Going The Extra Mile To Promote Rc Boating.

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Big Ups to Rob and the Western Warship Combat Club going the extra mile to promote RC boating. Rob and a gang of about 20 to 30 Warship enthusiast coordinated an event in conjunction with the Annual Makers Fair in San Mateo California just 20 or so minutes South of San Francisco. It was a three day event and extremely well coordinated.

They demonstrated Warship Battles in an arena type setting for crowds of people. They invited District 9 RC Race Boats to be a part as well. I was in attendance to show off some boats and be a part in exposing RC boating to people who have genuine interest in the making and building of a hobby.

Rob is also the Battleship Chairman for NAMBA. As you can see he is going far beyond in Chairing his committee.

They built a small pond to host their Warship Battles that took many hours in planning and design which was all for good use. They were able to put up a pond that also protected the audience from the flying projectiles being shot off by the baby cannons mounted on the deck of these ships as they shot at each other in an attempt to sink each others fleet.

I hope to work with them more closely next year so we can introduce some form of Fast RC boats in a race type setting. I am thinking some Vintage painted AquaCraft Mini Thunders would work out just fine.

Here are some stats from Rob regarding the event.

Number of people who saw our battles: 12,000! Number of reported injuries: ZERO! And we were turning people away, unfortunately. We have outgrown the space, just as Maker Faire itself has outgrown the Event Center.

Number of young guest captains (most under the age of 12) who participated: 50

Estimated number of people who got to operate RC sailboats and submarines: 300

Big hug to Bevy Hansen, who kept the safety glasses (1,200 of them!) flowing in and out of the arena for each of the 10 shows.

If RC Boating is dying people like Rob are going the extra mile to keep it alive.

Hope you get some ideas form this to promote RC boating in your area.

BTW - This is a club with no water... Still making it happen.

 

[57fairlane500]

Bravo!!! This is the kind of promotion that our hobby needs. Congratulations and thank you to all involved.

 

[David Bryant]

yeah, very cool story! Incredible facility set-up for spectators.

 

[Tom Foley]

WOW ! Nice crowd !! Around here even the hobby shops have no idea what is going on in the model boat world . If you don't stumble on to it , you would never know it existed .

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

WOW ! Nice crowd !! Around here even the hobby shops have no idea what is going on in the model boat world . If you don't stumble on to it , you would never know it existed .

The crowd is due to lots of effort in promoting and preparing. If that was not done the people at this event would have been just as clueless as the hobby shops in your area. I posted this to congratulate these guys as well as bring some attention to them and their efforts... But also to post as an example of what is possible for all of us that like to drag the same old arguments about the sport dying. If we're willing to put forth the effort this could be happening all across the nation.

 

[chris1088]

Way to go!!

 

[Tom Foley]

WOW ! Nice crowd !! Around here even the hobby shops have no idea what is going on in the model boat world . If you don't stumble on to it , you would never know it existed .

The crowd is due to lots of effort in promoting and preparing. If that was not done the people at this event would have been just as clueless as the hobby shops in your area. I posted this to congratulate these guys as well as bring some attention to them and their efforts... But also to post as an example of what is possible for all of us that like to drag the same old arguments about the sport dying. If we're willing to put forth the effort this could be happening all across the nation.

Of course , I no doubt realized that lots of effort went into this . Well done .