Connect with Radio Control Sailors & Scalers

Radio control sailors and scalers in the Phoenix metropolitan area are only separated by geography: sailing boats in different, often distant parts of the region and coming together for regattas or scale events. This WVRCM SailRC.club and ScaleRC.club site tries to keep us all connected by acting as a central bulletin board and membership meeting spot.

Regular Events

During much of the year, WVRCM has fun sailing for a couple hours each week on Tuesdays. DF95s and SeaWinds are the most common boats.

Weekly racing begins at noon at Lake Gary in Surprise.

Next monthly meeting is Saturday, December 7 at Litchfield Park. This is also an observation of the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, with a fleet of scale ships. The meeting begins at 10am.

Other RC sailing in the Phoenix area happens at these spots:

Gilbert Model Yacht Club: Starting at 9am, Tuesday-DF95; Wednesday-Victoria; Thursday-SeaWind; Saturday, DF95.

Sun City Model Yacht Club: Sailing at Viewpoint Lake now on summer hours of 10am to 1pm Sundays. Here's the club''s new website.

Sailing Wednesdays at Sun Village Pima Lake starting at 12:30. Entering the gate at the Village, tell them you're there to sail with Ron Burns.

Leisure World Tillerman Sailing Club: Alternating Marbleheads and 36/100s on Sundays. Contact Phil Meyrick, 503.806.1730.

Upcoming events

No upcoming events

mike ferring takes gilbert df95 regatta in tiebreaker

In very light wind, nine boats lined up for the start of our companion fall regatta presented with the Gilbert Model Yacht Club. Six of the nine finished within four points of the win, while Mike Ferring slipped past Mike Hester on a tiebreaker for the top spot.

Mike Hester had beaten Mike Ferring into second place in the Estrella North Lake regatta October 22 (see below), so the two essentially tied for the combined east-west shootout.

Thanks to Marc Mills for running the Gilbert show. Here are the scores (click to enlarge):

Dean johnson wins df95 regatta at estrella lake

Dean won the October 22 regatta with a perfect score after throw-outs, a lovely 10. The next finishers ended in a scrum pile for third. Read all about it here.

From left (first to fourth): Dean Johnson, Mike Hester, Mike Ferring, and Bruce Rasch

Peter feldman wins DF95 national title at mission bay

Rod Sturgess traveled to San Diego for the DF95 National Championship and marveled at Peter Feldman's sailing. Read Rod's report here.

Some of the 42 boats that raced in the DF95 National Championship in San Diego. Photo: Rod Sturgess

surprise pond pleases

We've now been using the Surprise pond for a while and have found it to be an excellent venue for WVRCM. In honor of the man who discovered the place, it has been Christened Lake Gary for Gary Wollenhaupt. Here's a link to the location on Google maps.

The site is similar to the Gilbert Model Yacht Club pond in design and purpose, with a concrete rim and wide, grassy surrounding area. There are no buildings, trees, or hills to interrupt the breeze, so even the lightest zephyr can find its way to the sailing boats.

The greatest benefit is Lake Gary’s location, very near where many RC sailors live, including the cluster at Sun City and attendance at the Tuesday noon casual sails has been good.

A wide shot of Lake Gary in Surprise, with wide-open spaces for the wind.

Scale Boats

WVRCM is home for scale boats, the models of full-size military and civilian boats and ships, often created with amazing attention to detail. Learn more about scale boats here.