model yachting Australia - including d'12metre radio yacht forums

What a great day for sailing it was today at Cherry Lake!

Conditions were such that I was able to spend a bit of time getting used to and tuning my A2 Class Australia II in conditions that were absolutely ideal, not too rough and not too calm.

But even better, was a visit and a chance to chat with a passer-by by the name of Arthur. Seems he was a previous British 6-metre class champion, sailing as he called them "free sailing" model yachts, but which I think might have been Vane rigged.

Arthur had never sailed an RC model before, so what could I do but hand him the controls.

A couple of times he said "it's harder than it looks" but I do believe he enjoyed the experience. Hopefully he  will come to the lake again.

Another passer-by, in company with his partner, had bought his young son down to the lake as well, with an electric powered r/c model speedboat towing a skier. Not very powerful, but the little tacker just wanted to race my boat.

So what could I do? We had a couple of very very short impromptu races that somehow, the little tacker won. And he loved his boat going through the chop, the waves, created by OstOz2. The father made a comment about OstOz2 which was something like "it looks just like the Sydney to Hobart boats out there on the water."

I make these comments, not out of pride or ego, but simply to provide some feedback on comments made by casual passers-by, in the hope that those of us already in the yachting hobby/sport can put together the various comments we have all received over time, to maybe develop some sort of approach to encourage new people, especially first timers, into this fantastic hobby/sport.

And my boat, OstOz2? She went like a dream. I need to change a couple of things, but she is one beautiful boat.

Some photos of OstOz2 on the water today can be found in the galleries page of the website at http://dldirect.net/httpdocs/galleries.htm