R/C Naval Combat

We, the IRCWCC had it on the ballot but voted it down. Some felt is was too difficult to have it on their boats and most were unreliable.

Our club strongly, ....No....STRONGLY sudgests

putting floats on, as our POND slopes down at a steep angle (10 feet from shore

you are over your head almost) to a depth of 14-15 feet deep so waiding out for your

model is not a option usually.  To go with this we also have a PUSH rule so that a

non-mobile ship can be pushed in by a team mate to a shallower area after which

its 5 min timer continues (it does not run during the pushing). I was recently a little

lax and thought myself immune and removed my float for some testing only to have

my ship go down and man would the float have helpped.  We have access to a row

boat but with no float it is still a 15 foot drop to the bottom to try and find something,

and not being the fittest anymore I cannot swim like a fish either.  I have re-installed

the float and added another and have a 3rd option also, 1 a back hatch floats off and

is attached inside the hull, 2, a regular fishing float on a line is on deck to float off,

3 my superstructure floats off and it has a line to the ship also, so a 3-way float system,

even if some fail there should be one that makes it out of that bunch to make finding

and getting back your ship that much easier.

Here is a better picture of the simple floats I use, they can be under a

float off deck piece or in a smoke stack or under a float off turret cover.

The line is 50lb test line and the knots are carefully tied to maintain strength

and a snap swivel is on the connection end to make install/removal easier

and the floats are relatively small so they do not get in the way, the system

is designed to be dead simple and work.

PS the knots are then soaked with superglue to ensure they do not come off/undone

http://ontarioattackforce.multiply.com/photos/album/18/Items_By_Bryan#20

Bryan

Finally got a round to taking some photos of my float system:

I've got a new float to show off. It's the aft torpedo mount on destroyer Z-25, "Der Zee-Monster". I built it using 1" wood dowel and 1/4" wood dowel for the float itself, then mounted it to the deck with a short length of .110 carbon fiber through a 3/32" hole drilled in the float. It proved very reliable in the last battle, deploying within seconds both times I sank. It also stayed on deck until I sank, despite the storm of ball bearings around it. The nicest part about this float, though, is how easy it is to re-wind the float string afterwards. Since the string is simply coiled around the base of the torpedo mount, I simply spin the torpedo mount and the string winds itself up. Once wound, I still have just enough slack that I can pose the torpedo launcher at any angle I want. 

Smart move on the torpedo mount, I like the ease of just spinning it to coil the line. When I first got my Kumano years ago it had the forward turret (balsa) as the float with line attached. We weren't sure how well that worked (in case it tipped over) so we nixed that and drilled a hole in the smoke stack and shoved a bobber down it. So far, the Kumano has never sunk (then again I never got around to battling it)... but I do know it's a pain in the rear to stick that line back down it. I wish I had kept the turret as the float!