GOODBYE ZUIDERDAM

Today, Saturday February 24, was the final voyage of the R.C.S. ZUIDERDAM. The ship sailed at McCormick Lake in Scottsdale Arizona with no particular fanfare, but it was a splendid and memorable voyage. I confirmed that the re-fiberglassing of her hull bottom has stopped any leaks to her hull and she is perfectly sound! I threw a couple of extra rechargeable batteries in her aft hull to correct a tendancy to lean forward in the water.
Of the 28 pictures and 1 video I took, all came out in focus and usually quite pretty!

Built in October of 2005, the Zuiderdam has made 30 voyages on 7 different lakes (the most lakes covered by one Green Sea Ship!) including joint voyages with Ecstasy, Queen Mary, Musashi, Raffaello, Olympic, Amos Hathaway and Sovereign of the Seas. I believe she has joint-voyaged with more ships than any of my other ships!

The future of the Zuiderdam is very clear. She is to be converted into the R.M.S. QUEEN VICTORIA this spring where it is hoped she will sail at least another 30 voyages.

Bon Voyage, Zuiderdam. You did great.

Barrett Hochhaus
diamondback78@hotmail.com

QUEENS FINALLY MEET!

After 2 months of waiting, and 2 attempts, the R.C.S. QUEEN MARY and R.C.S. QUEEN ELIZABETH sailed TOGETHER on the same water at the same time!

The first attempt, on January 20, was scrubbed due to rain and the second attempt on February 3rd was scrubbed by technical problems.

For the record, the Queen Mary experienced frustrating power problems, perhaps due to another frequency being used on the lake. I switched her radio with the AMERICA and it worked...for a while.

Anyway, it worked long enough to get plenty of pictures and video of the 2 ships sailing together at Dobson Lake.
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It was also a special day for my R.C.S. AMERICA. She sailed for the first time with my friend Tom Schaefer's AMERICA. It was cool having 2 versions of the same ship out there together!
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The R.C.S. TITANIC made her maiden voyage after conversion from OLYMPIC last month. She made a second voyage later in the morning.
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Finally, the R.C.S. RAFFAELLO returned to the water for the first time since September 2006- 5 MONTHS (alot for a Green Sea ship).

Please enjoy these pictures for now. I will try to put a video up on Youtube later tonight. Stay tuned!

Barrett Hochhaus
diamondback78@hotmail.com

Zuiderdam gets an overhaul

The R.C.S. ZUIDERDAM was in drydock today for some much-needed re-enforcements of her hull. Specifically, she has had a nagging leak in her aft hull for many months and during her last voyage (an epic marathon), the leak became alarming.

I have chased the leak for a long time, and it seemed to originate in the rudder area, but nothing I did seemed to stop it, so I decided to re-fiberglass the ENTIRE aft bottom of her hull. Then, I poured some bondo onto the area around the rudder and prop shaft sleeves.

If she continues to leak, I will throw up my hands and give up! Just in case, I fiberglassed the area inside her hull as well. The hull overhaul is considered a vital step ahead of the QUEEN VICTORIA conversion.

The Zuiderdam is expected to sail on a checkout voyage as soon as Monday February 12. It will be her 29th voyage.

Barrett Hochhaus
diamondback78@hotmail.com

Technical problems scrub joint sailing

Saturday, February 3rd was supposed to see a wonderful voyage of the 2 QUEENS, Mary and Elizabeth together at last on the water.

Unfortunately, when I finally placed them in the water at Mercado Lake in Scottsdale on Saturday afternoon, the Queen Elizabeth refused to move. Switching batteries did nothing and I sat dumbfounded as I reluctantly replaced the ships in my vehicle and went home with my tail between my legs. My best friend Nathan was to sail the Lizzie while I took the Mary. It would have been grand...

After getting back to the shop, I tried switching the electronic speed controller and Nathan noticed that a metal bar I had built into the motor mount may be shorting out the motor. I removed the bar and sure enough, the motor ran freely!

So, we took the Lizzie to Chapparral Lake with the BATTLESHIP MUSASHI and tried to sail between the fishing lines.

Well, the problems returned and the Lizzie was soon just as dead as she was at Mercado. Perhaps the motor is fried?

Any suggestions from fellow boaters would be appreciated.

Anyway, I did manage to get a couple of pics of the Musashi and Lizzie together as well as a tantalizing pic of the Mary and Lizzie together on the shore.

Better luck on February 17.

Barrett Hochhaus
diamondback78@hotmail.com