Finally got my Victoria “Brezza di mare” registered. I was assigned the number 926, but you can just put the last two digits on the sails. I think it makes the boat a little more serious looking, and less toy-like. But it’s still a grown-man’s toy!
Today Jeremy, May, Bay and I went to Brushy Creek Park for a little sailing. This time we went to the little point, and it was even better than the small fishing pier. The wind was great, and the boats sailed nicely. It’s most fun harassing the ducks. Oh, sorry Mikey, I rushed out the door and forgot to let you know we were going!
I think I am going to repaint the Brezza di mare. I am going to sand off the black, then paint a dark metallic grey for the under paint, then the blue wave design on that. I also sent off my Victoria Class registration form, so I should receive my sail #’s shortly! I will put the numbers on the stock sails, but I really want some good-looking sails in the future. But before that, I need to paint the hull to match the original design.
View more of today’s sailing pics (photographed by Jeremy) in my Flickr set.
We arrived back home on Friday, and had a strange weekend due to jetlag. Unfortunately, the weekend is over and it’s back to work/school. Today Bay, Koa and I met Jeremy and May at the lake to do a little fishing and r/c sailing. We ended up at Brushy Creek Lake and sailed there. It’s a great location for r/c sailing, much better than Old Settler’s Park in Round Rock! We had a good time, and there was a strong wind to keep the boats moving along.
By the way, I am still writing the daily photoblog of our Japan vacation. I want to go back and write more captions and titles to the Flickr sets as well. I am going to post the blog entries in their intended dates, but put a note in the current date so you all don’t miss them.
Higher quality video is available for download here (wmv, 14.6MB)
Yesterday Bay and I met up with Jeremy at Old Settler’s Park in Round Rock to sail my RC sailboat for the first time. We were the only ones there with a sailboat, although there was a guy using his RC speedboats on the other side of the pond. It was a really good day for sailing as the wind was not too strong, but not too light that we had to worry about the boat getting stuck out there. I was a little nervous when I put her in the water for the first time, but as soon as the wind filled the sails, it was so cool! It definitely takes some skill and practice (both of which I lack) to sail her with any grace, but it was tons of fun. Bay also had a good time sailing the boat. I was a little worried about the boat getting stuck in some weeds, since if that happened, I would have to probably go for a little swim. But the Victoria’s keel only goes down about 9 inches, so there isn’t too much to get caught on. After several minutes on the water, I brought it in to check to see if there was any water inside the hull, but surprisingly, it was completely dry inside. I can’t wait until my friend Jeremy has his Vic all ready to sail as well. It will be tons of fun to have someone to race against, or at least “trade some paint”.
Now I just need to tweak some of the sail settings (the jib was being let out a bit too far) and finish up the paint job. On the horizon will be new mast components and sails. The thing about upgrading the Vic is that most of the stuff can be done piecemeal from parts available at a craft or hardware store. The mast components can be made from arrow shafts, but the sail would best be ordered. I am actually having lots of fun tweaking the boat with little upgrades. Almost as much fun as sailing!
Boring video, with music by AIR.
When I first started building my Victoria, I thought I would just go totally stock and modify it later. I had read that the instructions for the boat were great and it would be smooth sailing (pun intended) all the way until it was finished. Well, the instructions are, in fact, really good. However, there were some parts that left me scratching my head as to why they did it that way. The measurements for some of the rigging pieces were also a little suspect.
I ended up doing the rigging pretty much stock, though, but then decided to tear it down and modify it a bit. First, I ditched the blue rigging line that came with the kit and went with a combination of 50lb braided (spectra) fishing line and “tiger tail” jewelry wire from the craft store. I also added some fishing snap swivels to make the mast fully removable without cutting any rigging. I re-routed a lot of said rigging to make this happen, and had to use some small screw-eyes from Home Depot. These work well since they are low friction, and go into the plastic deck really easily.
There are a few more minor mods I will make over the next couple days, plus I would like to get a lighter mast and new sails someday. And I need to finish the paint job. But in the meantime, the “Brezza di mare” is pretty much ready to hit the water as is!
I have finally decided on a paint scheme for my Victoria-class RC sailboat. It’s going to have a black hull with blue wave graphic. As you can see in the pic, the rudder and keel will also be black. I saw a photo of a Vic that had a black hull with bright green graphics overlayed on top and it looked really nice, so I figured I would try something similar. I think he used stickers for the green parts, but I am going to probably hand-paint the waves. Time to put my fine-arts degree to work!
I read some articles on the Web that indicated that most RC sailboats which are built for competition are not painted because it just adds weight and drag. I am not so concerned about maximizing for speed, however. I just want it to look nice! Also, I decided on the name, “Brezza di mare” which is a Zard album name, and means “A light wind which blows from the sea to the land”.
Click the pic above to open a larger version graphic.
I was going to change the rear tire on the C70 last night, when I noticed that it was in pretty good shape. The front was all cracked and worn, so I had replaced it, and had thought the rear would be the same. But, there is no cracking, and plenty of tread left. But, I noticed that it is the wrong size. When the previous owner changed the tire, he used the same size as the front, which is 2.25/70. The correct size is 2.50/70. Although it will run fine with this smaller tire, the top speed will be reduced slightly, while rate of acceleration is increased. I decided to just keep the smaller tire on the back for now, and when I have more room in the new house/garage I will replace it.
Yamaha has some neat little models of their motorcycles that you can build. Just print out the pdf’s, cut the pieces out, and you can assemble a cool little motorcycle. The YZF-R1 also has a cool toolkit, jack-stand, and other accessories.
