PROPWASH
October 2015
21
about that. We are all still big
kids, right?
So can we ever get back to
the glory and luster scale once
had? Anything is possible. I
know I have recommitted
myself to doing just that. Those
of us that remember what scale
used to be like have a respons-
ibility to the class. That respons-
ibility is to help someone that
wants to get into racing scale.
Pass down what you’ve learned.
Like I said to someone recently,
Scale Unlimited is a hard class.
Probably the hardest class because of the rules and the challenge of modeling a real
boat.
That’s what drew me in originally. By building these boats you suddenly have
some magical connection to the drivers. Names like Muncey, Chenowith, Hanauer,
Tate, Kropfeld, D’Eath, Reynolds, Villwock, Evans, Schaffer and so on. Those that
know me well, know my all time favorite driver is Chip Hanauer. Probably because I
watched his mentor Bill Muncey growing up. When I was racing kneeler hydros in the
eighties, I watched Chip drive as intense if not more than Bill did. I loved his aggress-
iveness. In some ways I tried to do the same racing 80 mph hydros in Northern
California until 1990 when my older brother and I both got out. In 2014, I got to have
a conversation with Chip when he came to the NAMBA Nationals in Marysville,
Washington. I saw Chip from the drivers stand as I was CDing for FE and Gas Scale.
Of course when I came down I had to run to my trailer like a little kid and grab a
binder full of Chip and Circus/Miller memorabilia. I pulled out a promo card of the
1989 Circus. I was a fan of Chip first, however Circus Circus was still my favorite
team. Especially in 1989 when Chip beat the Miss Budweiser with a slower backup
boat in Seattle. Chip signed the promo card for me and then we proceeded to have a
pretty great conversation for a half an hour. Chip said he would love to see my 1989
Pink Lady and the School Bus backup when I finish it. He said he would sign them for
me if I ever brought them back up to Washington. Check one off the bucket list right
there!
Before that conversation, I was on a path to actually leaving boating. I was looking
for other challenges. I made a decision to get out after the 2014 NAMBA Nationals
with others telling me to wait a year and see how I felt. Well I made a decision to get
rid of most of my other boats and go back to racing just Scale Unlimited. Maybe if my
son and I help fill out the class so it runs more regularly in my district, others will take
notice and decide they want to try it also. Maybe those that have boats sitting on the
shelves gathering dust will start to bring them out again too.
With some more room in the garage now, I have started working on a hull that has
been sitting on the shelf partially completed for the last nine years. And there are four
more right behind it. My son wants to build the boat we won at the 2014 NAMBA
Nationals. At least one other person has gotten back to building in my district. Maybe
the enthusiasm will catch on again. One boat at a time…..
in District Three. Last I talked to anyone
there, they had around eight that show
with some regularity. North of the
border in Canada they seem to have a
respectable number of boats. I see
pictures of the District 16 races on their
Facebook page all the time.
So as you can see there is still some
activity but the grand appeal and the
luster of Scale Unlimited has waned a
bit. Why is that? Well there is no one
magical thing you can point to. There
are a multitude of things. For one
running nitro has gotten significantly
more expensive since I began racing 15
years ago. That chased a lot of people
out. Plugs and fuel costs are high.
Construction materials have gone up.
Another reason is the proliferation
and advancements of alternative power
plants. Gas and FE are exponentially
better than they were just a few years
ago. I remember the first time I saw
Roger Newton try to run a FE 1/8 Scale
Unlimited in 2006. It was slow. The
batteries didn’t last very long and the
boat couldn’t run a full course. Now
they are blindingly fast with incredible
power and safer batteries. Gas has made
big strides too but I think there is more
R&D to be done with props and power
to be able to match speeds of FE and
Nitro.
Another reason is just the cost of
scale racing. Regardless of what we are
told, it’s rather apparent that the
economy is still not what it once was
and we have a ways to go to get back
there. Plus in an age of instant
gratification and instant results, scale
suffers because it is just not like that.
Some have asked me why did I stray
away from Scale Unlimiteds? This is the
class that really brought me into R/C
boating to begin with. For me, I got
distracted with other classes that were
cheaper to build and run. Suddenly I had
three or four running scale boats on the
shelf and they were not making it out to
the trailer because I had too many other
boats. Plus scale was not running
regularly here in District Nine. I also
had new unbuilt hulls on the shelf that
sat for years gathering dust. Others have
made that shift as well. I have seen it
time and again. Then there is the father
time factor which I will leave alone
because I know no one wants to talk
The Bill Muncey Memorial in San Diego during the
early years.
The NAMBA
Membership
Portal
