Boat recovery and Buoy placement at Social Sailing days
Thursday Social Sailing at Sovereign Waters
Article from social media by our member Peter Harris
For those interested in how we deploy and position our windward mark, we use our recovery boat as pictured with our buoy on deck and drive the boat directly into the wind until we are happy with the distance then simply pull on the attached cord the buoy comes off the boat the weights go to the bottom of the lake and position the buoy, then when racing is finished we simply wind the buoy back to the shore, another lovely turn out this morning with 11 boats taking part in the racing with honours again shared amongst the fleet , plenty of banter with plenty of laughs thrown in for good measure, with most of the boys joining in the Coffee catch up afterwards.
Last week we showed you how we positioned our windward buoy , this week we will show and explain a little more about our recovery boat, as can be seen in the video and photos the boat has 2 thruster motors mounted amidship they are controlled by a normal Flysky fi6 transmitter radio which has been configured to operate as a skid steer unit meaning the left toggle operates the port motor forward and reverse, same for the right toggle operates the starboard motor forward and reverse hence the boat is very manoeuvrable being able to turn 360 degrees in its own length,I built the boat and another club member Andrew Wilson provided the motor thrusters and also configured the Flysky radio to operate in skid steer mode (Very Clever Man) as can be seen in the video how we use the boat to recover a disabled boat should the need arise, so all in all we have a very versatile little craft, deploying our windward buoy then removing the front deck to become a recovery craft.