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Small Boats, Big Fun

Racing radio-controlled sailboats, you can have Olympian dreams on an old Yankee's budget

By Bill O'Neill, Lifestyle Editor
Cape Cod Times, October 26, 2001

MARSTONS MILLS - All it took was a whispery puff of breeze and the boat slid across the water's surface. She sailed like a charm, I tell you.

Bob Shea of Mashpee guides his radio-controlled sailboat at Hamblin Pond in Marstons Mills. The plastic golf balls at the tip of the antenna are a safety measure, meant to protect the sailors from poking each other’s eyes out. (Staff photos by Kevin Mingora)

Then came a gust - ah, it was blowing up around 20 knots - and the sail, she was darn near horizontal.

But all it took was a finger's push on the rudder control and the good ship Cachet was again slicing through the winds, pretty as can be.

Six men watched from shore as the Cachet - all 30 inches of her - plied the crystal-clear waters of Hamblin Pond. As radio-controlled mini sailboats go, the Cachet's a true beauty.

Chet Evans of Yarmouthport nudged the controls, and curled the Cachet around a course marker. He's new to radio-controlled sailing and still learning how to maneuver his wee yacht.

"One of the problems I have - and I'm told a lot of people have it - is knowing your right from your left when the boat is coming back at you," he said.

Evans recalled the day a few months back when he first placed the newly built Cachet in Hamblin Pond.

"I left the hatch cover off in my excitement to get it into the water," he said, wearing a sheepish smile. "It took on water and sank."

Luckily for Evans a couple of swimmers were standing near the shore. A woman found the boat on her third dive into 10-foot-deep waters. That's one of the nice things about these boats: Since you need only about a foot of water to sail them, if you manage to sink one, the recovery isn't exactly like raising the Titanic.

Breezin’: The Cape Cod Model Sailing Club races Victorias, boats that are 30.7 inches in length.

The American Model Yachting Association oversees racing in 20 classes. The smallest boat in the AMYA fleet is the 30.7-inch Victoria, which the Cape Cod chapter sails. The Victoria has a 43-inch mast height and a sail area of 433 square inches. The Martha's Vineyard chapter, one of the newest of more than 200 AMYA clubs, races the slightly longer 1-meter Soling. The largest AMYA racing boats are 10 feet high and weigh more than 100 pounds.

John Morse of Sandwich founded the Cape Cod AMYA club, which has a dozen members. When the weather forecast calls for good sailing weather - gentle breezes, preferably under 10 mph, being the main criterion - Morse e-mails members two or three days in advance, inviting the sailors to gather on Hamblin's shoreline.

Improving the kit

The Victoria comes as a kit, requiring the assembly of a couple dozen parts. You can race one with the parts in the box, but Morse says it won't be competitive.

He uses use the rudder, keel post, lead weight and hull from the box, but replaces the kit's aluminum mast with a carbon-fiber mast he buys from Hang 'Em High, a fabric shop in Virginia. Instead of the standard plastic sail, most racers use rip-stop nylon, the lighter the better. Putting a boat together "takes a lot of patience and not much skill," said Morse. "You can get plenty of help from the club."

The Victoria kit costs $95. Then you need to ante up $65 for the sail servo (the motor that turns the sails), $45 for the radio, $45 for kit sails or $95 for custom-made sails, $15 for a carbon-fiber mast and $25 for miscellaneous parts. If you don't mind chasing the other boats, you can pay $95 for the basic kit and $45 for the radio, using the basic servo that comes with it. The radio control has two pivoting sticks. The left joystick moves up and down and controls the sail. The right joystick moves to the left and right and controls the rudder. A child used to playing video games would pick this up in a minute. For other novices, it's a little like trying to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time. It's easy to oversteer and spin the boat in circles, the sails all flippy-floppy.

John Morse of Sandwich, founder of the Cape Cod Model Sailing Club, works on the rigging of his radio-controlled sailboat.

"The idea is to use as little rudder as possible," said Bob Shea of Mashpee. "If you use a lot of rudder, you slow the boat down."

A rookie gave it a try and sent Shea's boat wandering aimlessly amid the fleet as the more experienced sailors zipped their boats this way and that to avoid being on the receiving end of a collision. It was only minutes before the hapless rookie ran the boat aground a few feet from shore. "I've got salvage rights on this one," said Morse. Wearing wading boots, he rescued the boat, nudging it into deeper waters.

Shea took over the controls for his boat and maneuvered it around the race course. "You can turn on a dime," he said. That's an exaggeration, but when guided by his experienced hands, the boat turned on the radius of a dinner plate.

An inaugural sail

Morse launched a new boat last Friday. It was a bright fall day with wispy clouds and jet contrails filling most of the sky, and soft browns, low-key oranges and faded greens decorating the trees surrounding the pond.

Shea gave Morse's boat an admiring glance and asked, "Did you bring a bottle of champagne to christen it?" He paused. "You could use a nip, actually."

Morse gingerly lifted the boat from a small rack. "Here we go," he said, "first time in the water."

"Too bad we don't have an archbishop to bless it," said Shea.

Morse shuffled into the water and gently set the boat down. It bobbed like a cork while he came back to shore. He picked up the radio control; the boat began to pivot until its sails fully caught the wind.

Chet Evans of Yarmouthport steers his boat around Hamblin Pond, as Brian Leaver’s boat sails by.

The boat zipped off, like a water bug skimming across the surface, barely leaving a wake amid the 1-inch waves (although it shuddered just a tad when faced with an occasional 2-inch swell). Morse cracked a proud grin.

One of the best places to go to learn more about radio-controlled sailing is the home page of the American Model Yachting Association (www.amya.org). A little poking around will lead you to Greg Fisher's Ten Commandments of Boat Speed. Some of his edicts demand a bit of sailing know-how. Commandment No. 7, for example, says, "Set your jib leads so your luff breaks evenly from top to bottom."

But if all else fails, just follow Commandment No. 10: "When in doubt, copy the fast guys."