Saturday, December 27, 2008

Missing link


Boat inner
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
Boxing day. A time for sales apparently. Public demand requires Debenhams staff to be in store at 6am to prepare for opening an hour later. What you need to buy from a department store at 7 in the morning is a mystery to me and will always remain so as I was still in bed. Even when a more sensible time of day had arrived I eshewed the retail opportunities on offer in order to attend the boat clubs Boxing day sail (Geddit ?)

Not knowing how many would bother to turn up I didn't take anything spectacular from the boat collection. A RTR Thunder Tiger fishing boat seemed to be just the thing - large and easy to sail. It's bright red too which makes it festive in my opinion. The battery had been charged overnight and so I expected to unpack the model and be on the water in a matter of minutes. This was not to be.

Thunder Tiger models are excellent with proper radio gear and speed controls. They even use standard jelly cell batteries. These are connected with a short lead with spade terminals on one end and a Tamya plug on the other. This lead is used on the end of the charger - which is where it was when I got to the water.

A kindly fellow club member lent me a set of AA cells in a pack which had the correct plug on the end so I did make it to the water and enjoyed a pleasant half hour tootling around the lake. The favour was repaid slightly as my fellow sailors boat needed a shove a couple of times as it kept cutting out.

By the time we'd finished a few more keen types had arrived. Sadly they had decided to bring yachts but forgotten to carry a bag of wind (not a problem with all the sprouts eaten the previous day you would have thought) as well. One had also managed to leave the receiver battery switched on too. Some people will never learn - motors are a good thing. As long as you remember all the wires that is !

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