Many many years ago I had an operation for 'piles', 3 days in hospital and a note to be off work for nearly a month. 30 odd years later the same operation, but this time the doctor said hop on the couch and I will do it now. Drove home, had a snack and went ballroom dancing all afternoon!

How things change! Anyway to all you guys now and recently under the knife, relax, take care and more power to your elbows. We seem to be the last but one generation of model boaters, remember age is just a number, so keep all your balls in the air check the floor for lost marbles and sail on!
Roy

Good morning Gents! Every now and then I drift back here and manage to get one right. 😉

Know what you mean Ed.
Last words from the Doc as I was discharged after my heart op were-
"No exertion!" (Actually he said 'Keine Anstrengung' while wagging his finger at me!)
Glad you're back👍

Doug, I remembered it as well.
I’m back often the op but limited in what I can do for 6 weeks

A repeat, from not too long ago.🙄
Got it wrong last time - not this time though😉

😎

@MarkN1 We should probably probably move this conversation out of the question of the day section. We are chatting in an area not meant for this type conversation.

Dave, 100 Feet? I guess , I am a bad judge of distances.

I was at the last stand, out... and staring straight out. , at the rock. That was my reference. There were three boaters next to me, two of which had blocked my direct access to the boat. So, even if I had reacted fast enough; I couldn't get to it quick enough. I was able to rescue the canopy, as that had floated to the surface. I had my Cajun Commander with me. So, the Turtle Back, was retrieved , but no boat. I had kept my canopy for a year, but figured the boat was hopelessly lost; so I tossed it. Now, let's figure something out. Mark W. cast across the pond from the 3RD. stand, and missed the first time. We moved the 4th. stand, and he nailed it, on the next try. . A 33 yard miracle cast , that got my boat back. GOD was definitely smiling on us. THE boat? It's been stubborn, as though, it didn't want to get caught. At first, we thought we had hooked a huge fish, or the pond liner. The fact the boat stayed on the grappling hook, and being dragged, nearly a 100 feet, and stayed on the hook was the real miracle.

And ready for Lighthouse, number # 2.

@MarkN1 I just did a quick "Google Maps measure" Where the Cobra went down the pond is about 100' wide.

Dave B

Video posted by Chris Pohl, who was one of the individuals who was part of the rebuild. He did much the wood work, during the restore. He also designed the custom servo linkage. This was part one of three.




First day of live testing.

June 22ND.

Hey, Dave, thanks the distance correction. The distance from shore to shore? That would be interesting to find out. THE boat went down, ten feet from the apposite shore. in seven feet of water, Directly in line, with that huge rock. That was the line, I told Mark Wolfe, to cast at. Apparently, I was right. Mark, and Glenn took photos of the Cobra , just as it came out. The windshield was soot black, and the boat was caked in mud. The boat still floated. It spent the next two days , in my bath tub, rinsing all the garbage out of the boat.

All the original parts, were still there. Including the Spektrum 5200 50 C battery that was still connected. The RED power lead, had broke at the ESC THE boat, saved itself. If the COBRA had remained on power, THE LIPO, would have gone into thermal destruction, from overly discharged.

The fast forward, was the initial re construction , to the first test . THE electronics: was A Spektrum DX -2 system, a Dynamite 2000 KV. motor, a Traxas 90 AMP ESC. and a FUTABA standard Servo. Running hardware: ALL DUMAS OEM. Replaced.

Additional MODS were added. Including Risers, and trim tabs. Spock, and son, are now the drivers.

Water skier, was optional.



... and Scotty. , who is still resting on the bottom. (One of the Star Trek Dolls, that Kevin had given to me. )

@MarkN1
This is probably posted in the wrong section ..... But,
I can vouch for Mark's story!
I was there the day it sank.
I saw him running it last night before our club meeting!
His story is a testament to our club, as club members pitched in to make Mark's "Phoenix" usable again.
Dave B
PS I think the 85 yard "cast" is a typo. The pond isn't THAT large

Sounds familiar. Just like my REFOUND Dumas Chris Craft Cobra. The story of a sunken boat, that spent two years on the bottom of our pond. 8/23/2023 8:45 P.M. , and found almost two years to date, by the hands of another Club member, and a million to one, blind cast, from 85 yards away, in the dark. Two casts, later, and the boat was snagged, and retrieved from the depths. THE Boat was restored, and went back into service on 8/8/2025. We call it the miracle boat, because, getting the boat, back and me... there standing next to the person, who made that cast; was technically impossible. Yet, that very boat, sits on my table , today, and has become a club favorite. "THE PHOENIX." , a boat that came back from the depths, and is better than it's former self. It has been my daily runner , since then. She's quick, 25 M.P.H, and sporting a tuned prop, and trim tabs. New boat.

If any one's interested, I have updated photos, and running videos.

Quick history. DUMAS , (Now closed), offered the Kit in 1992. And from there, we don't how the finished boat, found it's way to owner # 2. There is a significant hole there. The one clear fact; was boat, as first built, was not usable. And, was not safe. THE back up, flood, and sink part. I look the boat, now, and it kinda weirds me out. "How, are you here? " Sunken bats, don't come back. Yet, there it is.

The original owner/ builder , is un-known. The boat traveled between at least four people. I was the last in the line.

@EdW Wishing you the best of luck with your "tune-up".
I agree with Roy and Guy ... this old age stuff is for the birds.
I just had my semi annual physical. The Dr. told me I was in good shape for a fat, old guy, with bad knees .......
I've been avoiding addressing the knee issue, but somehow it isn't going away .... sigh
Dave B

Ed!
In the same boat, as it were. Not too thrilled with this "getting old" dance.
Have a speedy recovery and get back in action ASAP!
-- Guy
👍 😉

Hi EdW, all the best with your operation, my experience of the NHS is good, you will probably be assigned a young lady to look after you during your stay. The one assigned to me was lovely, very helpful and kind. Then I came home!
cheers for now.
Roy

May not be doing QoD for a few days, going in to hospital for an operation today. The problem with getting older, you require constant repairs and maintenance.
🤣

@SouthportPat
Square-rigged ship sailors of the 19th century onward would have called it the Dolphin Striker because of the playful habits of Dolphins about the bow, but techinally by designers and ship builders it would have been called the Martingale. Generally it was only fiitted when the bowsprit was carrying 3 or more headsails.

A Dophin Stricker is the spar the projects down from the bow sprit and has the bob chain attached at the lower end to counteract the forces setup up by the fore stay

'Morning Gents! Had to jump in, my assumption was along the lines of Doug and Ed's...below the bowsprit.

😉

I think the confusion is the word 'yard' that usually refers to a wooden spar. On a Thames barge it is very long and holds up the corner of the mainsail. Gary Webb liked them on his sailing boats. Makes an easy set up.
Roy

When I was repairing one the other day on my Lilla Dan I always referred to it as the 'Dolphin striker', so I got it wrong.
Roy

It asked what sprit sail not spirit sail was ?
Philuk👍

Thought about my post on spirit sails so I did some research.
Both pictures are spirit sails

Doug and Pat, you are both correct.
On a some fully rigged square riggers the Spirit Sail was on a yard below the bowsprit.
On fore and aft rigs the spirit sail was the main four sided sail.
This is from my recollections which can sometimes be hazy.
🤔

I disagree Pat. Think of square riggers😉
On large sailing ships a spritsail is a square-rigged sail carried on a yard below the bowsprit.!
See attached pic of 'A replica of the Batavia setting a spritsail (lower right) and a sprit-topsail'.
😎

I duth protest protest a spritsail yard does not go under a bowsprit
Think of a spritsail barge the yard goes from the mast across the mainsail !

'Ye Gods and little fishes!'🙄
Since this incarnation of QotD AI has come up with some daft alternate answers but today's (16.08.26) really 'take the biscuit'🤔
This was 'bleedin' obvious, even if you'd never heard of the Stena Line or travelled on it, as I have many times.
😎

Excellent Docus about WWII currently running on History Channel and Nat Geo😉

😎

Same here but i never have been able to spell
Philuk👍

Today took 3 guesses because I could not spell 😂

@EdW Same here ED🤔
Cheers, Doug😎

Todays wordle took a bit of head scratching, two totally wrong before I got it

Don’t worry Steve, I have senior days 🤣

Ok thanks Ed, I did miss that day's question for some reason??
Must have had a "senior moment" 😔🤔🤔😟..

@Steves-s
8ths QOD
In traditional shipboard usage, what is the galley?

WORDLE
Type of submarine

Hi does anyone know what the two qotd puzzles were for the 8th of August as it seems that I haven't answered them 🤔 and I always try to do them before I go to bed??😴😴. If I know what they were I will remember. Thanks- Steve .

Loved the wordle today - not the answer you would expect. As for QOD, these ones asking for a specific date, have a theme. Not knowing any of the specific dates for various happenings, I look for the equivalent of the date today - seems to work, but then someone will come along and trip me up!

@EdW Hi Have since discovered the same info. Papers released by the US government. So the Ai got it wrong 🤣 Here is what I found.
The author (Andy Burns) Studied History at United States Naval Academy.
"The Gulf of Tonkin incident wasn’t faked. But the Johnson administration inflated a minor incident and deliberately suppressed news that a second attack didn’t actually happen, and used it as an excuse to do what they already wanted to do - escalate direct US military involvement in Vietnam. Here’s what happened:

In the summer of 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox was on a signals-intelligence patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin. On August 2, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the Maddox. The US ship returned fire and, along with F-8 Crusader fighters from USS Saratoga, damaged and drive away the North Vietnamese. The destroyer was undamaged except for one bullet hole. The attack occurred in daylight and there are photos of the torpedo boats. The North Vietnamese never claimed that the August 2 attack didn’t happen, but claimed it was in retaliation for Americans sinking Vietnamese fishing boats. Regardless, it was a very minor skirmish.

Two days later, at night and during a storm, Maddox’s radar operators reported contacts that the Captain evaluated and reported up the chain of command as another torpedo boat attack. For several hours Maddox fired on the radar contacts and maneuvered aggressively. With daylight and calming seas, and finding no wreckage or other physical evidence, the captain of Maddox reported that the attack might not have actually occurred. It’s suspected that the destroyer’s sensor operators misinterpreted radar and sonar artifacts from the heavy weather.

In any case, the US government wanted to escalate military intervention in Vietnam and the Tonkin Gulf incidents were a good excuse. Within 30 minutes of the reported attack, President Johnson had already decided upon retaliatory bombing. Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave legal authority for military action. The facts that the August 2 attack was exaggerated and the August 4 ‘attack’ was almost certainly nervous sailors shooting at radar ghosts, were ignored and suppressed."

I did a bit of research on The Bay Of Tonkin action so I am better equiped in the future. I see that the 2nd Bay of Tonkin never happened it was fake news of that era 🤣

Yup. No longer in the top of the leader board. Just shows we don't all look things up. It was a guess from some distant memory. It also helps if you read the question properly. I have since looked it up just to check if Ai was correct. It is. I should also have realised that today is the anniversary.

A fall from the top was inevitable, should have gone with today the 4th, stupid me

Hi Ed, now I know how it works I should be able to figure out what the correct answer should be.🤔
I wondered why some of the letters changed to a different colour😞😟 🤗..
I put in Mooring after a couple of attempts and the ing did turn green... That's me - 🍅 tomato brain...

@EdW I tried Harbour to start with - Very misleading question

Steve HARBOUR would have given you a green A
so the rest were wrong before you tried them
I Started with HARBOUR and then started writing down words fitting the clue with A as the second
Letter and LANDING was the only one that I came up with after nearly half an hour

Hi, EdW, Pat, I ran out of answers for this one. I tried Harbour, Mooring, Wharves, Wharfes, Seaport, Jetties 🤔🤔🤔and it was--Landing 😣😥
I should have known ?? Two of my boats are only 3ft away from our landing, in the spare bedroom 😀😆😀 😥.

Hi Pat

LANDING

Regards
Ed

@SouthportPat
landings

@EdW So what was the correct answer to where a ship docks ?

@EdW Thanks Ed, I might give it a go.

@SimpleSailor

Start by putting in the word you think is correct. Matching the letter count required. The clue simplifies the process as normally there is no clue
When you press enter the letters will change colour.
Green - correct letter in correct position
Yellow. - the letter is in the word but wrong position
Grey. - the letter is not in the word
When you have the correct word all letters will be green