Conversations with Classic Boats

Conversations with Classic Boats is a podcast about classic boat designs and the stories behind them. Hosted by Tom Darling, his latest offering details his mission to learn about radiosailing. Here’s a tease from Darling:

Radiosailing, also known as model boat racing, became a sailing phenomenon during the pandemic. Thousands of sailors turned to boating’s smallest format.

Back in August 2020, we watched the local Nantucket sailors take to the water with the Chinese-built Dragonflite DF-95, a 37 inch replica of a TP52, while at Raritan Yacht Club (Perth Amboy, NJ), the weapon of choice is the RC Laser.

This cat rigged Laser clone is a 27 year old design of a Rhode Island School of Design grad with a passion for model yachts and the persuasive abilities to get the late Bruce Kirby, godfather of the Laser, to tweak the design to produce a 40 inch plastic model. With assembly taking about 20 minutes, the RC Laser is as simple as it gets.

The RC Laser was the boat of choice at the Lake Naomi Club (Pocono Pines, PA) which kicked off the Indoor Sailing Championship in a full size pool with fans.

During a break in the college season, the Princeton University Sailing Team (Princeton, NJ), with a new fleet of DF-95s contributed by alumnus Bob Johnstone, tried their hardest to be the first to run a college radiosailing event.

Tom visits these radiosailing racing venues to assess the frostbiting activity.