peeked out & things were nice for a couple of hours boating. Our esteemed colleagues, Cap'n Hank & Cap'n Richard brought out the sailboats & sat under the trees for some shade, Cap'n Brad brought his "deadhead" sailboat & I brought my Type XXI & rescue tug again. After losing the ESC for a few minutes (the power switch caught on some line) the XXI was retrieved by favorable currents, winds & a little help from the aforementioned rescue tug. (phew that was the best $200.00 I EVER spent!)

All in all it was another wonderful day at the lake... can't wait till summer there.

Your guest reporter,
Cap'n Horrible

Thanks for the wrap up, Harry!