Hello all, over the last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting my Mother-in-law, minus my wife (what does she know that I don't?), in Troon, Ayrshire which is about 180 miles or three hours drive from us. On the Saturday we all went up the Firth of Clyde coast to Largs and onto the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry across to Great Cumbrae, a small island just under a mile off the coast, and returned by the next ferry back. During this brief (10minute each way) crossing we were fortunate enough to see a Submarine out on a test sailing, the Largs RNLI lifeboat and a fleet of yachts racing in the firth. Sadly I forgot to take my camera with me which I was to rue later in the weekend. My wifes' great aunt and great uncle live in Largs and are fortunate to live in an appartment overlooking the lifeboat station, firth and its' islands, how I wish I could persuade Johnny to get a digital camera and send me some of the sights they regularly see! On the Sunday I attended the Ayr Model Boat Club start of season fun day. What a difference a day can make to the weather and general atmosphere.
Show report:
A really nice pond is located in Newton Park, Seaforth Road, Ayr. The pond is basically retangular with the corners cut at 45 degrees giving a hexagonal effect. Depth is wadable with thigh waders but chest ones are recommended, there is a small island in the middle of the pond situated towards the east 1/3 opposite from the pavillion end which the Club have sole use of, there is a tiolet and small kitchen area and a general meeting room within. Resident wildlife are two swans and some ducks. The swans can be a bit of a hazard as one boater found to his cost on the day. Ayr MBC as is common has an elderly membership who are mainly builders and engineering oriented but with a number of active siling members. The welcome was very warm and friendly with a well organised set up for the day with covered display areas and seating set up at the pond side and at other vantage points. There was a Radio "pound" for frequency control and a visitors book at the display tent which was manned throughout the day, a very professional approach and well executed. The sailing area had an informal steering course laid out with various obstacles. A gentle breeze crossed the pond at right angles to the general sailing area and masked just how hot the day was! I got severely sun burned on the right side of my body and had shadows of white on the left. Now I know how I got my Red Hamish name tag
My pusher tug (towboat) performed extremely well when attached to the barge and sailed for well over an hour and a half on a pair of 6v 4Ah SLA batteries. The turning was not brillaint and needed to be thought through well beforehand. The steering course was not a great success :shock: but very enjoyable. My (ex Eddy's) Karl tug performed as well as ever but
slow and only gets a single run on a pair of 6v 4Ah SLA's the 12v 7Ah is just TOO fast no matter how you go about it (any suggestions chaps? on how to reduce the voltage on these to 6v to give a longer run time? ) Also a failing of this is the need to replace the Rx batteries after about 15 minutes, I'll have to look at getting a larger capacity Rx pack. There were many boats on the water over the three hours that I was there with many scratch built models of excellent finish and a good few kits without much duplication. I met and spoke many people during the afternoon and will surely see some of these people at other events throughout Scotland over the coming summer. As i mentioned earlier I forgot my camera but was fortunate to meet Drew Young from Lockerbie (cuerrently buiding a Torpedo Boat ) who was out trying his new camera and has kindly offered to send me a CD of all the photos he took on the day. I'm sure he'd be happy for them to be posted on the forum. there was onl one paddle steamer on the water and this was a scratch "Jeanie Deans" which sailed for most of the day and was a real crowd pleaser.
My conclusion is that this is a good and friendly club which deserves to be supported if you are visiting the area and welcomes visitors with any interest.
Have a look at the diary page on
www.edinburghmodelboatclub.org.uk and see what a visit to Scotland can offer you with a variety of events all over the country. You never know I might even see you there
cheers
Jim
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