Photo by Lee McKinzie
I arrived at the lake at about 9:00 am on Sunday in intermittent rain showers. I expected to see a small village of tents and umbrellas, all that could be seen of the Rookie Battle and the Rookies was the stakes and tape marking the pits! All right, because of the rain they are running a little late (they should have been here testing and working on boats!) D___ fair weather sailors! So after jumping the ditch (2 foot across and running water) and a walk to the shore, I settled in the car to read a book until everyone arrived.
10:00 came and went, 11:00 came and went! At 11:30, I decided that even if the combatants showed up, spectators would not, so… I went out in light rain and took down the posts and tape.
I looked at my boats in the back of the van, and looked at the 2 foot ditch flowing with water and the long distance across the lawn and down the hill and thought "if it were closer, I could test my new Warspite." Then I looked over at the 'real' boat launching area and thought "Well, no one is really using that and I can get real close to the water over there!"
I drove over to the launch area and launched the Warspite and eventually the Prince Eugen. By running my old VU along side the Warspite, I found the Warspite to be about 2 sec. slow. Turning was not very good for the Warspite (wide and about 15 sec. for a 360) , giving me two problem items to work on.
About this time, three cars drove into the parking area at the top of the hill. Ah Ha, the missing Rookies! I didn't know if they had seen me, although I had waved, so I drove the Warspite around to the front of the battle area and walked up the hill to the pit area. It was some of the rookies and now they did see me! Lee, Jeff and Glen had come to clean up the tape and posts, the battles for today had been canceled!
After talking for a little bit, they decided to come on down to the launch area and launch some of their own ships. Lee and Glen launched their QE and Nagato (Jeff didn't have his radio with him) and we got some more testing done! Lee's QE was even slower than mine, but it turned much better. Glen's Nagato ran very well and turned very well! I hit some rocks and sheared off the nubs of a dog bone, another weakness to look at! So, we spent the next several hours running the boats, talking and doing show and tells to each other. A very pleasant time was had by all.