San Diego Argonauts Radio

This week, we're happy to welcome a friend of the podcast who wears lots of hats in radio sailign: Mr. Len Bose. Len is the current AMYA president, editor for Model Yachting Magazine, DF-95 class secretary and a yacht broker to top it all off! Len explains how his years as a newspaper columnist shaped his commitment to the magazine. He also shares how ready-to-sail boats have opened the sport to more people, and he names a couple clubs growing radio sailing in innovative ways around the country. Of course, we ask what's next after his term as AMYA president concludes. And we end the interview with a quick preview of the upcoming issue of the magazine. Let's also recap results from San Diego's Chuck Black IOM Masters Regatta and points races.

For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!

This week's episode has a little something for everyone! Remember that travel kit we talked about last episode? Let's find out how it fared on the recent trip up to Seattle. But the lion share of today's transmission is cold calling back-to-back DF-95 National Champion Brad Read to talk about how a pandemic workaround grew into Newport's growing boat fleet. Read shares some tuning tips, including lots of time on the transmitter, adjusting the headstay instead of the backstay, flatter sails, and learning about 'twist'. He also explains how to start a fleet that stays fun and how San Diego informed a lot of what's growing over in Rhode Island's radio sailing community. Big thanks to Brad for a great conversation and we hope to see him at the Mission Bay Model Boat Pond next year.

We'll also hear from our friend in Region 6, Dan Shier for a Region 6 report! He covers with Peter Feldman's IOM win, a recap of the DF95 Nationals, and a preview of the DF-65 events happening down in Arkansas.

For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!

Traveling with everything you need to competitively sail your boat is not simple. This episode covers how to build a travel kit that gets your IOM or DF95 to the regatta ready to race.
But first, we'll start with a recap of the US One Meter event in Sacramento. Then we go through the full kit, one piece at a time: hard cases, a board bag for the rig box, how to keep the bulb from moving, the handy kitchen tool recommended for cutting foam, and the spare parts you hope you don't need but should keep with you, just in case.

For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!

Check out this week's pond-cast episode from the shores of the Mission Bay Model Boat Pond during September's Soling 50 Championships. We'll hear from many Argonaut members and catch some live action sailing commentary. Big thanks to everyone who came out to the event and volunteered. We say it a lot, but we wouldn't be able to run things half as smoothly without the donated time of fellow sailors. We appreciate you! We'll talk a little about PRO duties, new members, and as always, go over our points racing results.

Also, stay tuned to the end of the episode to hear about a special guest at the pond who really enjoyed getting a transmitter in her hands!

For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!

Join me for a practical walkthrough of RC sailboat maintenance across the DF-95, Odom, Soling, and IOM classes. We’ll talk all things chafe, corrosion, seized blocks and rudders, keel care, the importance of cleaning your goosenecks, and the routines that will help you make every race start. We also get into the products that help with routine maintenance most. Plus, we’ll do a quick recap of the August Mission Bay points races for the San Diego Argonauts!

For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!

This week, we sit down with longtime IOM legend and fleet promoter Steve Landeau to discuss how our radio sailing fleets are built and sustained. He talks about the importance of keeping an extra boat nearby to let people try them out, his move from the West Coast IOM scene to East Coast fleets, his work sourcing hard-to-get masts and parts, and which designs he recommends to newcomers. And as always, we'll wrap up with some results! This time from the Region 8 Traveler Weekend at Mason Park: 17 boats out for Saturday's fleet racing, followed by a fast-paced five-team team racing challenge.

For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!

The San Diego Argonauts Open House was a blast, with every division out in force, kids soldering at the maker tables, boats of all kinds on the pond, and hot dogs and pizza gone in a flash. All signs of a great event!

And then this week, I'm joined by Bruce Anderson, U.S. Marblehead class secretary and IRSA chairman. And we talk about radio sailing's Formula One class, Marbleheads! We'll dive into the boats 1930s origins, the Scalpel design, and today's comeback behind the Grunge and Red Ant. Plus July points results from Mission Bay Pond!

For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!

Let's sit down with Kerim Baran and Jeff Sparksworthy, the driving forces behind the San Diego Argonauts' new community outreach program: a hands-on STEM initiative connecting high school students with the world of radio-controlled hobbies, especially sailing here in San Diego. Our pond actually has a history of being connected to the local high school so it's exciting to hear about the continuation of that partnership.
From setting up soldering stations and metalworking tables to actually sailing RC boats on the pond, Kerim and Jeff take us through their first High School Maritime and Robotics Workshop, as well as share their vision for the upcoming RoboBuoy Challenge, where student teams will design and build radio-controlled (and eventually GPS-autonomous) buoys!

We'll get into details for the upcoming open house on August 1st, the Marblehead Nationals in Foster City, and Len Bose stops by the show with the latest on the DF-95 Travelers Trophy fleet and team racing on August 8th & 9th.

For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!

This week is a special episode where we're joined by 27-time radio sailing national champion, Craig Mackey. He'll take us through his top sailing ponds around the world (hint: one is right here in California and one is across the pond!). He also shares his origin story with the sport and how a borrowed Victoria led to four national championships in four weeks. We also discuss the purpose of practice when it comes to doing your turns, Craig's advice to new skippers, the importance of knowing the rule book inside and out, and of course, we have a little fun quizzing him on a recent pond protest.

Also, we'll review June race results for the San Diego Argonauts, hear from friend of the podcast Dan Shier about what's happening in Region 6, and share a little info on the upcoming Travelers Series registration.

For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!

We're back from the California IOM State Championship in Foster City, and it's clear that their pond is one of the premier radio sailing venues in the country. In this episode, we chat pond-side during the event with four competitors about racing, boat tuning tips, and what makes this regatta special. Also, all five San Diego Argonauts who headed up for the Championship finished in the top 10... How about that!

We'll end with a call-in from friend of the show Bill Bridge with results from the NAMBA District 19 Heat Race Series in San Diego, which drew an impressive 137 boats across 11 classes.

For more San Diego Argonauts events, opportunities, and fun — check out our website!