Fate of SubRonSW a.k.a. The Cactus Navy

[warpatroller]

I feel it is safe to say that this group has ceased to exist as a functioning entity. The prior acting President no longer resides in AZ and as a result, from what I can see, has abandoned the group and is no longer a member let alone the President. Another member initially proposed a reorganization, but has also apparently vanished and has not provided any further input on here in regards to such a thing.

The only people that currently have expressed any interest in keeping this group alive are myself and Steve L. Like I said before, I feel there need to be at least a couple operational boats for this group to exist. I now have a boat (a 32nd Parallel XXIII) that I am starting to work on, and it WILL become operational in the not too distant future (but it will probably take longer than just a month or two for me to get it ready for its maiden patrol). Steve L. has a SWM Blueback which could be made ready for patrol in even less time. So that would give us two fully operational boats.

Once my boat is running, I would be willing to take over as active President unless there are any strong objections by any of the remainder of the group, whomever you still are, to me doing so.. I'm pretty sure that Steve L. would be willing to participate (at least some of the time) and if anyone else is, let it be known on here.

I think a fresh start (total refit), would be a good thing to do, including a possible name change. Having a graphic design background, I could even create a graphic logo for the group (something that never got accomplished in the past).

If your reading this and still have any interest in keeping this group alive, please post a comment on here and let it be known.

Thanks,

Steve S.

[mkeatingss]

I'm still interested and, I

I'm still interested and, I believe, Ray Agee is, too. But he's in the hospital, right now, and can't make the meetings.
Tony C. would come, if people would bring models.

Mike K.

[warpatroller]

Mike, good to know someone

Mike, good to know someone is still interested besides me and Steve. Sorry to hear about Ray.. I hope he recovers soon.

I see you said, "if people would bring models". That is exactly what I was getting at, that is something that didn't seem to happen much in the past. I decided to finally get my own boat to work on even after never having seen one operate in person (hobby grade not just cheap toys). I contacted Steve L., made a deal with him and now I am the new owner of a classic 32nd Parallel kit. So that is a start.

A Subron is usually made up of at least 3 submarines, your Albacore could be #3 Mike.. I remember you said its pressure box leaks, but I'm sure something can be done about that to get it out of mothballs.

Like I said though, there will be a wait until my boat is ready for action. So, perhaps we can just stay on a "shore leave" for a bit longer and then once my boat is ready and Steve L. has tweaked his Blueback for duty we can gather once again for our FIRST official group run (at a lake or large pool). Where we actually put a couple of these things in the water and watch them perform! I made Steve L. promise that he would run his Blueback with my XXIII so we will have a minimum of 2 boats for that first water run event.

How does that sound guys? Sound off!

Steve S.

[mkeatingss]

Sound good to me. I'll

Sound good to me. I'll bring Albacore, but she'll go straight to the bottom, if we put her in the water.
My nearest pond/lake is on the east side of S. Dobson Ave, between Baseline and Guadelupe, next to the fire station, in Mesa.
Pick a time and place, and I'll do my best to be there.

Mike K.

[stevel14]

Putting a hole in the

Putting a hole in the boat is one way to get it to submerge. To paraphrase the Coast Guard Lefeboat motto: You have to go down, but you don't have to come back up.

[desert boat]

After spending two weeks in

After spending two weeks in the hospital due to my heart and diabetes, I'm back and raring to go. Mike Keating has been the only person to contact me during the past month. One thing about a Subron unit that is important to me is that fact the one should be a SubCommittee member and have a strong interest in submarines be they operational or static. Neither of my subs are complete and in the water at this time, but I am working on them. When they are ready, they will be in the water but until then I'll be in SubCommittee and the Cactus Navy! Also, I believe that I was the one that has been pushing for the formation and continuance and Mike and I have attended more meetings than anyone else! Everyone please give me a call at 480-966-0228 and we'll get a place and time. Your Move!

[warpatroller]

Welcome back Ray.

This is the

Welcome back Ray.

This is the first time I've seen a post from you on here in 3 months. Wasn't sure of what was going on since then, so I revived the posting about the fate of the group. But I suppose I have your absence beat, as the last time you saw me at a meeting was a year ago! When you crashed my Walmart sub into the sides of Adam's pool:P

I have not been an official paying Subcommittee member due to that fact that until now, I didn't own a model submarine (I'm not counting toy grade stuff like the Walmart sub). To me it would be kind of like paying for a Golf membership at a Country Club, but not owning any golf clubs.. I was hoping to have been able to see a hobby grade sub in action as a result of getting together with members of the group, but it never happened. Though, through contact with a group member I finally got a kit I can call my own, and of a boat that I have an interest in (key factor in getting the kit built and in the water instead of getting shelved in a closet for extended storage time). Second essential key factor is funding said build (especially in such challenging economic times), and I am working on that, though it may not happen as quickly as I'd like it to.

Managed to finally acquire one of the elusive Tracker III radios from yet another Subcommittee member, but what was supposed to have been a 75Mhz surface radio turned out to be a 72Mhz air radio.. So my new radio is in route to Polk Hobby in NJ to hopefully get properly converted to 75Mhz so it is useful for controlling a submarine.

Guess nobody ever said getting an RC submarine in the water was going to be easy.. And once you finally do get the boat in the water, you have to worry about it sinking! lol Perhaps you have to be a little crazy to get into this hobby A real lunatic!

You said "neither of my subs are complete and in the water at this time, but I am are working on them". What subs are these Ray? What kind of boats and what scale? Give us some info on whats under construction in your drydock! This is exciting news Ray and I'm sure other members want to hear about them also.

To Steve L. - I could get that XXIII in the water and submerged, REAL FAST, as long as I didn't care about it coming back up!

Steve

[desert boat]

Since to seem to care ...

Steve ... I'm taking your last comments and questions as being a little bit nasty, but I'll answer them. I am building two boats at this time. One is a SSY Los Angeles class as USS Phoenix and the second a SSY Gato. Both are 1/96. One on the backburner is a SSY 1/96 USS Franklin. In the past I had a collection of hulls, all SSYs in scales of 1/96, 1/48 and 1/72 which due to my health I started trying to sell them at meetings. You were there once and no one wanted one at greatly reduced prices. Because of this, I sold them all to out of staters for the same prices plus mailing. I really wanted them to stay in the group. but no takers. You say you want to be President, well, show some interest rather than just criticizing what others have done or tried doing. For your information, I have located a clear, shallow (up to five feet) pond in Tempe. I asked for people to call me at 480-966-0228 so we can see where all want to meet. Mike and I will set a location this week. If you want to attend, call me for your input. Your turn.

[warpatroller]

Ray, I’m sorry that you

Ray, I’m sorry that you took offense to my questions about your sub projects, and to my excitement at the prospect of another member of the group actually working towards getting a functional boat in the water.

In regards to your attempt at selling some of your hulls to club members, yes I do remember you offering to sell me your SSY Type IX hull. That was almost 2 years ago, and I will tell you why I was not interested in it.

1) In my personal opinion, the boat needed too much “scratch building” work for a first time RC sub builder with no prior experience building a submarine model.

2) The hull was simply too long in length for me to efficiently transport in my SMALL car.

For those reasons, I chose to pass on it. In addition my living situation would have made it difficult to work on a sub model of any kind at that time. As of two months ago I am finally back to living alone and can do as I please in my home. I purchased Steve Laubmeier’s XXIII kit because it is a complete kit, needing very minimal scratch building work and is compact to transport in my little car. In addition, if you recall, I have been interested in having a XXIII model since the early meetings back in the Spring of 2006.

I cannot comment on why other members may not have been interested in what you had for sale. Perhaps what you had was not a good fit for what they wanted in a sub model, I really don’t know..

If I didn’t have any interest I wouldn’t have got a boat kit, wouldn’t have responded to the post you made 3 months ago, and wouldn’t have started this thread in an attempt to invoke additional responses besides the ones made by Steve L. and myself during that 3 month time period. There was one other response by Steve C. saying he was no longer going to participate, but that was it.

I said I was “willing” to be President once I have a functional model, rather than just let the group go by the way side. At the time I made that post, it appeared as though the group was in limbo, and no longer a functional entity. So I took action to try to jump start a discussion on here about it.

As far as “criticizing” what the group has or has not done, I simply confirmed another member’s observation that this group did not function like other Subcommittee groups do in terms of actually running models in the water together. I am interested in participating with a group that runs models in the water. When my sub is complete I can always just run it by myself. If others have boats that I can run with though, that might make it more interesting.

Whoever the group leader is, whether it is you, me or someone else, I feel that it is in the group’s best interest that they have an operational boat to spark a desire in other members and any new potential members in participating in a similar manner.

I’ll give you a call this weekend Ray to see what you and Mike have come up with. I think a pond side or lake side meeting is premature at this time though, since it still appears that nobody has a functional boat.

In the mean time, could you post the closest cross streets to this pond that you mentioned in Tempe, so that we can all look it up on Google Earth to see where it is at?

Steve S.

[mkeatingss]

Here's a map of the

Here's a map of the area: << http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Tempe&state=AZ >> Blow it up, homing in on the 202 at the Town Lake. Curry runs between Scottsdale Rd and Mill Avr, just noth of the 202. The pond, according to Ray, is on the South West corner of Curry and College.
I hope this helps. The 21st good for you?

Mike K.

[warpatroller]

I found the pond and

I found the pond and see the little parking lot next to it. When you said the 21st, where did you mean? Meet at the pond? Somewhere else? I have nothing to put in the water yet... You apparently don't and it doesn't look like Ray does either. Its too bad, because I'm itch'in to try out one of my torpedoes on Ray's Gato or LA Class.. Don't worry Ray, I won't be installing explosive warheads in them...as long as you promise not to engage in a battle to the death with me.

I'll try to call Ray this weekend and see what he has to say.. It may not be pretty though.