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TT Victoria

Old 05-06-2002, 08:32 AM
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RobStagis
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Default TT Victoria

My first R/C yacht - I've owned it for 4 years now. The kit is a very straightforward build, which was lucky since I had never built one nor even looked inside of one before.

Instructions: plenty of drawings to assist the novice. I might have been thrown off by the use of non-nautical terms, but they'll probably work fine for a novice.

The hull is one piece of blow-molded plastic and is fine - no problems. The hatch is a piece of styrene, I think, that slips into a glued-on track. The radio box is several pieces of lite ply that are assembled and glued into the hull. All interior work is done through hatch. The hull assembled with no problems, though I worried too much about servo placement. The default locations work just fine. The rudder and post assembly install easily, as does the keel/bulb assembly.

The rig is formed of a 2-piece aluminum mast (with a plastic joiner) and aluminum jib and mainsail booms. Again, there were no problems assembling these to the instructions. The sails are flat panels of pre-printed material - more on these later.

I used a Futaba 2-channel radio with S25 sail servo, which provides enough power to pull the sails in all conditions.

Sailing: The boat sails well - very responsive to rudder inputs without being stupidly sensitive, though this is more a reflection of servo-holes used than anything else. It displays a tendency to nosedive when being pushed hard - sealing the hatch (I use electrical tape) is a must. All in all, a good first boat, and there is a very active class association. Tons of information (both first-time builder/sailors and racing modifications) can be found at: www.victoriarc.org.

Hits: General boat design, sailing characteristics and ease of assembly.

Misses: Sails (they're terrible, but I used them for a year before replacing them). Sail arm - mine bent under stress, making me think that the sail servo wasn't doing its job. It turned out that, after reducing the rig-friction with different line (Spyderwire) and installing a couple split-rings at strategic points, that the arm was almost strong enough for general use. I ended up replacing mine with a metal piece later on. More in the Vic mods post following this one.
Old 05-06-2002, 09:20 AM
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RobStagis
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Default Vic modifications after 3 years or so

I like my boat - my buddy has been trying to make his Fairwind faster than the modified Vic. Here's what I've done:

Removed the scale detail-stuff - it was a major snag-zone for the running rigging.

Running rigging: replaced with Spyderwire. Split-ring on the servo arm to reduce friction.

Removed the suspended-ring setup for the mainsheet. Instead, I glued an 'eye' to the forward cockpit wall and put a servo grommet in there. The mainsheet runs through it and aft to the block I tied in the aft end of the cockpit.

I separated the main and jib sheets - they run through a double block tied to the aft end of the cockpit instead of the hole in the plastic that used to be there. I drilled another hole in the forward cockpit wall and installed a second cleat on the cockpit floor to tie off the jib sheet.

Metal jam cleats instead of the original plastic ones. Now all I have to do to adjust a sheet is slip it under the cleat, which is a lot easier on windy days with everything flapping.

Tied the mainsail to the mast, getting rid of the rust-prone clips.

Tied the sails to the booms, again eliminating the rusty clips.

New sails. I didn't spend a lot of money here - just used Mariner Sails' kit. It was easy to make and the boat looks and sails a lot faster.

Replaced the radio box with two crosswise thwarts made of hardwood I dug out of my scrap box. The original box rotted due to me not waterproofing according to the instructions. Actually, I consider this an improvement - there's more room to play with the components and the original box was a water-trap. Install two 1/4x1/4's or 5/16x5/16 from side to side, roughly 3/4" under the deck. You need room for the servo arms to swing. Ensure they're far enough apart (fore and aft) to install your servos. Make a little ply plate to hold your switch in the original kit position. I velcro'd the receiver to one of them, allowing easy access and eliminating the plastic bags previously used.

Drilled a hole allowing me to run a piece of music wire to the switch - now I don't have to pull the hatch to turn it on and off.

5-cell NiMH pack velcro'd to the hull way back under the cockpit - this helped the nosediving a little......

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