CMBC'S REMARKABLE REGATTA, June 11& 12, 2005

                                                By The Lively Observer

 

      Despite Saturday morning downpours which threatened the arrival of Hurricane Arlene, our Regatta boaters has a surpassingly good time at Shipp's RV center June 11 and 12. I counted 62 boats -static, running scale, and racers, both gas and electric. I believe I counted 42 modelers, and this included several wives, a nice addition.  Our modelers came from Atlanta, Illinois,  Chattanooga, and a number of surrounding areas.

      Highlights in no particular order:

          Stu Kerrn and wife Lorry of both the St. Louis Admirals Club and our own CMBC came in from Morton, Illinois, carrying these 4 superb models:

          The 4 foot "Fritz," a finely detailed tug kit-bashed from the kit of "Envoy" (3rd place, Scale competition),

          The side-wheeler "Lorry J,"

          The "Imara," a 50", 70 lb super tug, an instant eye-catcher and prize winner. This big tug, packed with detail, requires 2 people to transport and launch and retrieve. (2nd place, Scale competition),

          The beautiful little Clyde puffer "Glasgow." 

       From the Atlanta Club came:

           Doug Smock and son Casey Smock. Doug brought a finely engineered free-lanced retrieving vessel, the "Underdog." This 42" twin-pontoon rescue vessel features a large  cradle net  positioned between the 2 pontoons. An electrically operated hydraulic arm raises and lowers the cradle. This vessel is Doug's own invention. He built this remarkable boat, working almost non-stop on it, in a single week.

          This Regatta had 2 rescue boats on Shipp's pond, as Lee put in his "Cricket," and the two boats, Underdog and Cricket, ran side-by-side briefly, perhaps silently comparing notes.

From Paul Bobert:

            His beautifully free-lanced 1890's American battleship "Calla."

        From Syd Wood:

            His large static "USS Constitution (won this regatta's First Place prize in Static Competition)

            His torpedo-firing Kreigsmarine WW II submarine. Syd has engineered the bow of this Krick kit sub to fire 4 compressed air-powered torpedoes. They have fired well and run straight and true in several test runs.

            His H.M.S. "Bounty."

            It was also nice to once again see Syd's grandchildren Ryan, Tyler, and Sara Davis of Harrison, who came out to visit with our Regatta folks.

         From Dan Hostetler:

              His Two foot "Titanic"

              "USS Constitution'' which won 2nd place prize in Static competition,

             "Bismarck," from a Revell kit

             "Captain Kidd," which Dan built in his spare time at Unum Provident Life and Accident in Chattanooga. We also thank Dan for taking the vast number of photos of this Regatta for our CMBC club. Dan's photos will provide a valuable record of this regatta, for we will probably will never see some of these boats all together again for some time, if ever.

         From Lee Reynolds:

             His fishing trawler "Hellen," which he ran in the navigation course,

             His rescue pushboat "Cricket," which is celebrating its 10th year running on the water this year of 2005.

         From Andy Morrison:

             His steam tugboat "J.P. Hughes"

         From Bruce Zeller:

             His static "Santa Maria,"

             His "HMS Bounty," which won 3rd place prize in Static Competition,

             His "L'Erigone," the antique static French frigate which Bruce rescued and restored to beauty.

         From Jay Parsons:

              His immaculate mahogany Italian speedboat, "Sea Fog," a marvel of detail and beauty. Possibly unnoticed by some because of the large number of contestants, this boat is a superb example of Jay's model-building ability. As far as I'm concerned, Hope Diamond, take a back seat to Jay's "Sea Fog."

         From Bill Grey:

              Bill's ageless 50-year-old tugboat which he built when a boy of only 12. This tug still looks superb and it runs as good as it looks.

         From Earl Edmonds:

              His Vac-U-Boat tugboat and barge.

         From Buddy Parks:

              His fine Chris Craft runabout,

              His monohull,

              His large Chris Craft cruiser

 

There were certainly other boats at this remarkable regatta which I simply was not able to list or describe, among them Bruce Zeller's sailing yacht, and someone else's sailing yacht. Regarding the racing boats, they were there in abundance - probably 25 or more. I could not describe them all, but they were there.

         Continuing on: Phil Pace from Atlanta brought and displayed his outstanding line of vacuum-formed boats: his Vac-U-Tug, Vac-U-Tow, Vac-U-Duck, and his latest, Vac-U-Cracker (crackerbox racer) . This crackerbox is hot off the presses and is so new that Phil has built only 10 so far. He brought 2 to the regatta for display and possibly to run. The Vac-U-Cracker features a vacu'ed 305 Chevy V8 engine positioned correctly and a double-shark fin skeg, the correct configuration used by the real crackerboxes.

        Phil's super-neat full size mallard duck looks so real in the water that "people throw bread to it ." Check this out: you can order either a male or a female duck from Phil.

                              "YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS AN ICEBERG"

        Phil brought and ran an 8 foot "Titanic" built of styrofoam and with paper towel tube funnels, the sum total of which weighs only 40 pounds. A good outline ship, Phil drolly calls it "Stand WAY-off Scale." It cruises smoothly and easily in the water and turns on, if not a dime, an easy half dollar. It is highly maneuverable. And yes, Virginia, there is an iceberg. At numerous times, these fun-loving Atlanta folks hold a "fun run" for the area's young cancer patients. They put a 3 foot RC iceberg in the water and let the kids try to hit it with Phil's "Titanic." Every kid who hits the iceberg gets a prize. Now is that neat? You bet your other shirt it is.

       Again from these friendly Atlanta folks: Ken Osborne, originally from London, England, and still retaining that wonderful British accent, brought and ran his free-lanced passenger freighter "Adelaide" (?), 57 " long and very realistic in the water. It's prototype is the "Port of Adelaide," which is an Australian port. This boat is 1/100th scale, which, as Ken explained, "is inch equals 100 inches."   

       Again from Ken, a WW II  British minesweeper (a Caldercraft kit), the 32" long "Sir Kay.' "Sir Kay" is named after one of King Arthur's Knights of the round Table.

       Ken brought and displayed an ocean-going Dutch tugboat, the "John Morgan," named after Ken's grandsons.

       And in my opinion, Ken's masterpiece, the superbly-weathered herring fishing boat, the "Emily Lou."  This vessel is built from plans blown up from Constructo's "Ladysmith." The original "Ladysmith" is ca. 1930 and sailed out of its home port of Grimsby, England. Ken's "Emily Lou" is named after the country singer "Emily Lou Harris."

                                           "CANNON JUICE"

       And now up from Atlanta came Chris Gierszewski's crowd-pleasing, prize-winning "Lady Love," a 32" square-rigged brig, and what a rig she be. This flag-raising, cannon-firing marvel sails by wind and prop both. Here was Chris's "lady Love" show:

       Out of port (Shipp's side channel) boldly sails the Lady Love, flying the stars and stripes. Twenty feet out, down come the stars and stripes and up rattles the black and bones Jolly Roger.   Lady Love abruptly hauls about and approaches the crowd, her cannons menacing. BOOM! roars the cannon (talcum powder) over and over. Now Lady Love sails into the channel, tacks, turns, and heads back out. Down rattles the Jolly Roger and  up runs the stars and stripes.  Lady Love makes a saluting pass at the crowd and fires the last salvo of her talcum powder. ("Out of cannon juice" grins Captain Chris). Lady Love sails majestically back into port while the crowd claps and cheers. "Lady Love won the "Captain's Choice" award for Captain Chris Gierszewski. Syd Wood's excellent static "Bounty" won second, and Bruce Zeller's fine static "Bounty" won third.

 

  DRIBBLING THROUGH A MINEFIELD

       Now we come to the navigation course. Jay Parsons did a super job of hosting and helping all hands who attempted the conning course. If one can imagine dribbling a basketball through a minefield and emerging unscathed, he will get an idea of what this course was like. The layout involved running one's boat untouched between pylons bobbing well offshore: first 2, then 4, then crossing a T, then between 3, missing the 2 and hitting the third, BACKING OUT the same way, dodging 2 more, then nesting home into a narrow channel at the dock. A few  folks made it look .. well, not easy, but they did it. Top Dribbl...CONNER was Andy Morrison who didn't hit a single pylon. Next and winning second place was Casey Smock (he won 1st place last year), and Dave Amstutz placed a nice third. Wind, rain, and one's own wake (an unexpected factor) all contributed to the difficulty of this course. A real tip of the hat to patient, helpful Jay Parsons, and to Buddy Parks, who also assisted and who made and helped place the cement-filled coke bottles which secured the bobbing, twisting pylons. My own personal thanks also to Bill Grey, who helped me immeasurably from time to time in helping me launch and retrieve my "Hellen.'

      Also seen attending and enjoying the CMBC Regatta were , in no particular order, Virgil Messer, Steamboat Bill Levy, Bill Denes, Barry F. Smith, and George Driese. George helped President Bruce register participants early Saturday morning when showers appeared inevitable. The showers left about mid-day, and the rest of the day of June 11 turned rather pleasant. Wind, rain, and mud damped only the ground in this remarkable CMBC Regatta. Everybody's spirits remained high and in my opinion, this Regatta was, on both days, a resounding success.  Major thanks to the long-term efforts of Dave Amstutz, Bruce, Jay,

Buddy, and Dan for putting this regatta together long ago and seeing it through to the success it certainly was. And thanks to all the nice folks who traveled many long and weary miles to Shipp's to participate and made this such a wonderful and memorable show.       

 

CMBC's REMARKABLE REGATTA, Day 2, June 12, 2005

   

      Sunday, June 12th, 2005, the second day of CMBC's Remarkable Regatta broke sunny and clear. In a last fling of temper, the tailwinds of departing Hurricane Arlene blew the conning tent over and set it upside down in Shipp's pond. Another gust later caught a similar tent and blew it into our line of waiting cars, narrowly missing Earl Edmonds.

      Today was Race Chairman Sonny Holder's day in charge. He, his wife Pat, and Billy Sims kept the races going smoothly and on time. Monty Boling obtained a new crackerbox racer via Lee, and  racer Billy Sims offered a well-built Hellen lacking only motor and electronics for $100.00.

      A memorable sight occurred when Chairman Sonny Holder made a WW II aircraft carrier get up and plane in the water. It almost rooster tailed. The Battle of Midway in June, 1942, would have been an even greater disaster for Japanese Admiral Yamamoto if Sonny had been in charge of our Pacific fleet. Those Mitsubishi Zeros would never have had a chance.

      Another memorable sight occurred when 9 crackerbox racers lined up and raced together. That is the largest number of crackerboxes this observer has ever seen race at one time. There was no scrambling of frequencies. And seven of those crackerboxes crossed the finish line right side up.

       I wish to thank Sonny Holder for diagnosing the rudder problem my Hammer incurred during the 3rd Hammer heat, and grateful thanks to Billy Sims for fixing it.

                                 KANGAROO ON BENZEDRINE

      Carey Bowles, from Atlanta ran a silver racer which jumped and thrashed in the water like a kangaroo on Benzedrine. The torque this Silver Wildcat generated could have turned over a seized truck engine. The Silver Wildcat did not finish its race, but it provided moments of real excitement when it thrashed at will across the pond upside down, indifferent to its position, cart wheeling over and over ENDways (not sideways), and never slowing down nor breaking stride.

 

 COPS AND A PICKUP

       More excitement occurred about 2 p.m. when police stopped a blue pickup on Interstate 75 North in direct sight of our pond. Nick von Wesserwitz (sp?) saw the driver break away from custody, jump the tall metal fence, and run frantically in our direction in an effort to escape.  He passed within 50 feet of us and made his way into the deep woods behind our encampment. Two squad cars quickly arrived, but it's believed the fellow crossed over the line into Georgia and may have gotten away. He may have picked up the wrong pickup.

      All in all, Day 2 of the CMBC Regatta of 2005 was as enjoyable and successful as Day 1. If Hurricane Arlene threatened us with bad weather early on, she made up for it later by bringing our Chattanooga Model Boat Club 2 days of excitement, new friendships made, old friendships renewed, and super memories for all of us of one of the best regattas ever.

       Smooth sailing to all,

       Lee Reynolds
       confederatesub@yahoo.com
       www.leeworks.addr.com