Five ships showed up as well as a modest hord of interested onlookers. The captains of the Nagato and Alabama (both under construction) were there as was the Alabama hull and superstructure. We split the ships up with Warspite and Westfalen taking on Inflexible, Washington and Colbert. The Inflexible had one of the Nagato clan at the helm, the colbert was captained by novice Patrick.
The most unusual part of the first battle was the cheering section on the beach. Good moves, close calls and silly stunts gained cheers from the onlookers for both the rookie captains. Rookie tatics allowed the slower experienced ships to close from time to time and early year gusto saw the Westfalen chasing the Washington. Late in the battle the Westfalen paid for it's fun when the pump lost a wire and the damage in the bow from the Washington could not be contained. A graceful sink against the bank was only fitting.
The second battle shifted rookie captains with Patrick taking the Inflexible and his younger brother taking the Colbert. The cheering section was still in good spirits and a good time was had closing, blasting away and running in turn. All of the ships took some damage but nothing particularly intense. The rookies did a reasonable job of bringing their ships home with limited damage.
Prior to the third sortie, a group of other R/C boaters showed up with an electric hydro and a couple of air boats. It was fun to watch the speed show, especially when one of the air boats flipped. The westfalen launched with a new battery to push the air boat back to shore. The new battery and lack of attention by the captain drove her straight under the water. (WWI german BC's actually dive as they move forward due to the hull shape. The Westfalen has very little freeboard to start with.) Some water in the radio box and a squirley radio put her out of action for the day.
The third sortie split the rookies. Again, close and blast was the order of the day. No serious damage was done to any of the ships and a lot of fun was had by everyone attending. Limited trouble with hardware and reasonable weather made for a great first outing of the year.