Boat Preparation The DF 65 comes in a box with the hull fully fitted but before you put it on the water there are things you meed to do. Waterproofing. I put a little 5 minute epoxy around all the screw eyes on the deck to make sure they are completely sealed. You can also fit a sticky back plastic sheet on the bottom of the hull around the fin box. I am not sure if this has any impact on performance but as I found on my last DF95. when the fin box started cracking at the b

I have tested, spinnaker cloth, wool, strips of silver fabric used as warm blankets after marathons and finally concluded that there is nothing better than a piece of wool. I wanted to prove Craig Richards wrong but yet again I have to agree with him. To quote someone at the last DF TT, "Hse is annoyingly good". On a recent visit to a garden centre, I found the perfect black wool, three strands but very light, ideal for tell tales. With a quick spray of Fly Float the woole

Subtitle - Finally a win for the author against Craig Richards, described by one competitor as annoyingly good. Southport, UK — Competitors arriving for the DF Traveller Trophy weekend at West Lancashire Sailing Club (WLSC) were greeted by a familiar companion: relentless February rain. For many, the journey north on Friday was a tour of Britain’s saturated landscape, with flooded fields stretching across Oxfordshire and the Midlands. By the time sailors reached Southport, t

https://www.sail-world.com/news/293281/British-thoughts-on-the-IOM-Worlds-in-Gladstone?source=email

One of my winter experiments has been exploring the various switches and dials on my transmitter. If you’ve read my earlier posts, you’ll know I’ve used the dial to fine‑tune the upwind sheet angle, a switch to ease the sheet by 5–10 degrees, and the sheet stick to shift between high mode, VMG mode, and low mode. The aim was to find the optimal setup. My usual approach has been to set the sheets fully in with both the switch and dial in their “in” positions. As I sail, I the

This time we shot the video of 54 in calm conditions but it is an interesting study in how the rig works. I am learning a lot about setup and sailing from this video. Lessons learnt, Slower tacking, ease sheets in puffs, total concentration. Bear in mind some of this video was taken with me based up to 100 yards away. Hence the hitting of the mark. Again my thanks to Iain May and his camera cat for the footage. Drifting at Gosport

When I sailed dinghies it was great to get in a motor boat and follow you own boat to see how it looked and how the rig was working. That wasn't so easy in radio sailing until now. Iain May and his team have developed a camera cat which is producing some wonderful footage of One Metres. Here is a segment of the footage with the camera cat following my boat at Gosport. One person is in charge of driving the boat and the other in charge of the stabilised camera on it. Enjoy

Here is the link to the article I recently posted in Yachts and Yachting in the build up to the 2026 worlds https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/292655/IOM-Worlds-2026-Runners-and-Riders-Part-2

Before I started this article, I though I better look up the definition of the world cant. Here is what I found: hypocritical and sanctimonious talk, typically of a moral, religious, or political nature. (Not helpful) denoting a phrase or catchword temporarily current or in fashion. (also not helpful) have or cause to have a slanting or oblique position; tilt. (Bingo, that helps) I got a bit worried when I saw the first two definitions and thought I had been using the w

Thank you to all those who bought a coffee or 5 during the year. It really does help to cover the subscriptions and thank you to all for reading and supporting this web site. Your feedback and comments make it all worth while. If anyone has ideas for additions to the web site please let me know. My focus in the new year will be helping with the organisation of the IOM worlds in May 2026 and you may have seen my articles in Yachts and yachting over the last couple of month

Falling participation in full sized sailing   In a recent post by the Royal Yachting Association introducing their “reflections on the water survey”, they started by saying and I quote, “Sailing and boating in the UK are at a crossroads – participation is in decline”.    Maybe this is true in other countries as well.  But not every aspect of participation is falling.  Radio sailing is thriving and attracting Olympians, dinghy and keelboat international champions and even some

Another great season passes by. Not one of my best but there were successes and I have learnt so much about how RC boats work. I still have weaknesses in my basis sailing skills, eg getting off the start line and managing crowded mark roundings. Missing out on the worlds was a disappointment but I am getting a lot of satisfaction out of planning the event. If the wind plays ball I think this could be one of the best events ever but then I am bias. Key highlights for me wer

Last weekend the above event took place in the Chelford Village Hall, Macclesfield. A fantastic venue with so much space in the main hall, a massive kitchen and large bar area. The Northern location brought a fair number of puntes to the jumble sale and AGM and it was a great opportunity to stock up on sails, fittings, boats etc For those that were unable to make it, here is what you missed. First the jumble and I walked around with a camera just to give you a flavour of wh

Conditions can be rough at Datchet   A competitor said to me last weekend, “I learnt more in 3 months of radio sailing than 30 years racing a dinghy”.  There will be nowhere better to extend your learning of racing than by watching the best in the world demonstrating their skills in a week-long championship in a stadium like setting.  We will have a full entry of 84 boats for the event next year with many reserves and all visitors will be welcome.      If you are a dinghy or

It's a pleasure to work with a beautifully engineered boat with a unique design. The deck layout is clean and well through through. The boat was easy to put together and when fully rigged looks good with whatever rig. The extremely helpful rigging guide provided details on mast rake, foot depth, leach twist, sheet angles, everything you could want for a setup that delivers speed. I am reminded of my Britpop where Brad Gibson offered the same level of detail. If ever the

Over the last several days I sailed 3 different boats. The DF 95 at the Cock of the Millpond in Emsworth on Saturday, The Marblehead at the newly established Littleton sailing club for the Mermaid Trophy on Sunday, the IOM at Gosport for a morning of club racing on Tuesday, then a morning at Emsworth on Thursday and finally the open at Chipstead. Emsworth, DF95 Cock of the Millpond The Mill Pond at Emsworth is the perfect venue for racing when the wind is not blowing off the

The season is nearly over so the focus is moving onto winter training, building second A and B rigs for the VISS and getting to grips with my transfer away from Futaba and Spectrum transmitters to Radiomaster. I love the new sails that came with the VISS. The latest cloth is a great improvement and it is easy to reduce any creases caused by contacts to a barely noticeable. I am getting used to the boat slowly and have to say it is a different beast to sail than the Proteus.

This is a test article for Yachts and yachting.   Datchet Radio Sailing are hosting the biggest event of the radio sailing world in May next year, the IOM World championships.  Competitors from 20 plus countries will participate and the spectacle of the best in the world racing is not to be missed.  This is the first of a series of articles that provides background on the sport in the build up to the event.    There are some in sailing who regard radio sailing as sailing toy

As one of the organisers for next years worlds, I would like to ask if any of you reading this would like to volunteer for a day, a few days or the whole event. We have a healthy number of volunteers but it would be really nice to have more so we can give people breaks to watch the best skippers in the world fight it out on the water. There are plenty of roles. Here are a few: Equipment inspection Powerboat duty - if you have a powerboat 2 qualification you would be most w

I have spent the last two years learning about designs, fin and bulb angles, rigs, transmitters and all things radio sailing, and whilst it was a great learning experience I have taken my eye off the ball on the basics of my sailing. A Marblehead meeting last weekend brought it home to me. I set the boat up with the swing rig, shut off the GISMO and just focussed on sailing. The wind was variable but reasonable in direction providing a wonderful course up and down in front