Show Notes
March is the time to check out the hard work of our scale division at the annual open house, coming to the San Diego Mission Bay Model Boat Pond on March 21st. Whether you build scale model boats or not, it's easy to appreciate the time, energy, and expertise required to make these detailed works of art take sail. We'll talk with Jeff Sparksworthy, VP of the San Diego Argonauts Scale Division, about scale models, his earliest nautical fascinations, the fate of hobby shops during the rise of online shopping, and how robotics students could become the future pond-goers here in San Diego.
We'd love fellow Argonauts to bring a friend, grandchild, or family member to the open house on March 21st from 8am-2pm PT at the San Diego Mission Bay Model Boat Pond.For an upclose look at the remarkable models Jeff mentions, head down to the free San Diego Nautical History Gallery & Museum at Liberty Station, located in the old command building at the intersection of Decatur and Roosevelt.
A very special shoutout this week goes to Rod Messinger for his work on the club dinghy during a busy time at the pond.
We appreciate you, Rod!For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!
More from San Diego Argonauts Radio
This week's episode has a little something for everyone! Remember that travel kit we talked about last episode? Let's find out how it fared on the recent trip up to Seattle. But the lion share of today's transmission is cold calling back-to-back DF-95 National Champion Brad Read to talk about how a pandemic workaround grew into Newport's growing boat fleet. Read shares some tuning tips, including lots of time on the transmitter, adjusting the headstay instead of the backstay, flatter sails, and learning about 'twist'. He also explains how to start a fleet that stays fun and how San Diego informed a lot of what's growing over in Rhode Island's radio sailing community. Big thanks to Brad for a great conversation and we hope to see him at the Mission Bay Model Boat Pond next year.
Traveling with everything you need to competitively sail your boat is not simple. This episode covers how to build a travel kit that gets your IOM or DF95 to the regatta ready to race. But first, we'll start with a recap of the US One Meter event in Sacramento. Then we go through the full kit, one piece at a time: hard cases, a board bag for the rig box, how to keep the bulb from moving, the handy kitchen tool recommended for cutting foam, and the spare parts you hope you don't need but should keep with you, just in case.
Check out this week's pond-cast episode from the shores of the Mission Bay Model Boat Pond during September's Soling 50 Championships. We'll hear from many Argonaut members and catch some live action sailing commentary. Big thanks to everyone who came out to the event and volunteered. We say it a lot, but we wouldn't be able to run things half as smoothly without the donated time of fellow sailors. We appreciate you! We'll talk a little about PRO duties, new members, and as always, go over our points racing results.
Join me for a practical walkthrough of RC sailboat maintenance across the DF-95, Odom, Soling, and IOM classes. We’ll talk all things chafe, corrosion, seized blocks and rudders, keel care, the importance of cleaning your goosenecks, and the routines that will help you make every race start. We also get into the products that help with routine maintenance most. Plus, we’ll do a quick recap of the August Mission Bay points races for the San Diego Argonauts!
This week, we sit down with longtime IOM legend and fleet promoter Steve Landeau to discuss how our radio sailing fleets are built and sustained. He talks about the importance of keeping an extra boat nearby to let people try them out, his move from the West Coast IOM scene to East Coast fleets, his work sourcing hard-to-get masts and parts, and which designs he recommends to newcomers. And as always, we'll wrap up with some results! This time from the Region 8 Traveler Weekend at Mason Park: 17 boats out for Saturday's fleet racing, followed by a fast-paced five-team team racing challenge.