Saturday June 28, 2008. It was a hot steamy day with early sprinkles at the park. The wind was swirling around the bowl shaped pond at about 5-10mph. Showing today were Captains Morris, Dick, Murphy, Scooter, Crunch, Doodah, Tom (now known as Die Hard), Will, and Crash. We had visitors to include James, prospective Captains Burk and Bob and their 90 something father/grandfather...wow. We hope to see them back again soon.

The Commodore gathered the club for a brief meeting today. With the inclusion of more and more members and various new boat types, safety was discussed. The club agreed to be more safety conscience and look out for each other and especially visitors. The club also agreed that it wanted to remain a club, but stay an informal club, with no dues, officers ...etc. The members agreed to sign “Hold Harmless Agreements” at the next club sail and the Club Commodore will keep them on file. All members will be required to sign an agreement. The club unanimously voted to drop the “Theater” pond as a alternating meeting place due to various reasons including: extremely poor launch facilities (an accident waiting to happen), dangers of hurting wildlife, too many children, the parking situation and generally poor sailing conditions. The “Vaughn Road” pond is the clubs’ home port for all regular future sails.

Capt. Murphy showed with a new toy, a twin 380 powered 18” Hydro. Unfortunately it also ran like a toy…it needs some serious work to get up on plane and take off! Capt. Morris showed with a new toy; a twin 550 powered 40” "Admiral” cat. It ran ok for a RTR, fairly scale like in speed.

Captain Doodah is making good progress on his Danvo built Crackerbox boat. It was definitely faster today. Capt. Murphy’s South Hampton tug finally got the power plant working the way it should…only problem now is those twin belt driven 380s are power hungry and the 7.2v battery pack gives out too soon. Capt. Scooter got his Chris Craft “Free Bird” overhauled with a new motor and ESC and it runs great now. Other boats showing today; Capt. Morris had his Atlantic Harbor Tug, Capt. Murphy also brought along the yacht “Ragtime”, Capt. Crash brought the P-88 “NAVY” crackerbox boat, the club workhorse tugboat “Belinda” and the Wilga floatplane.

The club also produced 7 Nirvana yachts and today it was Capt. Will who out skippered the rest of us in the races. Congrats to Capt. Will.

(For lots of good pictures/videos be sure to check out the RCGroups link on the Home page in the "links section". It is a lot easier to upload there and we can get a lot bigger pictures too. Be sure to register and join in the discussion there...let's show everyone we are a fun bunch of sailors.)

Saturday June 21, 2008. This was a non-meeting sail day that started as a test session but got a lot more fun. Capt. Doodah showed around 7:30am with his Crackerbox. He is still having problems with the new Danvo "Cracker Jax" boat. It is porpoising and the trim plates on this boat are made of ABS, glued on and not adjustable….not a good design at all. Motor power is also questionable....but the hatch design is better than the vac-u-cracker and things like motor, trim plates and even rudders can be changed...something to think about when choosing one of these boats. Capt. Tom and his lovely wife also showed early and the Capt. got in some more sail time with his new Nirvana. Capt. Crash brought both of his new Crackerbox boats, the tug and his Wilga float plane for her first flight since repairs following her….you know it….CRASH….a few months back. It took forever to find a motor mount for that plane…so he bought 2 just in case he loses one.

Capt. Murphy showed with his Nirvana, Tippecanoe and South Hampton tug. His tug has issues but we finally realized that the counter rotating props are working against each other. One is in forward the other is in reverse. No wonder he had no power, no reverse and could rotate in place. He needs to reverse one of the motor leads. Capt. Crash asked Capt. Murphy to take off, trim out and hand the Wilga controls to back to him, as Capt. Murphy flies several times a week and Capt. Crash flies once in a blue moon. Capt. Crash landed her softly and this worked great the 1st time….but the next time Capt. Murphy decided to do a low flyby before handing Capt. Crash the controls and clipped a bush on the island and spiraled her in. Luckily she fell into the water and not on the island and the damage is minimal and she will fly again very soon. “Belinda” got her first, and more than likely not her last air/sea rescue.

Soon after this we had several of the local flyboys to show. This was as a result of one of our visits to a flyboy meeting. We welcomed Capt. Morris as brought out his huge 12 meter sail boat and an Atlantic Harbor Tug. We also welcomed Capt. Dick who has a new Nirvana but didn’t bring it today. Visiting with them was James.

Capt. Morris took our first club video and I will try to post the link at RCGroups. We had a tug boat push off and Capt. Morris soon found that even the modified direct drive 1:1, 7.2v Astro motor with stock prop was no match for the stock 6v Bristol Motor and the 2.5:1, 55mm four blade prop of “Belinda”. We re-propped Capt. Morris’s Atlantic with a 35mm four blade and we went at it again. This was a very close match up but “Belinda” is still just a little stronger. Capt. Morris broke the coupler…in this battle so the Atlantic needed rescued.

Tug “Belinda” stayed pretty busy today…also rescuing a Nirvana after the batteries got too weak at distance to control her….that was a challenge due to the distance and old eyes. Rescue was done on the Crackerbox “Claim jumper” after she dropped her shaft.

Later Capt. Rudy (the same Rudy that had chased the Batman in the bass boat with his blue offshore V hull months ago) showed with a Black Jack 26 brushless….and a car full of planes. Capt. Crash absolutely was dying to see how the Crackerbox P-88 NAVY would do against someone and here was the 1st opportunity. Although the BJ26 was only in the water 30-60 seconds before it found the “Wall” it was long enough to see that the P-88 NAVY was faster than a scalded dog! No match...even from the stock BJ26…now to work out the over heating problems in her. The wall….Capt. Rudy temporarily lost signal while making the turn toward the wall and the boat went to wide open, rudder locked….not a good thing…as Capt. Crash can tell ya. Capt. Rudy will need to reprogram that boat to go to the off position when signal is lost…not wide open. Luckily again…the damage was pretty minimal to the two sponsons.

We now have a new sub-club within the club….2 members strong…”The Wall Bangers”…not a club you aspire to belong to!

So…today we picked up 3 new members and another Nirvana. Pretty good for a non-sail day!

(For lots of good pictures/videos be sure to check out the RCGroups link on the Home page in the "links section". It is a lot easier to upload there and we can get a lot bigger pictures too. Be sure to register and join in the discussion there...let's show everyone we are a fun bunch of sailors.)

Saturday June 14, 2008. Today was a first...only 2 Captains showed. A combination of heat, humidity, no wind and threatening weather was too much for most. Capt. Crash arrived early to test 2 new boats. He already had several tests on the brand new Cracker box boat P-88 "NAVY" when Captain Scooter arrived with his Nirvana and "Freebird". Capt. Scooter took some pictures of the new boats which are now on the web site.

Capt. Crash also tested another bass boat driven by none other than the "Joker". "Batman" should be on the look out as "Joker" is lookin for a "RUMBLE". Tug "Belinda" never left port today...a good thing. Today was a good day for electric boats but not so good for wind power, although the wind did start to blow a little by around 10:00am, which is when Capts. Crash and Scooter decided to pull out before a rain cloud arrived.

Saturday May 31, 2008. Today’s sail, even though we went to summer meeting times starting at 9:00am, was still HOT and humid…summer is here. We had a good turn out though. Present were: Capts. Scotty, Brian, James, Will, Crunch, DooDah, Tom, Ray, Murphy and Crash along with numerous guests and visitors.

We had 10 Nirvanas and various other boats to include the repaired “Batfisherman” and the repaired Cracker box “Claim jumper” as well as Captain DooDah’s brand new Cracker box “No Wind Situation”.

Rescue tug “Belinda” earned her keep making no fewer than 5 rescues to include both Cracker boxes: “Claim jumper” after she flipped in a turn, “No wind Situation” due to engine and radio problems and a couple of Nirvanas due to a rudder problem and one that snagged a buoy with its keel.

We also were visited by Jamie, President of the Prattville Flyboy Club. He brought one of his electric aircraft doing low flybys of the pond. We look forward to seeing him again.

Today belonged to Capt. Crash as he won the race with “War Eagle”. No Crashed boats to report on this sail so it was indeed a good one.

Saturday May 17, 2008. Today’s sail was another memorable event. The weather was once again perfect and we had a record 10 Nirvanas on the water. Members present were Captains Murphy, Crunch, Will, Scotty, Brian, James, Tom, Scooter, Ray and Crash. We also had other family members and guests to try out the boats.

Capt. Murphy showed off his new power plant in his South Hampton tug and the club had it’s first ever “Tug-O-War” between the “Belinda” and the “South Hampton”. The “Belinda” was too much for Capt. Murphy and the South Hampton… even with her 2 beautiful new belt drive motors.

The club also saw the first of the new Cracker Box race boats hit the water…and the wall…as Capt. Crash lived up to his name again. Only a couple of minutes into her maiden run the “Claim jumper” had a electronic speed controller (ESC) melt down, causing the throttle to stick wide open, then have loss of rudder control and T-bone the wall at full speed….ouch! Capt. Crash says she will repaired and be ready for round 2 at the next club meeting.

Sunday May 4, 2008. We were once again blessed with a perfect day to sail. We had a large turn out of both members and visitors as we sailed at the Vaughn Road Pond. Present today were Captains Blaze, Sunshine, Doodah, Crunch, Murphy, Scooter, Tom, Ray and Crash. The club brought out 8 Nirvanas, 3 other sailboats and various other boats.

Today we had another close encounter with a venomous serpent and a very bizarre encounter with a very large sea creature of an unknown nature that literally created quite a splash as it attacked and apparently tried to sink Capt. Scooters Nirvana. Capt. Tom sailed his new Nirvana “Ragtop” for the first time…and it sailed very well.

The racing was great and today it was Captain Crash and the “War Eagle” that took the honors. The rescue tug was called into duty as Elvis and the “Freebird” required assistance and Capt. Crash lived up to his name again when the stone wall jumped out and bit the Batfisherman on a high speed run causing significant damage.

Saturday April 19, 2008. Today we sailed at the Theater pond. The weather continues to be perfect, sunny, the mid 70’s with a gusty swirling 5-10 mph wind. We got an occasional gust that made sailing interesting. At one point the “War Eagle” was hit with a gust while running with the wind, took a nose dive and had her hull completely vertical with only the main mast, part of the keel and the rudder showing above water. It was quite a site as she popped back up, lay over on her side, and then righted herself. It was real fun sailing today.

Present were Captains Sunshine, Scooter, Murphy, Crash and Will. We had a lot of visitors to include Tom who has decided to join the club. We look forward helping him acquire the boat of his dream and can’t wait to have him join the fleet. The usual boats were present today to include 4 Nirvanas, Capt. Murphy’s Tippecanoe “Ragtime”, the rescue tug “Belinda”, the Batman driving his newly painted “Batfisherman” and Capt. Sunshine’s newly crewed Bristol Bay boat the “Motley Crew”.

Tugboat “Belinda” performed the day’s only rescue when Capt. Crashes straw hat went for a sail. That was a difficult rescue. Next we had a small copperhead, 3’ long and about thumb size in diameter come ashore at the launch site. Capt. Crash held down it with a pole, but didn’t have a means to kill the snake and it finally wiggled its way free to swim off to terrorize again some day.

Capt. Will finally got his new Nirvana into the water for its maiden voyage (a long story) and it turned out to be very fast, even winning its first race. Congrats go to the Capt. and boat with no name.

All in all another great club sail.

Sunday April 6, 2008. A very nice day. Captains Sunshine, Murphy, Scooter, Doodah, Crunch and Crash were all present and racing today, but it was Capt. Crunch’s day today as he lead the way with his beautiful “Black Hawk” Nirvana race yacht.

Capt. Murphy showed off his new Tippecanoe race yacht “Ragtime” and then proceeded to complete his maiden voyage with her. She sailed great…very fast and agile...and will be very competitive in the Open Class.

We had a few interested prospective sailors try out the boats and hope we see them again.

Saturday Mar. 22, 2008. Sunny, mid 70’s, 5-15 mph variable winds, it was a very, very nice day. We sailed at the Vaughn Road pond today after securing written permission from the City Parks and Recreation Dept. The consensus is everyone likes this pond better.

A great turn out today…8 Capt’s were present: Captains Scotty, Brian, Sunshine, Murphy, Scooter, Doodah, Crunch and Crash.

Capt. Crash helped Capt. Scotty assemble trim out and launch his new Nirvana for the first time. She was looking good on her maiden and Scotty said she sailed great.

Other boats (not Nirvana's) present were Capt. Doo-da’s Victoria “Kashmir”, Capt. Scooter’s Chris Craft “Freebird”, Capt. Crash’s bat bass boat…which ran great with a new motor, the Tug “Belinda” and the 18 gun schooner “Prince de Neufchatel” flying the dark flag.

No rescues today but Capt’s Murphy and Crash continue to live up to their names. Capt. Murphy broke a mast fitting again and Capt. Crash ran the schooner full speed, head on into the stone wall after a wind gust caught him by surprise.

The “Prince” did manage to entangle and capture one the Nirvana’s by running her bow sprit through the Nirvana’s back stay rigging and then sent a boarding party to look for booty….ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

We had several visitors and hopefully we will see them again soon.

Sunday Mar. 9, 2008. Sunny, low 60’s, light and variable winds, sounding like a broken record, but it was another very nice day. Present were Captains Sunshine, Murphy, Scooter, Doodah, Will and Crash.

Capt. Doodah launched his new Victoria “Kashmir” for the first time. She was looking good on her maiden, and will sail in the newly formed “Open Class” of sail boats until there are enough Vics to have a class of their own.

“Miss Titanic”, with Batman at the helm, tried a new hot 8.4V battery pack, motor and speed control but got a little too hot, cooking off that new motor after finishing a crowd pleasing run. It seems the motor cooling system is not up to par with the new higher voltage setup. Hey she didn’t Crash today!

The “Freebird” made her usual appearance, and only one rescue attempt was made after a Nirvana ran aground on the other side of the pond and ended up with the rescuer being rescued after the tug wrapped weeds around her prop in the shallow water next to the bank.

We once again had several visitors/possible new members sailing and hopefully we will see them again soon.

Sunday Feb. 24, 2008. Although the winds were at times non-existent, we were blessed with a very nice day today. Present were Captains Sunshine, Murphy, Scooter, Jim and Crash.

Capt. Jim, AKA Capt. Doodah, launched his new Nirvana “Miss Magic” for the first time. It sailed well and was one of the only boats not needing rescued today, which brings us to the tug “Belinda”.

Good ole “Belinda” performed flawlessly, sporting a brand new more powerful motor and another gear reduction unit. She is several times more powerful than ever before and needed every bit of that power today as she made a record 5 rescues…. 3 sailboats, Batman in the “Miss Titanic”, and Elvis in the “Freebird”.

“Miss Titanic”, with Batman at the helm, true to her name, took a wrong high speed turn and ended up on the rock ledge…only minor damage to her hull this time…a little more glue will be required to reseal the new cracks.

We had several visitors/possible new members sailing and hopefully we will see them again soon.

Sunday Feb. 10, 2008. Today’s biweekly club sail was held in 72 degree sunshine and a gentle 5-10 NW breeze. It was yet another stellar day for sailing. Present today were Capt’s Murphy, Sunshine, Scooter, Crunch, Blaze and Crash, all sailing Nirvana Racing Yachts. Our newest member, Capt. Blaze put her yellow Nirvana “Life’s a Breeze” through her shake down maneuvers and showed us all how to put together a proper sail protector. No wonder she was Admiral Chester Nimitz’s secretary! Capt. Crunch presented his newly painted “Black Hawk” Nirvana with black hull, white deck and yellow cabin; looking sharp there Capt.

Tugboat “Belinda” showed with an all new power plant, two man crew and lots of weathering. She looks the part of a working tug now. She went about setting up the race course and when finished, it was discovered that the new crew member/line handler aft, was MIA. The search party was unsuccessful… he was no where to be found; he was lost at sea on his first day out. I guess he should have been wearing a life jacket!

Capt. Murphy presented a cool race countdown CD, and we had some very hotly contested races; but it was to be the “War Eagle” and Capt. Crash’s day.

Upon return to port, it was discovered that the missing crewman was hiding down in the engine room….he was not lost at sea…he was shirking his duties! Captain’s Mast was held and the crewman was awarded 50 lashes, bread and water for 3 days, and loss of pay and liberty call for 2 weeks. He will have straighten his act up if he wants to remain a part of this crew!

We picked up another new member today…welcome Capt. Jim!

It was another great day of fun and camaraderie. The club continues to get bigger and better every day. Thank you everyone for making this a great club to be a part of!

Sunday Jan. 27, 2008. Well….where to start on today’s events? On a hunch that the weather was going to be perfect, which it was…Captain Crash placed an online ad in the “Montgomery Advertiser” about Sunday’s upcoming sail. The ad was almost instantly online and in print. As a result we had an enormous turnout at the park. WSFA TV was also notified and did a very nice interview and piece for the Sunday evening and Monday morning news. The Advertiser sent a photographer who took some nice photos which are now in the photo section here.

Present today were Captains George, Terry, Crunch, Sunshine and of course Crash. Capt. George managed to get in a maiden voyage on his beautiful new South Hampton tug. Tug “Belinda” was busy with her usual duties to include rescuing a ball that a little girl lost in the pond and a rescue of Elvis after his Chris Craft “Freebird” had engine problems.

A lot of folks got to try their hand at sailing and we had at least a half dozen commit to joining the club…the event was a huge success and we will try to do this a couple times a year.

Sunday Jan. 13, 2008. Today’s club sail was great. The weather was incredible. Captains Sunshine, George, Terry, Steve and Crash (formerly known as Slick) all sailed their Nirvanas today. We had a few potential new sailors also try their hands at sailing today. Tugboat “Belinda” was kept very busy with rescues and mark setting/retrieving duties. She even needed rescued herself after wrapping the tow line around her prop. Other boats making appearances today was Captain Terry’s pleasure craft “Freebird” and Captain Crash’s bass boat.

Tuesday Jan. 1, 2008. We had to cancel our rained out normal Sunday sail and move it to New Years Day…so this is the first sail for 2008. Today was another sunny southern day with temps in the upper 40s and winds N 15-25. Captain George was already sailing his yacht “Chubasco” when Capts. Sunshine and Slick arrived. Captain Terry showed with his re-propped Chris Craft “Freebird” and the new driver…favors Elvis a little if ya ask me. She is a beauty. Captain Tom and his grandsons, Captains Brian and James arrived and we put another new Nirvana through sea trials. Captain Crash tested a new prop on the tugboat “Belinda” and managed to do a “Titanic” on his new Pro fisherman Bass boat. It was a good day at the park.

Sunday Dec. 16, 2007. Today’s sail was interesting. The temperature was in the low to mid 40s with a cold gusty 15-25 mph NW wind. Captains Sunshine, Terry, Tom, Brian and James all stopped by for a while, but only Captain George and the Commodore got boats wet today. Tug boat “Belinda” set and retrieved the marks, and tested a new rescue device, while the racing yachts “Chubasco” and “War Eagle” tested their limits. Both Nirvanas’ did remarkably well considering the conditions.

“War Eagle” could have used some bow planes and a periscope after imitating a submarine (only the mast was showing above water) on several occasions when hit with a gust, while running with the wind. The watertight hatch did its job well. All in all it turned out to be a nice afternoon once the sun came out. No photos today…too bad…the submarine shots would have been classics!

Sunday Dec. 2, 2007. Another wonderful day to play. We welcomed Capt. Terry to the club and then brought his brand new Nirvana II to life. Capt. Terry brought a fleet to play with including a beautiful Chris Craft. Capt. George brought his shiny new black Nirvana II "Cubasco" to life today too. We now have a fleet of 4 Nirvana’s and hope to double that by the years end.

We had 5 others to try out the sailboats on this perfect day to sail. A gentleman from Scotland "Tom", visiting the pond with his two grandsons, now expects Santa to bring them some shiny new boats. I was amazed how quickly the youngsters mastered the fundamentals of sailing. Capt. Sunshine took photos and sailed today too.

The temp was in the mid 70’s with a nice southerly 5 – 15 mph breeze. It doesn’t get any better than that for these sailboats. Tugboat "Belinda" performed her duties of mark setting and retrieval without a hitch. No boats needed rescued this time….highly unusual.

Thursday Nov. 29, 2007. We are now an Official Nirvana Fleet. We are listed as Nirvana Fleet #8 in the Fleet Listing section at Model Sailing Center which is in the link section in the column to the left.

Sunday Nov. 25, 2007. Today’s sail was postponed due to bad weather forecasts. We are moving it to Dec 2nd and moving the sail day on Dec 9th back to Dec 16th and adding Dec 30th as the last club sail day of 2007. We have received communiqués from several prospective new members and hope to see you soon.

Sunday Nov. 11, 2007. It was another spectacular day for sailing in Montgomery Alabama. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! We had 5 or 6 visitors try out the sailboats today. They all had fun and said they couldn’t believe how easy it is to sail one of these boats. Tug boat “Belinda” earned her keep as she rescued the fishing trawler “Bristol Bay” after a power failure, the “War Eagle” as she ran aground and the racing yacht “Crimson Tide” after she set sail with out being powered on. The later was the most interesting as the tug had to chase down the fast run away yacht, turn her toward shore where she beached herself out of harms reach and then snag and drag her back to port with the tow line. It was a very enjoyable day and one that will be remembered.

Saturday Nov. 10, 2007. The Hamfest/RC Expo went well with several prospective new members showing interest in the club. It was also fun to visit with old friends from the RAMM Model Airplane Club.

Sunday Oct. 28, 2007. Another picture perfect day for sailing. We had a good turnout and lots of fun for all. Even guard dog Missy Lou had fun.

Sunday Oct. 20, 2007. It's official! We became American Model Yachting Association (AMYA) Club #259 today.

The Founding Members are:
Robert Franklin
Belinda Franklin
George Arauz

Sunday Oct. 14, 2007. We had a nice sail with a couple of Nirvana II race yachts, the schooner "Prince de Neufchatel" and the tugboat "Belinda" on the pond. It was a perfect day to sail.