Picked up a aquacraft paradise today. I noticed that when the wind is decent it looks like it wants to roll over on its side and it wont turn...is this normal when the wind is blowing pretty decent. Any pointers for sailing this thing.....


Thanks
Brian

Much as with any other conventionally rigged yacht, the balance between the main and fore sails needs to be correct. When fully sheeted in, the main should not be on the centreline, but a few degrees off. The fore sail should be a little further out. This will ensure that the steering induced by the sails are balanced, allowing the rudder to do its work.
There will come a time as wind speed builds up when you just have too much sail, and everything else is overpowered. When this happens, I take the chicken way out, let the sails out, and gybe round with fingers crossed, then do my best to get the boat back to where I am, or to where retreival is easy.
Rigging the sails for correct shape to give optimum performance requires a sizeable book, and plenty of practice.
Happy sailing!

Brian,
There are two 'quick-n-dirty' answers to that. First, the wind is just too much for that particular boat. So, just like with full sized boats, you can either change the 'set' of the sails (let them swing further out), or reduce sails to a smaller size. Reducing sails isn't exactly the ea$ie$t thing to do, so you can do one of two other things. Go home or wait for the wind to fall a bit. Or, let the sails out further till you get fed up with it. Then wait for less wind. Or the other $olution, change sails.
- 'Doc

thanks for the replys guys, I also noticed that when I tried to pull the sails back in, the servo wasnt able to handle it. I guess it time to pull one of the hi torque's out of the box and put it in there

The biggest problem with changing to a hi-torque servo is will it fit? At least, without a lot of changes? If so, then why not. The other thingy is that a hi-torque usually draws a little more 'juice' than a 'normal' servo. The average run time (depending on how much the servo is used) will probably be slightly less than what you are now seeing. That 'slightly less' is relative, but I seriously doubt if you'll really be able to tell a big difference, sort of. It'll also change the ballasting of the boat, depending on how big the thing is. 'Nuther one of those 'don't worry about it' thingys in most instances, but who knows?
- 'Doc

PS - Don't ask me why it works, but painting the servo 'hot-pink' seems to make it stronger.
(O)(-)...

From what I can tell, the servo in the paradise looks to be the same size as one of the hi torques I have in my crawlers. ...I have a few 645mg's and a 5995 that puts out 330oz. A little overkill but heck why not. Ill have to ditch the 4AA receiver pack and put on of my 1900mah receiver packs.....I just got back from the pond and this thing does not like it super windy....have to try later on.

NorCal...

A 645MG will be plenty for a boat that size. I have one in my Halo 30--which is a bigger boat with more sail area, and I've never had trouble hauling in the sails.

Glad to see you join the RC sailing community!

Andy

If the servo is failing to pull in against the wind, the trick is to steer into the wind, thus reducing the load, and then pull in. If the boat is carrying too much sail for the conditions, no amount of extra power is going to solve the problem. On the other hand, setting the sails correctly lets you sail in stronger winds than would be the case otherwise.

so do I loosen up the sails when it gets super windy>?

Ok, first I respectfully disagree about being able to pull the sails in. The 645MG will have no problems. However, there are some things that you can do to offset the tendancy to 'round up' (your bow starts heading directly into the wind without you being able to control it).

1. Flatten the pocket in the bottom of the main sail. You can sometimes do this by tightening a line on the main boom at the back end the will pull the back end of the sail back. Exactly what this looks like on your boat I'm not sure, as it varies from boat to boat. More pocket (check this by laying the boat on it's side with the sails hauled all the way in AT HOME out of the wind. You will notice there will likely be a gap between the boom and the sail foot, or bottom. This is called your mainsail camber. The more camber, the more power your sails have, and in strong winds you need to de-power, so doing this will help to an extent.

2. Adjust your boomvang. What this is, is the line going diagonal from approximately the bottom of the mast, to about 3-4 inches in back of the mast on the main boom. This controls (hopefully on your boat it's adjustable) how much of an angle your boom is at. In most moderate or lighter conditions, the boom should be level with the deck (or parallel). However, in stronger winds, you can loosen this allowing the back end of the boom to point more 'up'. Why do this? Well, it puts what's called 'twist' in the sail, which allows the air to spill (And again, de-power) off the sail a little. I hope this description makes sense, but it's hard to put into words--easier to show.

3. You can make your mast tilt more forward (the top of it) which is called 'raking' it. Without getting too technical, it also helps to combat weather helm. On most boats this is done by loosening the backstay (the line/wire leading from the top of the mast to the back of the boat) and at the same time tightening the forestay--the line that leads from the top/front of the mast down to the jib sail.

4. Once you get your mast rake and boom adjusted, then tighten the backstay up. This flattens the top of the sail, which once again spills air, depowering the boat.

Any of these, or a combination of these can help the boat handle better. The uninitiated would probably be suprised that there are so many tuning items on a 'simple' RC sailboat. I can tell you that with experimentation of these (don't overdo them, and remember that one change often affects other aspects, so other adjustments must be made to balance things) over time you can learn to sail your boat in lots of different conditions making the most of what the wind gives you. I learned this through racing in my club and elsewhere, but it's handy to know for simple day sailing too.

I really am not trying to confuse you. I hope some of this helps at least. However, the stronger servo will help you haul in the sails, but it will matter very little if your boat isn't set up right for the conditions.

Good luck and happy sailing!

Andy

I Put a Hi-Tec 5998 in the boat and it had no problems at all bringin in the sails...Now I just need some basic setup and I think I should be fine. I was messing with different adjustments yesterday and didnt accomplish anything......heres some pics.

It looks like you have some of the adjustments I mentioned... the boomvang is that rod with the threaded ball joints on either end. Unsnap one end and turn the rod counterclockwise to loosen. Although, it looks like you have some 'tilt' to it already. The one thing that 'concerns me' is the apparent lack of a way to tighten your sails at the end of the boom. Obviously my boat is different, but you may be able to come up with your own way to rig an adjustment. To adjust the rake it looks like you'll need to adjust three things (on my boat it's just two. The backstay (loosen it--it's the line going from the top of the mast to the back of the boat), the forestay (going from the top of the mast to the front of the boat (Tighten this after you loosen the backstay) and the jibstay, which is the line going from the top of the mast to the top of the jib sail (tighten this too). Hopefully yout mast step (the part where the mast fits onto the deck) is designed to allow a little bit of tilting of the mast (I can't tell from the pictures).

The fore sail looks a bit lacking in that normally with the see-saw boom I would try to arange a tension line at the trailling edge of the sail to help control the shape of the fore. It looks like the leading edge of the sail is held in shape just by tension applied to the sail. Again, I would normally have a line there to provide the straight line, and hang the sail off it. The lower the bottom edge of the sail to the boom, the better.
The golden rule is that the leading edge of all sails should be straight, the other edges should have a gentle curve.
Add this to andy1499's excellent advice and you should have a good 'un, and plenty of fun sailing.