During third year of the degree of Naval Architecture at the University of Strathclyde, students are split into groups of five and given the task of designing, building and sailing a 70cm remote control sailing yacht.

The rules for this yacht are, to be perfectly honest, quite dull. They were concieved for yachts sailing in outside lakes in strong winds, not for sailing indoors with fans for wind generators. However, it is part of the course and so we set to it without further ado. We decided to go for a modern racer design, wide, flat stern for surfing and a fine bow to cut through the waves. However, to be within the rules and, more importantly, for the university to be able to machine the hull without creating a massive hole in it, we had to raise the freeboard further than we would have preferred.

The result was a yacht that looked wierd, high freeboard, stubby mast and generally not really what we were aiming for. But nonetheless we sent in the design and soon after had the hull, machined out of foam, in our hands. We built the boat up well, filling and sanding the foam to get a very smooth surface. The original paint scheme was blue topsides and a silver underwater. We got the calculations bang on; the first time we watered the boat she swam exactly on the waterline we had painted on. 

Unfortunately the racing didn't go so well, due to the lack of constant wind, adhesion to sailing rules and some illegal manoeuvering, but we had funs sailing her. We did find the jib to be a bit to small, going upwind she would have quite a lot of weatherhelm.