Back on the water

After almost seven months of no RC-Sailing at all, I took my DragonForce back to the water.

Due to my back-hernia and my play role as Judas in Jesus-Christ-Superstar this Easter, no spare time for sailing was available.

After removing all the dust and repairing the items that were broken in the UK-Open 2014 (!!), I went on sunday morning for a training session with Tjakko at the Valkenburgse meer.
First hour I spend to get the feeling back and adjust the trim to match the speed of the 180.
The new A-rig of cat-sails perfomed very well and after two hours of fiddling around with all the trim possibilities, the speed was back.
Only the batteries needed to be replaced, so the order at rc-zeilen.nl was quicly placed.

Next sunday (26-04-2015) the match test will be at the Friesland Bokaal in Leeuwarden. An open RG65 venue.

 

ZwarteMagica NED-26

 

RG65 and Dragon Force UK Nationals 2014

After returning from a interesting venue with my Dragon, I have to say that Dragonforce65 is a very good performing RC-Sailboat.

The results of the Open RG65 class:

1. Agustin Moreno – ARG-77
2. John Tushingham – GBR-51
3. Mark Dicks – GBR-06
4. Tobi Laux – SUI-161
5. Cliff Thiel – GBR-02

We didn’t manage to be at the price ceremony due to the fact that we had to catch our ferry back home again.
Buzz Coleman (GBR-12) won the Dragon Event. He was flying. Making hours on the water with this new design really payed off.
I came as 13th overall. Not bad for the first time, still at the top half 😉

A real difficulty I found was to get the trim right. But that’s just the trick of the game.
And so my conclusion of this venue is that the Dragonforce65 is a VERY GOOD one-design class that put sailors really to the test!

A little note to Dragon Sailors: please order a set of spare Sail winches and masts… they tend to break easily under the stress of a full event.

YouTube Report

If there is a possibility to organize the Euro Champs in the Netherlands in 2015, It should be a separate fleet event: Open RG65 and Dragonforce65.
Thing was that in a one fleet event with HMS (4 up / 4 down) and a A group with 9 OpenRG’s and 6 or 7 Dragons, the Dragons almost every time had the last 4 spots. That puts good sailors in a Dragon a lot of times in a switch from A to B to A to B etc.etc.

I hope the Dragons will get a Dutch winter competition this year (Who will organize this??????) that involves a lot of newcomers and experienced sailors.

Tjakko – NED180

Marcel – NED26

Rob – NED19

 

UK RG65 and DragonForce65 Nationals preparation

For preparation on the UK RG65 and Dragon Force 65 Nationals at Weecher Reservoir in Yorkshire over the 7th/8th of June,
we’re having a training session at KZC Rotterdam on Sunday 1st June from 11:00 till 16:00.

For a close look at the UK Nationals location

As for now three competitors from the Netherlands will compete with the DragonForce.

Update:

The training session last sunday was realy a light weather training.
There it showed that a DF65 is not very happy with light winds.

 

So one of the issues is that the material of my VAM A-Rig is not flexible enough for the very light winds.
That led me to make my own ICAREX-Dutch Orange A-Rig.
I hope that it works well (as it does on my Micromagic in light winds with the VAM-Icarex A-Rig).

Meet & Greet the DragonForceRG65

Today was the first Meet & Greet day with the Dragon in the Netherlands.

After a very positive publication in the magazine “Zeilen” of this month, we expected some interest.
Some 20 persons attended this day. Also Rudi of RCZeilen.nl was present with his mobile shop.
The general opinion was that this class can become very big if the marketing would be ok.
Also the fact that a complete full-rigged (A-B-C-rig) DFRG65 only would set you back some € 350,- was a surprise !!

See the Video on Youtube

 

First RG65 Winter Competition Venue

Today my first Dutch RG65 Winter competition was sailed.

It was held again in the harbour of Blokzijl.
The wind conditions were expected to be around force 4Bft.
But as always this didn’t was the case when I arrived with my DragonForce RG65: FLAT water and almost NO wind…..

And when you have to sail against Open RG’s with a Dragon you know you’ll have a tough struggle in front of you.
This was indeed the case and after the first 4 races it was clear that I couldn’t keep up with the top 8 boats.I found out that my A-Rig material was a little too rigid for very light air.

Perhaps a Icarex sail could do the trick as with my Micromagic?
@Victor: Any suggestions??

But luckily after lunch the wind came (2-3 Bft) and the Dragon picked up speed.

I even finished second in a race after leading the whole stretch, just to be caught before the finish line when my Dragon hit a doldrum (again)

So in a recap: the search for speed resulted in a straight up mast position, loose main and jib, almost no tension on the rig and the battery pack alongside the fin box.
In the end I finished 6th as first Dragon 🙂

After the races I asked a specialist what could be done to speed up the Dragon in light air?
He proposed to change the keel fin in a thinner one , change the keel bulb to a 500/600gr. one, get a high aspect full 0,225 rig.
This would do a lot in light air. All fine but then it could only compete with the Open RG65’s and not in a DragonForce Restricted rules class.

I wont’t change all those items on my Dragon. But when I’m ready to perhaps switch hulls (after a year or so) a ICE or Wedge or Pocket Rocket or Gospectre650 could be one of the candidates.

But for now: let’s fly Dragon!!!!!

A Wing Sail on a Dragon.

I found an interesting video of a winged-Dragon

Perhaps this fits into the OpenRG65 rules?

Here’s the link to the forum thread with more info

Open Dutch RG65 Championship in Blokzijl

In a very nice scenery of the old inner harbour of Blokzijl, the 2013 RG65 championship was held.

With this year the introduction of the RG65-DragonForce. In a field of 24, 10 Dragons were present.
The big challenge this year was the strong and shifty wind (force 5, with gusts 7).
And of course, would the Dragon be able to stay in touch with the other Open RG65’s.

The fleet of 24 was randomly divided into two groups. Both groups had to sail an olympic course.
And at the same time over two separate courses. After 4 races the groups switched courses for the next four races.
To surprise of all Open RG65 Sailors, the Dragons performed above expectations.
After the first 8 races, Tjakko with the 81 (B-rig) was in first position and the 26 (A-rig and after some damage B-rig) in second position.
On the 4th place was the first demo-Dragon (thanks to Rudi of RCZEILEN.NL).

The best sail suit for the first part of the day was B-rig. Even with this rig a nose-dive in big gusts were seen a lot.
After the lunch the complete fleet was divided into two groups: Gold and Silver (12-12).
Now the wind was eased up a little so the OpenRG’s had a little advantage, but still the Dragons performed very well.
Tjakko did sail a few first places seconds and thirds. So our expectation was that a BIG surprise was in the air!
My boat did suffer some damage with a broken mast stub of my B-rig and a drowned sail winch……..

This just before the start of the first afternoon race.
So I had to resign from competition 😦
I think a will look for a quality alternative for the standard sailwinch…….

Also 8 races were sailed in the afternoon and we all headed to the local pub for the end results.
1st place: NED99 – Norbert Horsthuis (openRG)
2nd place: NED64 – Dirk Jorna (openRG)
3rd place: NED81 – Tjakko Keizer (DragonForce)

The local television station also did a report on the event
(http://www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/default.aspx?nid=174189&cat=1)

The final conclusion we could make of this day was that: THE DRAGON HAS ARRIVED!!!

I hope that this event was the start of a good integration between the two versions of the RG65.

Dragonforce RG65 training day at Rotterdam Kralingen KZC.

Finally a moment of testing the Dragon.

Together with the NED-81 of Tjakko flat water light wind conditions.

Before taking them to the water some rough setting up was done.

This with the experience of the Micromagic and other classes.

At least that’s what I thought….

It resulted in the NED-81 sailing circles around me L

The boat felt if I had to drag it through the water and around the corners dragging an Anker along.

Back to the drawing board.

The conclusion was obvious: way to much tension on the rig, mast to much backwards etc etc etc.

This Dragon needs to have a loose skin in light wind conditions.

So here are the settings I applied to the NED-26:

Rig:	VAM – A
Windspeed	1- 2 Bft / shifty
Water surface	flat
Water type	fresh
Event	Training with NED81
	Rotterdam Kralingen KZC
	19 oct 2013
close hauled settings:
Jib
Twist spreader height 1st batten Main	17,5mm
Twist measured between lifting cord and sail
Jib boom offset	6,4mm
Luff tension	easy
Camber at boom	17,5mm
Main
Twist spreader height 2nd batten Main	25mm
Twist measured between backstay and sail
Main boom offset	2,5mm
Cunningham tension	easy
Camber at boom	15mm
Distance top eye backstay to top mast	970 mm
Result:	Light easy acceleration
	Good pointing ability
Comments	Change Jib-deck cord to smaller diameter
	Fixate Mainsheet ring!!!

 

The result was clear: the same pointing ability and speed as the NED-81.
Light on the rudder and accelerating fast in a small breeze J

I think we can enter the Dutch Champs RG65 next week.

 

For more picture, check the facebook page