F5g national class races - video clips

I uploaded some clips from races.
More are to come.
Video curtesy goes to Peter boat No. 68

1. race of the year took place in koseze, where the wind was surprisingly good.
I am sailing Evolution #86, Father is sailing Fila #87

8 races were sailed, the battery ran out for the last race. And so did the wind.
Results should be here: http://forum.modelarji.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=91554
But they aren't, they are very late, a few months late. Not sure why.

3rd race of the season was in Radeče, on a river, current was present. Nearby storms made for gusty and shifty condtions. Not to my liking
 But Radeče is always an interesting race, me and father were late, so we sailed with open decks, that resulted in fila sinking, almost to the bottom.
The boat got rescued, the battery was changed, and it sailed the rest of the races with a deck lid, with no problems. Hobbyking cheap servos ftw!

The race was tough.
The results are here: http://forum.modelarji.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=91830

Koeze race report

On the 4th of october the last race of the national championship took place in  koseze pond.
The report will be fullfiled soon.

The races were streamed live at:
http://new.livestream.com/zivo/MODELARJI-NA-KOSESKEM-BAJERJU
clips of all but one race can be found on that link

Model olimpics

Every year model olimpics are organized on Koseze pond in Ljubljana.
Usually three F5g races are organized, marathon/navigation on Monday, match race od wednesday and a regular regatta on Friday, this year is no exception.
Sadly i missed mondays navigation because of the upcoming exams.

Wednesday

Hoewer my father joined me yesterday(wednesday) to do some match racing.
We arived at the pond and the Jury decided to make it a normal race, but that only one lap around the course should be sailed(instead of two), to save time.
No results were discarded at the end(i have no clue why?). Meaning that every "bad" result counted and consistency was crucial.
The wind was typical koseze shit, the windward bouy was set towards the trees and there was no wind. the rest of the course was sailable, but luls lasting about 5min were present from time to time completely stopping the happening on the course.
The event was fun nevertheless.
The starts were pretty important because the firs buoy was only about 10m from the starting line, and a reach followed. The left side of the starting line was heavily favourised.
I messed-up 3 starts, but all of the rest is started as close to the left bouy as possible and always came first to the windward bouy.
My father was charging too, Fila seems to suit his sailing style. He took a strong second place, leaving the third 8 points behing.
I took first easily. Evolution is the boat to beat at the moment.
Most of the succes in these low-wind conditions comes down to it's stiff, perhaps to stiff, yet shallow sails. Which take form easily, and pop to the other side with ease. Meaning that each gust is used as propulsion and not as a sail turning/poping tool!

Friday 

The last race of august is over. Conditions were Koseze specific, zero wind, and i mean zero.

18 competitors showed up. The racing was not exactly exciting as the boats barely moved.

The conditions were made worse by rc powerboats driving near the race course and the organisers did not tell them to stop driving because they're making waves.

I was sailing evolution and was struggling with bad luck and wrong decisions about where the vacum is going to suck the boats. So i was following my father in 3rd or 4th place in most races. He was doing much better with a string of second places.

Leading was #93 a low wind specific boat.

I was a bit frustrated, because there was nothing i could do to better my performance. I started sharp on the right side but couldn't match the speed(slowness) of boats with less wetted area like fathers fila, #49 and #93.

Then there was a 20min pause, me, father and skipper of #93 helped peter a sailor in the wheelchair to get to his car because he was leaving due to heat and zero wind, i came ba about 10min after the pause was declared to find that there was only about a minute left to the next start.

This was a bad bad move by the organizers. One does not shorten the pause without informing all the competitors.
I decided not to sail in that race but i did put together fila trew it into the water and when my father arrived he sailed the race and dispite starting a few minutes late he cam into the top 5.

Me and #93 did not start that race.

Tbh i was dissapointed, the organizers did shit.

The final results are not out yet but #93 was first with all bullets but that one race. Niko #49 was second because he won that race i was left out of. I got third and my father got 4th. now how the fuck did he get forth? he was ahead of me in all race but one. in that race he caught a dead end line that was floating around a bouy(organizers shame on you again), and finished second to last or something like that.

I am pretty sure that they messed up something, we will see when the results come.

Rant

Yes i know that rc sailing or to be exact the F5g class here in slovenia is not such a serious thing like IOM in croatia or Rg65 in south america but with negligence like seen on friday rc sailing here won't ever become a serious hobby. 

Not saying that it(sailing) should be to all, but for some of us it's not only joy but much more.

That is why Slovenia is a small country with a little bit of everything, because certain people tend to work on their own and strive to achieve their goals more than the others. Such people standout from the crowd, it is becouse of them that Slovenia is succesful in many sports from the outside. But these successful people are alone, Slovenia fails to deliver offspring in sports(and not just sports) because of a careless attitude seen all to often. 

(added:

Real succes will be delivering quality offspring for generations not just picking the best one from a generation and feeding him to the world saying "look we very good at this".)

After the sailboat race an exhibition of all models was sceduled.
picasa pictures won't load right now so they are coming soon..

Koseze F5g race report

This past saturday(10.5.2014) me and my father headed to Koseze, to take part in the second round of the national championship.
Koseze is the pond whith no wind, at least in my eyes. Out of seven races sailed there i only saw wind twice, this year and two years ago.
The wind was ok, about 10knots if the pond would lay on a field, but since the pond is surrounded by trees and houses the effective wind speed was probably around 5 to 6 knots and gusting.
The course sailed was a triangle, due to shifty conditions there were mostly upwind and reaching streches, no real downwind sailing.
The organisation was good, we had two judges for a change.
The conditions were shifty and gusty but very sailable the whole event.
8 races were sailed.
11 competitors were present. Only one of them a junior(below 18yrs)
Below, the pictures tell some more stories, sadly they are of bad quality, taken with my phone by me during the races.

the weather was nice, lots of spectators came to watch, n141 is a  dragonforce rg65 with a bigger rigg

This is alinghi the boat with the most draft in the fleet

the lonely junior, i ended up lending him my fathers backup controller, his died.

Niko made a footy.

Inspired by karo, but rounded, it was its first outing, the mast broke, but the boat will be back!

more Nikos boat, last year he introduced a new sailor to the fleet here he is working on his boat

alinghi on the water, it carries alot of sail, and is fast! i admire it 

nr.93 during a gybe, it is a very fast boat, but not dominating when the wind picks up

Dad was going strong, checking his cunningham tension, two mistakes in the last two races made him two dnf's and worsened his score.

66, with a new paint job this year

Niko's personal boat, the most balanced allrounder in the fleet, it can cope with any conditions

Starting procedure machine

in the end there was some time to release the footys, duck and karo

duck is light and fast.

Missing from the action were the winged prototypes, and all the new guys seen at Bled.

below is the thread on our national forum(with results):http://forum.modelarji.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=87955

file:///C:/Users/Mateja%20Fras/Downloads/DP%202014%202_Koseze%20SEN.pdf

The prevailing reaching and upwind conditions gave my boat, Fila a good advantage over the rest of the fleet.
I knew the boat can carry sails, and survive the gusts(above the a-rigg range), also i trimmed the boat for speed.
Sailing with less angle than the rest of the fleet, when a gust hit my boat just pulled away, a meter of height(they gained in respect to me) was nothing compared with three meters of lead(distance in front, i gained in respect to the fleet).
This speed made my work easy, the moment i reached a bouy in first place the race was mine.
My father sailing Evoution, which is getting faster and faster, was the only one with the same speed as Fila, but he got stuck in the fleet again and again.

some clips here:

Fila took first place again, putting me in the hotseat, as a championship leader in this early stages of the season.

We will see what happens on Rogla. This will be the third race of the championships.
It will be the first ever rc regatta i've organized. We will see how it goes!

Last race, no wind, offseason, national champion etc.

Today the last race of our national champ series took part at Koseze pond. The picture below sums up the whole race:

It was like that almost all the time. Damn drifters :(
Dispite the lack of wind i had a good time, just chatting and debating about prototypes present at the race.

The race went allright for me, finishing most of the races in second place, behind the best light air boat:

prototype one, nothing that special about the boat, just anice looking setup, only thing i would change is the bulb

it caries a boom with a sort of trolley setup, creating an overlap of sails, like a genoa does on real boats.

The above prototype was in the water, but not racing. It is here to stay so we will have a chance to get to know more about it next season.

prototype no. two, a almost 2000g very heavy wingsail boat, the wing has direct control from a 180deg servo, the flap is also trimable

Great props are to be given for inovation, but an about 3000cmsq wing can't cope with fila or #93 and their 5000something sqcm riggs, also i think that fat profiles with no camber don't realy work in low wind conditions(up to 3-4m/s) where renolds numbers for 30cm chord are below 50000.

The winged prototype was also special under the waterline, carying this bending keel with a winged bulb

proto number three, a wingmasted swing rigg, the sails were somewat to stiff

under powered, far a boat as hevy as fila, but a great idea, with a food box hatch wich must be nice to use compared to my patches

underwater a classic setup is to be found, carbon everything, and a half profile bulb

will be great to se this boat sailing in winds, when the rigg functions as it should

the mast from above, carbontube, two wire cut stirodur halves wraped in dacron

a KARO being build by one of the guys

it was a good day i was second in the race, a good margin behind #93 but also barely touchable by the rest of the fleet.
I am also the national champion of 2013, with two wins and two second places on the scoreboard

the two medals(silver second place in the race, and gold for national champ)

Model olympics underway, Fila: new main sail

Yesterday it was match racing time, 8 competitors went head to head.
I finished second overall,
lost one, but won all the other races.
There was no wind on Koseze pond, so the "drifting" was on..     ..the reason the first race was lost is:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR3uFfT-qtM
I lead around the first and second mark of the triangle, turning around the second mark my sail wouldn't pop to the other side, so i stopped completely, there was not even enough wind to open my bum, so i could sheet in quickly and pop the sail..
..anyway, my mistake or boat problem, tomorrow is a standard regatta.
Drifters are expected, so i finished a new sail for fila, which was laying around unfinished.
It has less luff curve, so it pops to the other side much more easily.

Today i hit the pond when the wind was dying, set it up properly in some 5-7 knots of wind. Then took on the drifters. This sail seems to be better suited for these kind of conditions as it pops really easy.
Will do a fuller report of the tomorrows race.

Blulife in shape for model olympics

Yesterday I took Blulife out for a sail, to check if everything works.
The modelympics are comming up: http://www.mzdtk-lj.si/olimpiada.htm

Me and my father are planning on taking part, there are three sailing events, marathon(who completes the most laps around a triangle in 3 hours is the winner), Matchrace(no defenders, just elimination) and a classic race(I hope it is counting for the national championships)
We will let out the Marathon as I have to do work for school.

Anyway the boat is going strong, dispite a mishap, in wich both(the fore and the aft) rudders were broken, now it is sailing with only the aft rudder.
The light wind enabeld me to set the rigg up. The sails still have a nice shape.
The optimal setup is a small amount of lee helm, wich requires corrections with the rudder, lifting the bow. This is somewhat controversial(aspecially for light air), but it was the fastest setup i found on the races last year, and two years ago when i designed this boat i liked a lee tendency.

The boat heels even in 3-5knots of wind, but it was designed for drifters, typically seen on ponds like koseze where the model olympics will take part

The vang is set very tight, to flatten the main, and sink the stern, the ce leads clr by some 16% so dispite the flat main the lee-helm remains.
This boat has a problem tho. When heeled the center line of the weted surface moves to the side, worsening the attack angle of the rudder and keel fin,thats why it doesn't perform upwind when the wind picks up.

the hull has a depession near the bow, to keep the half entrance angle very small, the prismatic coefficient of the boat is below .5, in an effort to reduce drag, in the drifters.

Here is a clip another one will come soon.