BROADSIDE NOW HEAR THIS

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1 The St. Louis Admirals R/C Model Boat Club UU BROADSIDE Commodore Jane Rivers (314) Secretary Bob Keeler (314) HH Vice-Commodore Dave St. Clair (636) Treasurer George Kirby (636) Editor Jane Rivers (314) NOTICE: The next meeting will be held on March 2, 2015 at St. Stephen s Episcopal Church, 33 N. Clay Ave, Ferguson, MO FROM THE BRIDGE NOW HEAR THIS February 8, 2015 had us enjoying wonderful weather (it usually sleets, snows or rains) to attend the Gateway Mid-America Toy Show thanks to Roy Baker. We were fortunate enough to have about 10 members in attendance with many great boats on display (see pictures in this newsletter). One of our founding members even brought a couple of boats (hadn t seen many of his boats in a long time). Ed Gant and wife Janet even were able to join us, hadn t seen him in a long time but because of the beautiful weather they were able to join us, it was great seeing both of them. The visitors and vendors alike enjoyed our display, as we also enjoyed seeing many unique displays, from seeing farms and all their various buildings and farm equipment. Spoke to one of the vendors and it takes him six hours just to get things set up. If you didn t come you not only missed all the wonderful displays, but you also missed enjoying great company and a terrific lunch at the hotel. Hope you might be able to join us next year as Roy Baker already invited us for the show in Because of wonderful people like Roy we are able to promote our club and hopefully attract future members. Jane Commodore Sailing at St Ferdinand Park, Florissant, MO prior to dinner weather permitting - 5:00 PM Dinner at Applebee s, 2309 N Highway 67, Florissant, MO 63033, and 7:00 PM meeting at St. Stephens Church

2 Tentative 2015 meeting dates are: *Date to be announced Third Sunday every month except November March Sailing at St Ferdinand Park, Florissant, MO weather permitting April 6, 2015 May 4, 2015 June 1, 2015 May 30, 2015 Alton, IL July 2 & 3, 2015 Boathouse July 6, 2015 August 3, 2015 September 14, Meeting October 5, 2015 Regatta at Forest Park date* November 2, 2015 (Swap December 7, 2015 Meet) Subject to availability by St. Stephen s Church ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` Membership Dues # # Please take note of the following: # # Dues for new members will be prorated on a per month basis based upon our beginning of May 1 st dues.

3 Please make checks (no cash) payable to St Louis Admirals R/C Model Boat Club in the amount of $30.00, if you want hard copy (mailed) please add $10.00 for postage and printing. Send checks (no cash) to George Kirby 1146 Alyssa Ct O Fallon, MO PS If you would like to have your address included for receipt of the Broadside and other publications please include it on a separate sheet of paper, to my attention. If you have moved since your last renewal, please note change of address, etc. Thank you, George Kirby **************************************************************************************** The St. Louis Admirals R/C Model Boat Club Secretary s Report for February Call to Attention: Commodore Jane Rivers opened the meeting at 1912 hours at St. Stephens Episcopal Church with the pledge of allegiance. There were 11 members and guest present considering the weather. Skipper s Tales: Report from Homeport: A. Status of Club Members: Robert Schmidt is in the hospital. Commodore Jane passed around a get well card for the members to sign. Also, the club received a note from Jane Sepanski with three gift cards to Mark Twain that her daughter found when going through Ray s things. The club thanks her for giving the cards back to the club. B. Secretary s Report: The January minutes were published in Broadside newsletter. Note: Check to see if your SSMA is due for renewal C. Treasurer s Report: George reported the current financial status and also the amount donated to the St Stephens food pantry. Fleet Information: A. The club will have members display their boats at the toy meet on February 8 at the Sheraton Chalet Hotel at Westport Plaza in Maryland Hts. from 0800 hours (8 AM) to 1400 hours (2 PM) B. Commodore Jane will contact Father Tom Keller about status of motors from Don McEntree. C. Club picnic will be held at St Ferdinand Park on Sunday, May 3 rd in conjunction with the normal sailing day. Each member is to bring his/her own food.

4 D. The club voted to participate in the Great Rivers Festival at the Melvin Price Lock and Dam in Alton on May 30, Bring boats for display and small boats for running. E. Commodore Jane is working to set up sailing at Forest Park Boathouse on June 1, F. Bob Keeler has volunteered to be 2015 Regatta Chairperson. Committee volunteers are Chris Kunz, Commodore Jane, Kent Morgan, and John Ziemer. More volunteers would be welcome. a. Commodore Jane is waiting to find out about participating at Benton Park and Vlasis Park in Ballwin. Also Commodore Jane was approached by John E. McCadden a Member Agent of The Nautilus Group to participate at the Boathouse event on July 2, 3. G. The September Meeting was changed to September 14 since the 7 th is Labor Day. H. Commodore Jane has checked into shirts and hats with club logo. She had sample of light blue shirt with printed all black logo on front and large logo on back. Shirts sell for $8 each and she is taking orders. She also looked into hats with embroidered colored logo. For $60, she can get program to do logo which would belong to club which could then go to any embroiderer for hats and shirts. Hats would be about $18 each. Members present approved her actions. I. It was brought up that participating in all these events would put a stain on club budget. The members present thought that asking for $5 participation fee for covering insurance would be alright. It wasn t made a motion but set up as voluntary to see if this would work. J. Commodore Jane has been working diligently updating the club website, replacing older boat pictures with more recent pictures. And other enhancement with more links to those shops and companies that support our club. Check it out. K. Commodore Jane had club business cards and an informational sheet which she handed out to the members present which will be used to hand out to prospective members. L. Remember that Commodore Jane has asked for club members to write about their favorite boat and their reasons behind their choice. It can be more than one boat. I m sure each boat has a story (even if you ve built the same boat 13 times Dave). Raffle: The winners for gift cards to Mark Twain Hobby Center were John Ziemer and Emil Wolfshoeffer. Show and Tell: A. Emil Wolfshoeffer showed his Dumas Osprey fishing boat that he is working on. He s building it so that he has total access to the interior. Nice engineering and work. B. The next meeting will be March 2, The meeting terminated at 20:00 hours. Respectfully submitted, Bob Keeler

5 An old boat deserves better than a grave in someone s attic or garage for over 30 years. The Aaron Ward, a WWII destroyer/minelayer would have had that fate if not rescued by the man who asked me to help refurbish her. She is an R/C model of that boat with dimensions of 100 inches for length, about 12 inches for beam, and about 36 inches high at the mast. She is a remarkable piece of work. The man who built her did so as a scratch project. He began building in about 1981 and worked steady for a bit more than three years. To put that in perspective, he was a hermit. He put in many hours every day. He was a genius. He was a meticulous builder. He was a detail artist, the likes of which we may never see again. Everything on the real boat that was supposed to move also moved on the model. Every door opened and closed. Every tool box, or ammo box, or hatch cover, or anything that had hinges in real life, worked the way it was supposed to on the model. The radar antennas at the top of the mast, there are two, also worked. They are motor driven, with the shafts running up the mast, all the way from the top, down into the guts of the boat. The drive shafts are concentric. That means that one is inside the other. In the meantime, everything is in scale. Nothing looks like it does not belong there. Although I am including a few photos, they cannot do justice to the work this man did. The only regret from me is that he used balsa wood for most of the construction. Over the years it has deteriorated, rotted, become soft and very fragile. Where I could, I saturated the wood with thin C/A to plasticize it and make it stronger. I picked the boat up a month or so ago from a man who lives in Webster Groves. Normally, I have lots of room for boats. Not this time. The boat went from the extreme rear of my car/truck all the way to the dashboard in front, between the seats. Driving home was an experience. After I had looked at this monster for a while, I mean really looked at it, I decided to call John about the way to tackle this thing. Eventually, we agreed that there was no way to trace out miles of wire and components from a period between 1960 and So, we decided to strip it and replace everything with contemporary equipment. We would leave the drive motors in place, but that would be about all. We would start with a new radio, and at first, we considered a 12 channel transmitter. This eventually became a 6 channel because we decided to put a lot of the operations on manual control. Now, there would be smoke, lights, sound, and anything else we decided it may need. It already had all this stuff but it was from the far past when reality in modeling just wasn t there. So, my job is to do all the technical stuff, and then I ll turn it over to John for the details. If anything exciting turns up, I ll do a follow-up article. Dave

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7 Sunday, February 8, 2015 had these people enjoy showing off their boats at the Gateway Mid-America Toy Show thanks to Roy Baker, who has invited our club for several years. This is a great way to display our models and answer questions from the public. In attendance were Bob Keeler, Kent Morgan, Greg Rocklage (possible new member) Dave St Clair, Ed Gant, Luther and Geneva Disher (he even brought some boats), Ron and Pavi Geske and Emil Wolfshoeffer. The weather was great the past few years we had sleet, snow or ice. Looks like everyone had a great time. The Commodore/newspaper editor was also in attendance. Bob Keeler Janet Gant, Geneva and Luther Disher Luther Disher

8 Bob Keeler, Kent Morgan, Greg Rocklage Dave StClair, Ed Gant, Luther Disher Ron Geske, Emil Wolfshoeffer PLEASE SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS Jane Rivers Rosevalley Ln St Louis, MO Checkered Flag Hobby 5444 S Lindbergh St Louis, MO 63123