At our last club meeting, we had a bring and buy. There was a lot on offer! A large loyal moderator at £75. 1/24 crash tender £15 motors for a Fiver etc.
What caught my eye was a hobby engine volvo ocean racer. Twin Rudder, dagger boards that was going cheap. Purchased said yacht. Took it home and put in the loft. Next night, I took the yacht to the front room to have a good look. The right thing to do would have been to strip all the use full parts ie servo and sail winches and bin the rest. Nope I thought, I will get her sailing. So after a quick Internet search, which really confirmed my growing suspicion that I had got a lemon, I started. First unscrew all attachments on the mast and repair the foot which was broken. I then reattached all the yardages with through bolts, binning the small self tappers that would not hold diddly squat in place. The rigging was sound so that was reattached. Next strip the keel and internal electricary bits. all appeared in good order and was put back together, although I noticed there was no spring tensioner on the drum winch. I left it as was for the time being. The twin Rudder configuration was ok, a little slop but not that much. These few bits took 6 hours of sorting. She went away till Saturday night.
got her back out and filled a couple of holes in the fibreglass with thick superglue and activator. The forward hatch was missing so a temporary hatch was made, the old battery pack and receiver were disgarded and a spectrum unit fitted. The boat was re rigged and land tests took place. Rudder movement was restricted to 75%. Sail winch was restricted to 50% forward and 75% reverse.
All looked good.
Sunday was as it's been for a few weeks, overcast and cold. Got to the lake and 5 others were there. The most important was Tony who bought the tea and coffee. Godsend! Well as usual when I take a yacht out, the lake was a millpond !!! Grrrrrr
oh well in she went, push her off Rudder seems ok but sensative, little big of breeze and off she went. As per what I had read online, she noses in when under sail but did not fall over as I was being lead to believe. She was on the water for 20 mins but as the wind was very still I could not get a full grasp of the overall boat. I will say she needs more weight at the back. Reading online some people tried extending the keel and adding more weight to it but never sorted the problem of the model falling over in moderate winds.
I think I will modify the keel and have it angle more to the stern and add a bit more weight to the stern as well. The sail winch definetly needs a tensioner as the cord was tangling inside. The rudders I will leave at present. The other thing I will look at is lightening the mast. As this is aluminium extrusion I think there might be some options here as well.
I'll post some pics of her sailing when I have a better wind. Overall I'm not impressed or unimpressed. But as she did not sink 8 call that a bonus!
Ps cups of tea were drunk while sailing......well it is the luton club!
