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Subject:
Submarine (R/C) Squadron Five – Sun ‘N
Fun 2008 Patrol - Report of.
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After
a drought in 2006, and a flood in 2007, SubRon members
were looking forward to a little less drama
at our annual event this year. Fortunately, Sun N Fun
2008 couldn’t have worked out any better.
Oklahoma member Don Baker put together an outstanding
event. Don worked with the manager of USS Batfish,
on display in Muskogee, OK, to secure their War Memorial
Park for the venue. Attendance at the museum had been
suffering and the park felt that a promotional push
on Independence Day featuring radio controlled submarine
demonstrations would be just the thing to draw in new
visitors. There was only one problem: the park had
no pond.
Batfish came to Muskogee via the Arkansas River
which flows several hundred feet off her bow
today. She sits
in the bottom of a sloping field and rain water
naturally collects around the hull. Don and
the park manager,
Rick, determined a berm could be constructed to
retain a body of water large enough for our
boats. Over several
weekends, Don constructed the berm and installed
a pump to draw water from the opposite side
of the boat
to fill the running area. Other than some weeds
that fouled props on occasion, the pond was
quite clear
and deep enough for small to mid sized boats. Don
deserves a SubRon Commendation Medal for all
his hard work.
Squadron turnout was better than initially expected.
Regulars Jeff Porteous, Tom & Marsha Kisler,
and myself, joined Don. We also enjoyed the company
of
a plankowner from Sun N Fun 2003, Scott Trosper,
and two new modelers of incredible talent: Stefan
Ronnebeck
and Ron Eichost. Scott Trosper made the original trek to Georgetown,
Texas in 2003 for our inaugural run as a group. He
has since started a scratchbuilt Verne-style Nautilus
project and has both the Revell Gato and Type VII kits.
He also plays a mean harmonica.
Stefan Ronnebeck, a former submariner in the German
Navy, brought his lovely wife Donna and a submarine
fleet which included an Engel Patrick Henry, a Typhoon,
Revell Gato, an Engel U-206 class, and a Delta submersible.
He ran several of his boats and all of them revealed
an incredible attention to detail and excellent craftsmanship.
His tales of standing watch on the bridge in the North
Atlantic were riveting.
Stefan chose an interesting approach to installing
the WTC in his Gato. Rather than cutting the boat horizontally
at the waterline he sliced the stern vertically, aft
of the end of the superstructure. The stern piece was
then attached to the end of the WTC. The entire assembly
slides into the hull and is captured by internal bulkheads.
It works quite well and makes for a nearly blemish
free hull. We can’t wait to see the boat in action. Ron Eichost from Kansas City wowed us with his scratchbuilt
1/24 scale Type VII U-boat. This gorgeous boat, modeled
after U-552, amazed everyone and looked beautiful on
the water next to Batfish. The project started with
a set of plans from German archives and includes an
OTW style pump ballast system and working torpedoes
fore and aft. While the pond was too small for the
boat to turn around or run submerged, Ron toted his
pride and joy down to the water in her custom built
cart and ran her back and forth on the surface for
all to admire. Ron is an accomplished modeler and we
look forward to featuring more of this boat and other
projects in the future.
Jeff, Tom, and I drove our respective old reliables:
Blueback; Scorpion and Thresher. All three were in
good humor and it was fun to be in the water together
again. The pond was nicely proportioned for them. Tom
tried his Kilo and got into trouble in the weeds against
Batfish’s hull. Once the weeds were mapped out
we got in several good runs. A nice crowd gathered
to watch the show, drawn by an article in the local
newspaper.
The weather was beautiful and by the end of the day
the heat had worn us out. So we bid Stefan and Ron
goodbye as they had to get back, and refueled at the
local IHOP. Then we dropped off Marsha Kisler and returned
to Batfish.
Don had secured free run of the museum
and boat all night. After watching some fireworks from
the deck of Batfish, Rick handed Don the keys and said, "See
you in the morning." We carried our gear below
and each picked out a bunk in the crew’s berthing
area which was rigged for red.
Tom appeared in the crew’s mess dressed in the
poopy suit he wore aboard the USS Tennessee and took
command of the evening. When he first heard we would
be spending the night on the boat, Tom had swung into
action and planned a night of Fast Cruise activities.
We began with "Sub Jeopardy". Blue team and
Gold team competed head to head in three full rounds
answering in the form of a question to submarine trivia
that ran the gamut from Civil War subs to the NATO
designations of Soviet boats. During a question from
the “20,000 Leagues” category, Scott Trosper
broke out his harmonica and played an impromptu chorus
of "A Whale of a Tale" that amazed and amused
everyone.
Following a hard fought sweep
by the Gold team, we embarked on a comprehensive
Submarine Qualification
scavenger hunt. Tom handed us an envelope marked “Confidential”.
The envelope contained a Qual Card styled letter directing
us to begin our journey. We were ordered to the radio
room where we found another envelope marked “Top
Secret” containing a coded message. We took it
to control where we decrypted it and learned our next
activity. Through the course of the night we solved
for angle on the bow using an Is-Was, prepared and “fired” a
torpedo tube, performed an emergency appendectomy,
conducted damage control for leaks, lined up the diesels
for starting, and even had a man overboard drill.
At
one point Jeff (in taped goggles to simulate smoke
blindness) was guided by Don to aim a fire hose (wooden
dowel) and extinguish fires (aluminum pans) in the
engine room. The only thing we didn't do was rig
up an illegal still. Tom, like Don, went way beyond
the
call of duty to ensure an unforgettable evening.
He truly was Chief of the Boat. By the time all the activities were completed it
was the wee hours of the morning. Before we racked
out
Jeff read the passage from Ned Beach’s “Submarine!” covering
Batfish’s actions in which she sank three Japanese
submarines within 72 hours.
After a little over three hours sleep, we cleared
out our gear in anticipation of the opening of
the park.
Before the crowds arrived we toured the fairwater of
the boat and the conning tower -- areas that are normally
off limits to visitors. It was a unique experience
to tour a museum boat with unlimited access to go wherever
your curiosity led you. We clambered over the bridge
and shears and took dozens of pictures of hull details.
By 10:00 am the crowds were arriving
again (Rick remarked attendance increased fivefold
over the weekend). We
showed our boats, answered questions and took to the
pond once more. Jeff and I finished the event running
our model subs from the deck of the real sub. Our vantage
point beside Batfish’s conning tower gave us
a wonderful view of the pond, and our boats. The ambiance
couldn’t be beat.
After two years of misadventures, it was great
to get things back on track with an event of
this caliber.
The water was good, the runs were successful, new
friends were made and everyone had a great time.
It would not
have happened without the hard work of Don Baker,
Tom Kisler, and the generosity of Batfish Park.
Respectfully,
P.H. Crozier |
