Just what I needed today...

John Pollman

Member
Messages
1,332
Location
Rochester Hills, MI
I've got the BEST brother!

I've been in a serious funk lately and have not been doing well. About a week and a half ago, it was late one evening and I was really feeling lousy. I hadn't talked to him in a while and what is "getting late" for me, is for him just about getting home from work. (I'm in Detroit and he's in LA) We talked for a while and told him what has been going on. He knows what's up with my health issues but I just needed someone to talk to so I could get some things off my chest and try to calm down a bit.

After a while, he said that he thought it was time to "lighten the mood a bit". He switched the subject away from the problems I've been dealing with and told me that not long ago a friend of his who is into R/C sailboats asked him to go along for an afternoon of sailing on a small local lake. He said it sounded like fun so he went along. He said it was a blast! Apparently it's not too hard to pick up the basics. He said that in no time, he was able to control the boat fairly well and he had a lot of fun. He thought that it would be something I'd probably enjoy. I agreed and said that maybe one of these days when money isn't so tight, I'd pick up a kit and give it a try.

It would be great therapy to get my mind off of my troubles while building it, as well as the enjoyment of sailing it when completed. Well this afternoon, this showed up. It's a COMPLETE kid with the radio and boat. Everything needed except paint and glue. He even ordered the optional mahogany strip deck!

He'll be in town for a few days in a little over two weeks. I think I'm gonna get busy and see if I can get it built before he gets here. I've got a nice little pond in our sub that's only a block from our house, as well as a nice pond in the city park a mile down the road. And many other nice little lakes that will be PERFECT for this activity.

Thank you so much bro! You're still at work I'm sure, so I'll give you a call later on this evening!

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That's so cool. I've looked at those for a long time. I've got a number of RC toys, and my favorite is the RC sailplane. Something about engineless movement that is so cool.

Keep us posted on the project! Happy Sails to you!
 
Have a RC speedboat. Doesn't work so well anymore. Tied a bass spinner on it, 6 pounder we call Hoover kept that boat under water for over an hour! Finally snagged the boat with a treble hook and reeled him in and released him! It was fun. Same motor, but slower with regular batteries, put in the rechargeable pack and it would glide over the water. Guess next time I need to buy a RC submarine! Good luck on the build, look forward to seeing it completed, brothers are good sometimes.
 
I don't know if two weeks is gonna be enough time, but I'm going to give it a shot!

Hull is constructed and has to sit overnight for the epoxy to set up. I can epoxy the deck in place tomorrow.

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Very cool!

My dad has been building and flying RC planes since I was a kid, he did boats too, but we never had a regular boat to go get the RC boat if something failed, so he did not do much of that, we only had a HUGE lake to put the RC boats on, your pond idea sounds good!
 
Way to go, John. :thumb: I've not done boats, but I have a very cool electric monster truck. (Traxxas E-Maxx) I've been tempted to hang out on the bank of the Rio Grande in the springtime when it's good and muddy, manipulating the RC controller for my truck. Then when people ask what I'm doing I'll tell them I'm piloting my RC submarine. :D
 
Years ago I made a suit of sails for a RC sailboat. The mast was about 4' high and the boom was almost 30 inches. Then the guy I made it for invited us to drive to San Diego (from Phx) to watch him race it. What a blast.
 
Didn't bother with a pic this time because it doesn't look much different in a pic. But the hull is all finished, bow section is glued up, formed and sanded. The rest of the hull is sanded and any slight voids (only a couple tiny ones) have been filled and sanded. It's now ready for the mahogany strip decking! That starts tomorrow.

Oh yeah, the keel is glued up too. I decided to work on that while waiting for the bow section to set up. I can work on shaping the keel while waiting for other sections to dry while applying the mahogany decking. I think I'll glue up the rudder too. Might as well get the sub assemblies done ahead of time. Then they'll be ready when it comes time to install them.
 
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