R/C Naval Combat

True, I already have some minor tweeks I'm planning.

The Roanoke completed 14 sorties this weekend at the Treaty conference event, with no sinks! Overall things when well, I gave as good as I got for the most part. I had one sortie with intermittent radio drop out - it's very frustrating when you cannot move away when someone is shooting you full of holes. I took myself out of the last sortie of the weekend by bumping my rudder and stripping the servo gears when I took the boat out of the water. Other than those minor problems, the whole match went well.

I need to change a couple of things of course. I need to get a lighter superstructure. At 10 ounces, it's a little too much on top. Plus I learned that the most robust pieces still get shot off. My top director is still visible in the picture above, but only because it drifted to the side of the pond and I was able to retrieve it and glue it back on. I also had guns shot off, radar dishes shot off, and I lost a lot of armor shield around the secondary guns. On a positive note, the turrets took several hits but were undamaged. I also learned that you need the internal bb shield even between the first two ribs. I left it out because there was no easy way to put it in, which resulted in several blow throughs. Ouch. Fortunately I was fast enough and kept enough distance that the hits on or below the water line were limited and the pump could keep up with all the damage. Overall, a very satisfying first battle!

I forgot to mention, I was very happy with how the super magnets worked out as hatch holders. I was able to rapidly open and close the hatches when I needed to change batteries or CO2, or work on the radio.  After watching some of the other captains mess with unscrewing nuts, trying to line up holes on studs, and just trying to find their attachment hardware, I decided that the magnets were the way to go.

I guess that's why Treaty rules don't allow prop washing.  Even so, I'm not sure that possibility will change my mind.  The guys using thumb screws were not getting any better seals then I was. The one time I was prop washed, by accident I'm sure , it was a non-event.  Most of the water that made it up on the deck just flowed back off.  While not water tight, my hatches are closely fit and rest on a lip that goes around the entire hatch, so the pump should be able to keep up with any water that leaks through.

I think the effect of screws is that they tighten down a deck help to compensate for a bad deck to subdeck joint. But IF (emphasis on the if) both pieces lay flat next to one another then magnets work just as well as anything else. A tight joint is still a tight joint whether you bolt, screw, staple, glue, or just assemble it.

Posted By RCENGR on 02 Aug 2010 06:37 PM

I guess that's why Treaty rules don't allow prop washing.  Even so, I'm not sure that possibility will change my mind.  The guys using thumb screws were not getting any better seals then I was. The one time I was prop washed, by accident I'm sure , it was a non-event.  Most of the water that made it up on the deck just flowed back off.  While not water tight, my hatches are closely fit and rest on a lip that goes around the entire hatch, so the pump should be able to keep up with any water that leaks through.

I agree, fiddling with screws and wingnuts, etc. is for the birds.  For the past year and a half, I've been battling my VU using simple gravity hold-downs, and only this month upgraded to flip-levers to hold my deck in place.  In previous ships I have used carefully-designed tongues and other clever hold-down methods to allow access to their insides in mere seconds, while maintaining a decent deck seal.  I have also seen people who put one #4-40 allen screw every inch on their ships.  It takes them a half-hour just to open it up if they forgot to turn on the CO2, and another half-hour to close it back up again afterwards.  The difference in sealing?  Unnoticeable.