Mid Atlantic Boaters, lets break the FE barrier in IMPBA D12

[HOTWATER]

Great job Mike and Doug for your support!! No stones left unturned here!

Thanks!

-Kent

[D&D]

I spoke with Don Ferrette this Friday (09/18/09) at the Indy Masters race in Hobart, Indiana. As I have said before I have known Don for many years and I went there primarly to see Don and watch him run his big twin rigger. I spoke with him of what I have been reading and his statement was "I keep hearing about this but no one at all has called me or approached me to talk of this." "We already have open classes (nitro-gas-electric) which would be good starting points." Don is willing to talk to anyone that wants to further the RC boating hobby.

The Indy Masters race was a LOT of dead boats and "cement" bouy hits, but the twin engine boats were still fun to watch.

[Chilli]

Hey Dennis. Thanks for bringing this to Dons attention. The district only runs two open classes, Open Cat and Open offshore. Neither is realy feasible for the average FE boater. Both classes are dominated by boats over 40". Could you imagine my son running his 29" Mean Machine against a full mod Zen Conquest? No Way. Plus, the offshore course that my club layed out is huge which presents battery endurance problems. And the mill proceedures for IC boats put much more stress on our equiptment. To build a competitive Open FE boat would cost over $3000. Not a good way to attract new FE members into the racing community.

I first started getting interested in racing this time last year. I did email Don and asked him about FE racing in the District. I never got a response. I thought to myself "Why should anyone listen to me? I am not a member". So I joined IMPBA and my local D12 club. I figured I would try to be an active member and an asset to the club, which I believe I have. And at the same time I have been quietly drumming up support on this board. Which I think I have enough of now. So I sent an email over to Don three weeks ago. September 2nd to be exact. Here it is.

Don,
Sorry to bug you as I know your a busy man. I am an IMPBA D12 member and belong to the Capitol RC club. There is a group of guys running Fast Electric's in the mid-Atlantic that would like to run their boats at D12 races next year. I know there are already allot of heats to run in a race weekend. We just want to get our foot in the door while making a minimal impact. I was wondering if there were any possibility that you would entertain the idea of running P-mono electric's with B-mono's at all district races next year (on the race fliers). They are comparable speed and size and this is being done in a few other IMPBA and NAMBA districts. Carl and Tracy were in favor of me running with the B-mono's this year at the Capitol RC race, but I chose to run novice to get a little experience this year. I know any decisions would have to be made at the district meeting over the winter. But if you think this may be doable, I will show our commitment by having the group join the IMPBA before the 2010 district meeting so that we have at least a half dozen registered IMPBA members.

I think this will be good for the growth of the hobby. I had no intention of running anything other than electric boats one year ago and all it took was one race and now I'm in the middle of a Gas Stock build for next year! I'll be racing novice again with my son at the Hagerstown race at the end of the month. If you want to discuss anything, please feel free. I would also be happy to let you take some laps with my P-mono if you would like.

Thanks again.

Mike Chirillo
Purcellville, VA

To date I have had no responce. So I have the last D12 race coming up next weekend and will spend the weekend schmoozing with other D12 members. I also have donated a $35 pair of CC Racing Turn Fins to the host club for thier raffle. My only real desire is to get at least one FE class on the race fliers next year. Every event I go to and every practice, someone always comes up to me and says either they or a friend of theirs wants to race FE boats, but there is no where to race. Thats because they get on the IMPBA D12 web site and look at the race fliers and see nothing but nitro and gas classes. So I will ensure my club brings up the matter at the winter session. And it would be a tremendous help for anyone who wants to join me, to join thier local D12 club so they too know we are out there and to hopefully gain that clubs support

Footnote: I was surfing a local VA Beach Hobby shop's web site and came across this:

Read where it says "ODMBA Club". Third paragraph.
http://www.debbiesrcworld.com/odmba.html

BTW- I'm not busting on Don in any way. I know he has his hands full with running D12 plus I believe he is the National Gas Director.

[egneg]

I spoke with Don Ferrette this Friday (09/18/09) at the Indy Masters race in Hobart, Indiana. As I have said before I have known Don for many years and I went there primarly to see Don and watch him run his big twin rigger. I spoke with him of what I have been reading and his statement was "I keep hearing about this but no one at all has called me or approached me to talk of this." "We already have open classes (nitro-gas-electric) which would be good starting points." Don is willing to talk to anyone that wants to further the RC boating hobby.

We are working on boats for next year - be afraid.

[Chilli]

I smell a hostile take over

[Chilli]

Well, the D12 season is over. Had a nice weekend racing dispite the crappy weather. My son and I finished one two in novice. On the last heat, I decided to let it all hang out and threw on an egneg prepared X642. I never tried this prop in a race but decided what the hell, it's the last heat of the season. Unfortunately my pit man put my boat in too early so I had to do two mill laps. The boat was so fast that even with a pound of lead in it and little wind, it nearly took flight. I finished the race and coming around turn one, the boat died. When we pulled her in, I discoved two of the motor wires that come from the ESC had melted solder joints. The little Etti 150 gave me all she had. I don't know if the ECS is fried or not, but I definately see a Hydra 240 in my future. Thank goodness I put in that cap board this past week or I doubt the ECS would of made it through the race.

I'm officially declaring myself retired as a novice. So you all know what that means. Time to get some FE classes in D12. I didnt say anything to anyone about the FE issue during the weekend. I will wait a few weeks and maybe email all the club presidents and Don. We'll see what kind of responce we get and go from there.

PS- I learned today the the Old Dominion Club lost their pond a few days ago due to developement. If any of you Tidewater guys have a place where they may be able to run, that would be major brownie points.

Mike

[egneg]

Congrats on the wins!

Sorry to hear about ODMBA as that was a nice setup they had. I hope they find a new place to run. I found a place a while back that would let us run FE but I am not sure about nitro/gas and buoys as this is a neighbor hood pond.

[Chilli]

Winning novice is no big feat Chuck. Mostly RTR's and old hand me down nitros. The last heat I beat the second place boat by a lap and a half. BTW-this is the second controller I have fried testing one of your props. I'll probably have you to make me a spare 640 and 642 over the winter. The eight hot laps I had to run was just too much for the ETTI with that prop. If we would of run under the D13 FE start rules, I would have been fine. Also the M640 you did for me makes a great rough water prop. The boat can run through any chop with that prop.

And God bless those nitro guys and their tenacity. If I had a DNF rate as high as some of those guys, I would my boat.

Wonder if OD could run at Mount Trashmore. They have a few ponds dont they???

[egneg]

Yes Mt Trashmore has a couple but it is getting harder to find a place that will let you set up for racing and allow recovery boats. I was thinking maybe Munden Point Park down in Creeds as there is a boat ramp there.

[HOTWATER]

Hey Mike! Glad you and your son did well!! I wish I could have made it today...guess I will have to wait until the springtime for the new race season to start. Did you get any pics while you were at the race?

-Kent

[Chilli]

No pics Kent. Today the weather was supposed to clear out, but it was still off and on rain with the sun poking through on occasion. Didnt want to take a chance using the wifes nice camera. We'll all see each other next season with our game face on. Here's mine

[HOTWATER]

I hear ya! Time to start planning the winter builds!

-Kent

[Chilli]

I guess now is as good a time as any to get the ball rolling. First thing we need to do before I approach the district is to find out how many people are on board.

1. Who wants to race FEs in D12 in 2010 and what class? If you don't know your class, tell us what boat you want to run, size and what cell count. It realy dosent matter what class we run, as long as all that want to run are included. If we need to do an Open FE Mono class and a Open FE hydo class, to include everyone, so be it. Hydro class include Cats, Tunnel hulls and steped mono hulls.

2. How many races can you anticipate attending? Nothing is written in stone for next year. But generaly there are 5 distict races. Greensboro, NC in the middle of May, Queenstown, MD (Eastern Shore) in early June, Centreville,VA (DC Suburbs) in Late June, Chesapeake,VA (south of Norfolk) late August and Hagerstown,Md late September. I know no one can commit this far out, just need to know what your shooting for. And there shall be no ball busting for those who only wants to attend a local race and not travel out of town.

Mike

P-MONO (Titan 33- 4s2p)

P-Hydo (Mean Machine 29- 4s2p) may build a p-sport hydro or rigger

I anticipate attending the Centreville, Chesapeake and Queenstown Race.

There is no rush getting answers from everyone.

[D&D]

OK, who came in first and who came in second, father or son?????? Congrats!
It is quite a blow to loose your pond, OD had been there for many years.

I agree with the DNFs.... When I went to the Indy Masters a couple of weeks ago I thought these guys were racing in the "Mill Laps". The race would start and only one or two boats were left at the start and some of those already had buoy cuts!

\\

Winning novice is no big feat Chuck. Mostly RTR's and old hand me down nitros. The last heat I beat the second place boat by a lap and a half. BTW-this is the second controller I have fried testing one of your props. Just kidding, I'll probably have you to make me a spare 640 and 642 over the winter. The eight hot laps I had to run was just too much for the ETTI with that prop. If we would of run under the D13 FE rules, I would have been fine. Also the M640 you did for me makes a great rough water prop. The boat can run through any chop with that prop.

And God bless those nitro guys and their tenacity. If I had a DNF rate as high as some of those guys, I would my boat.

Wonder if OD could run at Mount Trashmore. They have a few ponds dont they???

[Chilli]

Dennis, The old man came in first. My son is 11 and his boat is set up for 4S power at around 45 mph. At the beginning of the summer, he wacked the back bank a few times in practice. I didnt realy think it was that big a deal. No drivers stand and the shore line is not very high off the pond. But it messed up his confidence and he wanted the boat a bit slower. So we have been using 3s packs for him. Slower but still fast enough to blow by the nitro RTR's. After the first heat, he said that he wanted his boat to be faster than mine. So we swapped batteries. On the second heat, I had a good start and had a lead on him. He slowly caught up and after two laps he passed me going into turn three. He cut into lane 1 so close after the pass, that his roostertail got under my bow and just flipped me right over on my back. My pit man said "Boy, that was a pro move". But it's all good. He flipped trying to avoid me two laps later. After that heat, I asked if he wanted the 4s packs for the last heat. He declined. That heat was the only DNF's for us over two race weekends.

It was cold and rainy and more than a few of the nitro guys were having fits trying to get thier mixture right. Especially the B's (.21 nitro for those that don't know). The gentleman next to me had two B-tunnels and a B-hydro rigger and did not finish one heat all weekend. All I had to do is keep my Lipos warm

[D&D]

[Nautiboyz,

That's why I always ran a third channel needle and tuned, not raced, in the mill laps.... I was supprised, with the quality of boats that were at the Indy Masters, whith all the boats that did not make it to the start let alone finish the race.

[Meniscus]

OK, I'm down, probably 2 races => one out of town and the big local one. I have any of the boats in the fleet available, minus the CF micro hydro. I have more 2s batts than 3s and I can run 2s1p, 2s2p, 4s1p. I'll probably be able to run many classes, but I'm not sure about runtimes and capacity. I know my boats will be small for the classes, but so be it.

[Chilli]

Thanks Ben. My only suggestion for those running smaller boats would be to pick one that you think will best handle the chop.

If we run a hydro and a mono class we're looking at a couply hours between heats. Plenty of time to charge packs. So you only need one good set of batteries per boat and perhaps a back up pack.

If you can run hard for 3 1/2 minutes, that should be plenty for a mill lap, 6 heat laps and even an extra lap if you jump the start.

[egneg]

P-mono

Centreville, Chesapeake.

[Chilli]

No Hydro class Chuck? Why dont you show those Miss Vegas nitro RTR's what an UL-1 can do.

Side note: I soldered the two motor leads back on my Etti 150 and she fired right up. I'll give her a good test this weekend and see if she holds up.

[egneg]

No Hydro class Chuck? Why dont you show those Miss Vegas nitro RTR's what an UL-1 can do.

Side note: I soldered the two motor leads back on my Etti 150 and she fired right up. I'll give her a good test this weekend and see if she holds up.

I guess I could run the UL-1 as well. Good to here the etti is ok.

[Chilli]

It's just that if you run only one class, there is a ton of down time. Plus since we're newbies at racing, the more practice we get at starts and running in traffic, the better. Just a thought.

[egneg]

I was just thinking that it can be hard to keep it on the water but if I lower the strut and add a bit of weight it should be good to go.

[Chilli]

From the info gathered so far, it looks like most of the hydros that be running in our group will be in the mid to upper 20's in size. I don't know if you have ever seen B-Tunnel boats run on a breezy day. I had the pleasure at the Centreville race. Five boats in the water, three blew over before the race started and the other two blew over by lap four. We couldnt do any worst than that. Just make sure everything is taped up well.

[egneg]

You have a point there because at the Chesapeake race one guy won by default as he was the only one left after the first lap and that was with fairly flat water.

[Chilli]

Well, I sent a email to Don and the District 12 club officers today asking for a FE class in the D12 race fliers next year. I have two responses back so far. Both from the Old Dominion Club. Both the president and vice president said they would support us and vote in favor of our request. Thats a pretty good start! Now they just need to find a new site....

Thanks to D&D (Dennis) for going over the email I composed. Dennis is a former Club Pres of the Capitol RC club and he offered advise on possible concerns D12 clubs may have that I should address.

[HOTWATER]

That's great news Mike!

Hopefully I will have a P-mono to run along with my Rigged Insanity.

I will try to run these three races:Queenstown, Chesapeake and Centreville.

-Kent

[D&D]

Good start Nautiboyz, I may have to drag my self up next hear and watch some of you electric boys run.

[Doug Smock]

Well, I sent a email to Don and the District 12 club officers today asking for a FE class in the D12 race fliers next year. I have two responses back so far. Both from the Old Dominion Club. Both the president and vice president said they would support us and vote in favor of our request. Thats a pretty good start! Now they just need to find a new site....

Thanks to D&D (Dennis) for going over the email I composed. Dennis is a former Club Pres of the Capitol RC club and he offered advise on possible concerns D12 clubs may have that I should address.

Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck fellas!!

Doug

[egneg]

You can count on me for next year and I am looking forward to it.