Velenje race report

On the 27th of septembre i was supposed to be with the italian footy gang sailing footys. But school would not let me take the 700km trip to north-western italy.
So i attended the 5th race of our national championship in the F5g/750mm class.
Velenje is alway a nice race, sailed on an artifical lake which is a consequence of heavy mining activity in the area and the site of the coruptive project teš6(part of a thermo electricity plant).
The water is clear blue, warm and wind is usually pretty good.
12 competitors showed up.
The line up was as competitive as it gets in the 750mm class.
8 races were sailed. First there was no wind then the wind came. then it was gone again and later it came back again. Not exactly the "good" wind i was expecting.
but the race was lots of fun and i am particulary proud of the first race. Because there was almost no wind and nr.93 was just behind me, but i managed to fight him off and took 1st.
The rest of the race was mellow. Start hard, stay right. Keep up the speed.
When the wind came evolutions speed was untouched. but in the luls either 93 or 331 and 334 were always close behind.
My father short curcuited(or however it is spelled) his electronics. And with no backup servos fila was out of the race. He had to do with am reserve boat from niko. But it was a completely different boat that he is used to and he was just not as fast with it.

My hopes for the race were high. I knew if i get the win i would have enough points to claim the national title for the second year in a row.
Luckily i did it.

Photos and videos will be posted soon.


In week before the race an older sailor passed away, his name was Ivan. He was the grandfather of an acquaintance of mine. He loved building model boats, and enjoyed national championship races.
He was not always on top of the rankings but he did it with a smile!
Until a heart complication took him away, may he rest in peace.
Velenje race was the race he was always eiger to sail. This year he built a new boat, which was supposed to sail for the first time that weekend.

Maybe that boat will sail in velenje the next year, to honor his memory. Also i will suggest that we name the race as his memorial.

Ptuj race report

On the 21. of June i gave a second go to organizing a national class regatta.
The race was a sucess, 11 competitors present, wind was good, and river flow made racing interesting but not hindered.
Me and my father took the top two spots sailing evolution and fila. Niko was third.

Full report soon

Radeče race report

On Saturday, 14th of june, the 4th round of the national championship series took place in Radeče.
The course was set on a slow flowing river Sava, the current made racing quite interesting, sadly debris in the water spoiled the fair play a bit. The wind was good, fairly constant, gusting up to 15knts.
A good day to see how evolution handles racing chaos.
At first i was sailing wih no front rudder, the keel finn is in theory big enough to provide lateral support. Yes the boat sails, but there is too much leeway, aspecially compared to the slender deep hulled boats.
After two races i added the front rudder. The boat is way better this way, leeway is reduced to a minimum, if needed it can even be eliminated completely.
The tacks are very fast, lots of speed is lost compared to the hevier, less leaning Fila. But evolution accelerates much better.
Control downwind is maintained all the time, even when the boat nosedives.
Immediatelly i started a string of 4 1st place finishes.
Evolution was fast had angle, but the hadling was shit...
I found that this boat has the mast tooo far forward, more about the reason for this mistake in another post. So the boat has leehelm, which is very anoying an usually slow.
I tried to cure this by leaning the mast bac as far back as it would go ~ 12deg, the kicker on the main was set tight and the jib was far out when sheeted in, but still the leehelm stayed.
A new rigg is needed, in order to move the aerial CE further back.
Another great benefit of the forward rudder is hadling downwind and reaching. When sailing these two directions one can steer using only the fore rudder.
This way the boat handles very directly, an looses next to no speed even at high alpha.


below are some pictures of the regatta:

this dragon force is often present at races, it has a rigg bigger than legal for rg65 class

 
 

After 8eight races the race was finished, the results are on this link:
http://forum.modelarji.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=88284

Update, videos surfaced.
1st race

second race above
third below

fourth below

Rogla race report

The past weekend i was in charge to organize the third stage of the nationalchampionship series in the F5g sailboat class.
Earlier this year i made sure that we were allowed to use a small lake on top of Pohorje, a mountain nearby.
This lake is right next to a hotel resort and ski slopes. The location is at about 1520m above sea level, the water is clean, cold. It is often windy there.
This saturday was sunny, the wind was not exactly what i hoped for, but was good for sailing, gusty from3-above10 knots.
With help from a friend we set up the course, it was a classic "stick" and not the usually sailed triangle.
Luka, an experienced sailor and sailing judge did not manage to finish his new boat until the race and offered to judge the regatta and take care of the results.
Only 9 competitors entered the race, i was hoping for more, but for a first time on this location it is ok.
We started racing at about 12.20.

The starting line was set quite well, the left side was a little bit favoraised, but it lead ashore, where there was less wind. It was well possible to "win" an upwind leg by starting on either side which i proved along the day.

The boat with no number is my fathers old bot, similar to #165, it has a Fila b-rigg and is sailed by another friend who has decided that he will also compete in the naional championship series

there was no wave and fila is very fast in such conditions

A  strong left shift gave me the lead to the first mark in this race

Father brought his hobbyking wind tunnel, we had to remove one section of the wood fence, there is no gate to the lake

father was sailing evolution, having all sorts of problems i never encountered before

alinghi #68 was aiming for a spot in the top three

there were some borin luls

in this race the right side of the course was more promising

The friend who sailed the boat with no numbers was doing really well, aspecially considering that his boat was made mostly of spare parts! He was was always in the top 3-4 upwind, but dobnwind he was lacking sail area.

some people also came to watch

me, giving the jib more twist, the friend is watching closely

This beautiful colin archer was present, it can move under its own sail power, but has a propeler for help

leading the way around the bottom mark.

Left shift gain, a quick tack to make sure i am above everyone

after all 8 races were completed a navigational race was sailed, 4 started ,two finished

I really did not want to go somewhere and buy medals for the race, yes they would be metal, but also they would be small and the budget did not alow spending much money

i got around to designing my own medals in solidworks and printing them out in two parts
They are also bigger than bought ones, and are special!

Overall the race went well, the max number of races was sailed(8) + navigation, Everyone seemed happy.
The stick course was IMO much beter than the triangle, making upwind and downwind tactics possible.
The starting procedures were flawless, with the help of Nikos megafone.
The presence of a judge made the races even a bit more interesting.
A traditional pohorje plate menu was served at a local restaurant.

The results:

red are the discards

For the next time i wish we could get more competitors, i know that there are about 20 competitive and active F5g sailors in Sloveina, it would be nice to see all of them present at races.




Again Fila dominated the race.
A sharp start in all of the races gave me an early advantage.
My speed was very good again, and so was the angle, as a result i was first to turn the windward mark.
Downwind it was just a matter of spotting the incoming gusts and moving slightly to the side from which the gust came.

The reason for a sixth place finish is that the jib twist line caught the spreader and i could not manouver for about 30sec.
More photos sholud emerge shortly.

Videos at: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheZdaemi/videos

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!

Bled race report, the F5g sailing season opens

Bled is a small town, or more a village, located in mid Slovenia, it's glacier lake makes it a big turist attraction.(www.bled.si)
Every year a national championship race is organized there.

The wind is usually allright, generally from 4-10knots, with small waves.

This year the organization was the best of all national class races i've been to. 

The starting fee was 5€for senior competitors(above 18yrs of age).

Every boat got a sticker:

it says bled sailing club below the waves

I think this stickers are great!, a nice touch, and could be collectable if one would be presented with it on each of the events.

Every skipper also got a sandwich and a beer.

The course was a classic triangle. The left side of the starting line was much more promising than the right.

The wind was a bit tricky, sometimes gusty, some gusts were above 10knt, there were also some luls, lasting a few minutes. Everytime the wind droped it went left, and when it went up again it went right, so that was a tactical issue to be considered.

The array of boats was also interesting

There was this wing sailed boat

I goes through a lot of modifications, getting faster and faster but not really competitive

this wing sailor shares the hull with her winged brother, it goes better, but i personally would not opt for the swing rigg

This boat has not seen the water for years, but was sailing great,her skipper bought #44 earlier this year and is coming back to sailing

Niko, a dedicated sailor brought a whole fleet of his boats(and skippers) to the race

A micro magic finished 6th overall!! 

Competition from the sea shore, a fast but heavy boat 

evolution, the original, note the fore rudder

a rookie, perhaps the best rookie of the race, with a new boat

after some help the orange boat started sailing well here with a borrowed rigg

blulife now sporting ex fila rudder, was skippered by my friend, it was his first regatta, a 9th place is a good result.

fila(me) and evolution(father), evolution is getting a carbon keel, and fila spec. rudder for the next race

some pictures of the luls

overall was great fun

Some people were shooting (photos) with real cameras so some more photos should emerge shortly.

Seven races were sailed. All starts were more or less successful. Tangles were often.

The top three got a fancy diploma

fancy pants it is, the wood and styrene sail give it arealy nice feel

here is a link to the results(at the botom):

http://forum.modelarji.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=87701

So i won(! :D) and now?, now the focus is to get more time sailing the boats, all of a sudden we have 4,5 active competitors here in maribor, that is enough to do some practice races.

The goal is also to get all the premissions to organize the Rogla regatta coming in the end of may.

The goal also is to finish revolution, make moulds for fila, get the canting keel sailing, build a shunting footy etc. etc 

The next race is in Koseze coming in two weeks