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After charging up the batteries, hooking up the servos, and getting the servo polarity right, it was time for sea trials. I chose a mild day to go out to a nearby marina and launch the boat from the boat ramp:
The first thing I noticed was that the Wild Cat had a lot of leeway. She skidded about over the water. The next thing was she didn't care to tack. She will if you get up enough speed, but at low speeds she stalls, goes into irons, and falls off back onto the old tack. All well known characteristics of cats I guess. But with a little breeze she moves right along.
I have modified my Wild Cat by adding some more keel in the water. The leeway is reduced and I seem to be able to head up higher into the wind. The photo below shows the modification I made. Sure doesn't look very salty, but it sails better.
One day I took Double Trouble ( as I'm starting to think of her) out to small river / large creek close to where it empties into the ocean. What I learned:
1. Tidal current and low wind means loss of control of the boat.
2. Floating weeds can get caught on the keels and you are dead in the water.
3. Always sail upwind, so if you lose control, maybe the boat will come back your way.
4. Never sail in a river unless there's an easy way across.
5. Always make sure you have access to the shore anywhere your boat might go.
A lot of things can go wrong, so choosing a good sailing venue is important. I explored around where I live and thought I had found a good place. It was a saltwater duck pond, shore access was good , there were no floating weeds, and it was fairly shallow. I chose a medium breezy day (maybe 10 knots max) to try it out.. I launched and sailed upwind. Everything was going great. Double Trouble was really flying and I couldn't help thinking that this day made all the work worth it. I was on starboard tack, moving fast, when all of a sudden the starboard hull was 4 or 5 inches out of the water! In my younger days I liked nothing better than flying a hull on a Hobie Cat, but of course I almost always ended up capsized. So I was both thrilled and panicked when the hull came up. I immediatley headed up to pinch into the wind, but nothing happened, the boat just kept going over - splat - capsized. I realized I had done a dumb thing; one hull up means one rudder up too! What I should have done is free the sheets instantly ( I was hard into the wind so the sheets were in tight). If I had done that, the wind would of spilled and she would have flopped back down on the water. So, if you get one of these cats, now you know what to do if you fly a hull. This capsize cost me all the electronics in the boat - batteries, servos, radio. But the worst part was wading through at least a foot of duck you know what to retrieve the boat.
BTW, servos and radios and all things RC are available from HiTec.
On a completley different tack, in hanging out with RC sailboat people, I noticed they all had some sort of cradle to hold their boats when they are out of the water. They really need something like this because with one long keel they just fall over. Wild Cat sits nicely on her two keels and two rudders, but I got tired of rigging the boat on the hood of my car. I wanted some kind of a portable stand to work on the boat out in the field. So I built this little wooden frame that attaches to my tripod for the boat to sit in. It looks like this:
And here's a photo of the stand in use:
