Took the Elam out this past weekend for the first time this year and the first time in a year, had a good day, all told. Boat had only one heat last summer and it ended quickly. The quick and dirty is another boat died in front of mine and the resulting crash did enough damage to mine that I was done for the day. Work hasn't helped either, schedule wise, so I haven't been able to go play. To summarize my first real day of racing in several years, by heat:
- couldn't get the boat to start due to multiple issues during the 2.5 minutes allowed so got a DNS
- got it started and running, took a 3rd
- got it started and running, died just before launch with no time to restart for another DNS
- got it started and running, had an inconsistent run with the boat failing to finish the full 5 racing laps.
- With 225 points for my previous third place finish, I was tied for the last spot in the consolation heat with another person. Since this was a "winner goes in the final" heat and the other guy having a boat that was running better than mine, not to mention the fact that he could hold the buoy line and I couldn't(lack of practice on my part and the boat needing some serious TLC), I declined to run a one lap tiebreaker and let him race the consolation heat.
As I said, this was a good day since it was the first time I scored
ANY POINTS since 2018. The points I scored also kept me from being in the group that didn't get any points at all, where I have ended up more times than I care to think about. Now I need to see if I can get the boat to run better. Another local racer has told me we're going to do some serious testing and tweaking on my boat next Friday since we will have a course set up for the Northwest Scale Championships that are going to be over Saturday and Sunday. I probably won't race that weekend since it's not a "points race" and I need to keep the boat in running condition for the following Saturday's event in Kennewick at the same time and location as the H-1 Unlimited hydroplane race.
With all of that said,
Mr ECHO, what's happening with your "printed" boat? Any updates?