Who's had to go in the water after their boat?

[safrole]

Maybe some of you have some interesting stories to share. Here's mine...

I let my receiver battery get too low last week and with a full ballast tank the control surfaces stopped responding and she wouldn't purge her ballast. The rear planes were stuck in surfacing position but I still had throttle. So I gave it full power to keep the nose up and had to run around to other side of the pond where she "grounded" in some muck. I only had to go in a little bit, but it could have been a lot worse, especially if the planes weren't stuck in such a helpful position. I've been a lot better about keeping the nicads up since then.

Anyway I'd be interested to read some other tragic or near-tragic stories.

[bob the builder]

Worst that's happened to me

Worst that's happened to me so far is a stuck vent valve. Unfortunately it was stuck in the 'open' position after a nice, controlled drift to the bottom of seven feet of water (my model is negatively ballasted).

I notice the problem right away, and a full-out blow cycle gave her enough lift to get back to the surface again, though she'd start sinking right away.

I managed to get her back into about two feet of water where I let her settle and waded out to get her.

Turns out my throw arm had overshot its endpoint (somehow) and jammed. I've since modified the arm to put and end to that possibility.

She's only been out a handful of times, so I'm sure I'll have more stories to tell, but for now that's the extent of my 'heart attack' stories.

[chips]

I was stationed at USCG

I was stationed at USCG Air Station Clearwater, FL and was a member of the Bay Area Electric Boaters. One of our sponsors was a law firm; they had a 5 foot deep man made pond in front of their office. We were running our models in the pond for entertainment as part of a charity dinner the lawyers hosted. The pond had a fountain at one end, with power supplied through a 1.5 inch PVC conduit. I had my 1/72 scale SKIPJACK and was running submerged. It didn't come up when ordered, even after an emergency blow. I went into the water and started a search pattern doing the "stingray shuffle" . I was almost completed with the second "out & back" leg of my search, running parallel to that PVC conduit. My right shin hit the nose of the SKIPJACK. The conduit had caught the SKIPJACK just forward of the sail.

[mr t]

boat was caught up in

boat was caught up in seaweed and stuck 10 feet away from edge. Luckily, another enthusast's model had just come by, placed into the water and puched me back to safety. Didnt get my feet wet and hope i never do - I have two models, one my proper one, and another a toy boat as a rescue craft!

[drdave]

I have been in the

I have been in the water a few times to find my boats... One was anxious to get it into the water and forgot to check the battery and after 10 minutes running it stopped and settled on the bottom Then one time at Heather Farms Pond I was running my Scamp just a few feet deep when I decided to blow ballast and make it come up..... Well I saw the bubbles but no sub, so commanded another blow which I saw more bubbles but no sub.... Waded out and found that I drove my Scamp into a shopping cart someon had thrown in the lake and I drove into it and got trapped. Dave Meriman was right It is not if you should lose your boat but when you will lose your boat... At least the water in California is not too cold .... DrDave ( Also a hearty thank you to Tom Anderson for getting my Scamp out of the pond in SF)

[Guest]

I've had several trips in

I've had several trips in the ponds and lakes over the years, but the best story is about my first sub. Over thirty (30) years ago, before many people had heard about model subs, my wife and I went to the Charles River, near Boston to run my model.
After several successful dives with my wooden hull dynamic diver, the boat went out of range in a diving mode, and disappeared. There was no failsafe, and it must have been caught on something at the bottom, because it was positively buoyant. My wife and I started walking along the banks of the river hoping to see the sub rise to the surface. Along came a police patrol car, and the officer asked what we were looking for. I was afraid to tell him I lost my sub, for fear he would take me to the loony bin.
Sub was never recovered.

[anonymous]

I was at a regatta,

[color=#000000]I was at a regatta, years ago, put my 637 Sturgeon in the water and proceeded to back out, when the stern went down, then the bow. I threw my radio up on the beach and retreved my boat. Upon checking it out I found that I had not put a piece of tape over the apc adjusting hole and flooded the rear compartment. felt like a fool.. ]

[anonymous]

A colleague had an exciting

A colleague had an exciting weekend at a boat show this month. On the Saturday he had to strip down to his underpants. (The crowd liked this) to save his sunk sub.

On the Sunday with another sub, she sank but floating vertically mid-water. Very difficult. He eventually located her using motor noise monitored with one of my hydrophones and he managed to get the bow to the surface.

One happy crowd again and a relieved submariner!


My Webpage

[mr t]

i wonder if we drain

i wonder if we drain our local pond how many model submarines are at the bottom...?

[bob the builder]

Had a nice one yesterday....

I

Had a nice one yesterday....

I was almost ready to go after a successful and fun day showing my visiting father my model when I decided to settle the Nautilus in 14 feet of water, a simple static dive that I wanted to test the WTC integrity and radio strength with. Everything went well. The water was crystal clear and I could see her resting comfortably on the dark bottom (the new LED lights helped lots!).

Turns out that a large branch was arranged [ijust so[/i] so that when my model settled on it, the branch flipped and pinned her down.

Much was my chagrin when I commanded a blow and the only thing that came up was a few bubbles. Also turned out that my Propel was almost exhausted, and after a few minutes of futilue blowing, the Propel tank was empty.

Fortunately, I was already wet from snapping some pics of her in the water, and I dove in after her. She was just about ten feet off of a floating boardwalk, and I had no problems getting to her (although 14-16' of water was a bit intimidating to this rather amateur swimmer).

I pulled her free carefully and she popped to the surface like a rabbit out of its hole.

By this time a nice crowd had gathered to see what all the commotion was about.

How embarassing.