Do you have a boat 'STILL ON PATROL'?

[kazzer]

Since I've been messing about with model submarines, I've heard all sorts of stories about how people have lost their boats because of this problem, or that one. I suspect that most of these tales are of the 'old wives' variety, so I'd like to do a little survey to see how many boats have been actually been lost, and under what circumstances. Lets get some facts here and be scientific.

So! Do you have a sinking to report?
When? Where? What boat? What ballast system? What radio? What else?

This should be fun!

[Rogue Sub]

I lost my first sub

I lost my first sub on my very first dive. I didnt knwo how to drive at al because I was doing the whole thing on my own. Well i was out in the lake and trolling around popping it up and down from the surface getting a bit of a crowd. Well I decided to do a crash back and it went down tail first... fast! Well i paniced and threw it into all ahead flank..... NOTHING. This is where is started contemplating the odds of a gator being in the pond. Well I paced the pond for a bit figiting with the remote forward revers up down left right all that fun stuff and nothing. Finally I sat in anger and just tried to decide what to do. Well after about 30 minutes ( or in real time a million billion years) the boat popped up 20 feet away very tail heavy. I limped it to shore and had a look. Turns out the bottom was nothing but fine silt and when I rammed it I took on enough of the crap to make my boat way negative bouyant. Morale of the story. Stay away frim the bottom!
Kevin

[anonymous]

I've never lost a sub

I've never lost a sub permanently. 20 minutes was the longest period for me, mind you that was the longest 20 minutes of my life!

Maybe people should include how long it was lost for in this interesting survey.

My experience (in the UK) is that boats are not lost permanently very often.

I always fit a Pinger (Sound location device) on my subs so I reckon that I will always get the boat back , even if it means finding a diver.


Davy

[Rogue Sub]

True. I know aquadepp lost

True. I know aquadepp lost his seawolf boat for like a year in lik 25 -50 feet of water for a bout a year untill one day some kid fished it up in about 10 minutes. But the dog came back.

[greyakula52]

Still On Patrol! Or Keep Your Eyes On The Boat! Not The....

In My Case, I Lost Two Boats!
Yes,Yeah..... Andre Lost Yet Another Boat After The First!
The First Boat A First Generation MRC Boat (That Had A Green Thin Hull) I Lost It While Trolling Two Leggy Beauties Who Were Thrilled At My "Boat".....
I Cruised It By Them Near An Old Pier...And You Guessed It!
It Hit A Rusty Sharp Bolt...Which I Presume Opened The Hull and The Last Five Pretty Things I Saw Where Their Fourbangers As They Walked Away Laughing And My Bright Prop Disappearing Into The Dark Potomac River At Haines Point! Dang! Dang! Dang! Went Home With Just The Stand, My Radio Box and Brokenhearted!
The Second Loss, Just As Painful. My First De Boer Skipjack. Finished Absolutely Gorgeous! Trimmed To Perfection, Batteries Charged And Ready To Go!
(I Should Have Never Put It In The River!) It Was Lost Due To Radio Failure....
The Last Thing I Saw Was My "Baby" Heading Majestically Out Into The Channel
And Looking All The More Like The Real Thing!......It Just Didn't Get Any Better Then This! It Just Didn't Respond To My Signals To Turn!!!!!!
My Son And I Drove Across Memorial Bridge (In DC) I'm Driving While My Son Is Keeping His Eye On It!
It Landed Somewhere On The Virginia Side......Maybe In Several Hundred Years......Someone Will Find It With My Name Engraved Inside And Ask Themselves, "Who The Hell Is This Guy Andre?, He's Lost His Submarine!!!!!
Thanks For Listening!


Хороший День

[pier 72]

While at the Canberra (Australia's

While at the Canberra (Australia's national capital) model submarine regatta in Easter, 2006 I spoke to a guy who was sailing his scratch built "C" Class submarine. He told me that many years ago (......in a galaxy far, far away......) he lost this very same sub in a lake or dam in outback New South Wales. A few years later, at the height of one of our droughts, he was walking on the lake bed and accidently stood on the sub's hull as it partially protruded out of the dried, muddy bottom. A couple of weeks of cleaning and re-fitting and the sub is now back to it's former glory. The builder has even left the damaged fibreglass section of the hull unrepaired as a reminder of his lucky rediscovery.

From memory, he told me that he had a total failure of the failsafe systems of that era and really never expected to find her again.

[mike dory]

I believe almost everyone as

I believe almost everyone as lost a boat at one time or other, if you stay with the hobby long enough. Most of us have gotten our boats back, in the process you learn what went worng and reengineer your boat to deal with the problem. All of us stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. Skip Asay and I were building our own fail safe systems back in the 70's today they are commericaly available to everyone. Same story with APC's The most common way I use to loose a boat was to be running in a lake about 3 feet down and run into to a bunch of fishing line tied to about a four once sinker. the line would get fouled around the props and the extra weight would just drag your boat down. I spent 3 days looking for one of mine once. It's not a good feeling to go home with just your boat stand. That's when you start looking at ways to get your boat back. I came up with a way to drop the keel of about 1 Lb. of lead. after that. In those days most of us were using reverseable pumps as the ballast control. today we have a choice of many many differnt types of diving systems. That will fit most every size of model there is. I have a Type XX1 u-boat that can do 39 differnt things ( You can see it on the Photo Gallery) But that's a far cry from where I started At one time we didn't even have radios everything was done with cams and timers back in the 50's We've come along way in the hobby. Mostly because of each other and the exchange of information. Best Wishes Mike Dory

[anonymous]

I'm so perfect I never

I'm so perfect I never lost a boat! Ahahahahahahaha!!!!

Steve