SAILBOAT RC

Mastering the Waves: Sailboat RC’s Latest Breakthroughs and Future Projects Revealed
(+ Gifts for Fastest Fingers!) 🎁

June, 2023.

*This is an approx. "17 min read” blog post / newsletter. 
We decided to share it with all of you because of heightened interest in our products & actions recently.
Thank you for following us.

Dear RC sailors scattered worldwide, 

Here we are in a somewhat different communication channel than you are used to from us. On this mid-2023 episode with our blog post, we decided that this is going to be one relaxed reading and hopefully you will also notice how rarely we send any newsletter to the general public as we hate spamming emails too much, really nobody likes that. 🙂 We wanted to give you a fresh update now because we had several major updates just recently and not everybody follows social media (such as Facebook or Instagram) where we try to give updates regularly. 

So, without further ado, let’s go through what we were doing recently and what will come soon on our webshop. From the start of 2023. we decided to work on a new “Kantun S” IOM sailboat that is envisioned as its replacement. Our main IOM sailboat “K2” is not going anywhere because we will use it as our recommended ‘middle & strong conditions’ hull (medium & strong waves with medium & strong wind), while our old light conditions hull “Kantun S” (low waves and light wind) simply required an upgrade considering it was our first design that we did long before “K2” even came to be. Regarding any release dates, we do not have any yet as there is still lots of work to be done, the best estimate we have for now is that the new “Kantun S” could have a finished prototype around the first quarter of 2024. But, that could still mean more waiting time as it will require sailing testing, computers and calculations are one thing, and real-time tests are completely different things so we want to make sure all is perfect before releasing it on the webshop. Regarding all those technical-oriented news about upcoming design, if you are sailing often in light winds without any big waves, then this new “S” design should be a suitable pick for you. However, “K2” should still be a more favourable pick for an “all-around” design to sail in most of the different conditions worldwide. All of our current sails and rigs will be interchangeable from “K2” IOM sailboats to the new “Kantun S” as well. Considering we don’t have any design photos to offer you yet regarding this new update, we decided to ask almighty Artificial Intelligence to help us out! Hmm, maybe we should stick to good ol’ tested methods and use AI elsewhere… 🤔

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Regarding our Masterclass 2023 event, we were very excited to meet many lovely people on our already 3. edition of this amazing mentorship course that we have now specialized in pretty well, we trust we can state that now indeed. Firstly, we successfully closed the application forms online and were thrilled to see so many different nations with us in Croatia upon their arrival; 8 different countries from 4 different continents visited us in the end! All of our guests left Split as good friends we trust, and it was an honour to have them with us on Masterclass, we can’t say anything but superlatives about our guests here. And we could speak a lot about what we did through all of those days with learning courses on the sea, practices, ‘1 on 1’, trim & optimisation teachings and lectures, but that should be one long novel, much longer than this blog post…and we would still not be even close to finished as then we would also need to mention our relaxing visit to Split old center and Diocletian palace, traditional ethno village in Dalmatian inland, all the tasty food, secret new items shared during the visit to new Sailboat RC production facilities (we will disclose them too for all of you later on, ok, ok..), etc. Maybe it is best to sum it up like this: sun tans will fade, but memories will stay forever. Thank you all, what a wonderful time we shared in our Masterclass!

Aftermovie from the event will be released publicly, so it is good to keep up with our social media on the Sailboat RC Facebook page and our YouTube account where we will post about this once it is done. But, until we release the official 2023 aftermovie on our YouTube account, here are a couple of collage photos that capture just a fraction of our experience from Masterclass 2023. We know that we already miss all of you who were here with us, hope to see you soon at the next larger event in IOM class! 😊

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From the very start of 2023. our “K2” IOM sailed in many different capable hands that already recognized how fast it can go quite some time ago. But, even some fresh IOM sailors got to taste its capabilities and achieved golden medals which shows us both their great RC sailing skills and also that our design can be pretty intuitive no matter that it is still a high performer with so many top results behind it. Thus, we wanted to share some of the events that got our attention, and we did that partly already on our social media in April when we had a “rain of medals” falling onto us in such a short time that it was simply impossible to track everything no matter how hard we tried. So now we have to continue and finish up what we started already back then, here are updated statistics from 2023., but please understand that it is getting hard to track all of the regattas out there for us and we missed some other events that are not here. We appreciate all of you from our Sailboat RC global family reaching out to us in future as well and sharing your success with us with many other moments, that is helpful indeed and we are sure others are thankful too. We will try to put them in chronological order from oldest to newest below, but these amazing results are basically also telling you why we decided to upgrade first our older “Kantun S” design, not the “K2”… 

Alright, in the following lines below you can find some of the top results we had in the first half of 2023., well done to all participants who were enjoying IOM class events, organizers for enabling them to do so and big congratulations to guys who were rocking hard during regatta in order to climb up on the podium!

 

USA 2023 “R5’ IOM Championship Regatta: 🥇 1st place Sean Fidler (K2)

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CRO 2023 National Championship: 🥇1st Mirko Ukas (K2), 🥈2nd Ante Kovačević (K2), 🥉3rd Robert Matulja (K2)

[also, Navigational 2023 Regatta was also having triple Kantun medals, but here we also had a huge Kantun fleet so let’s leave it out from the results photos…]

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Australia 2023 IOM National Championship: 🥈2nd Paul Jones  (K2)

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IOM / F5-E 2023 EuropaCup: 🥇1st Forro Krisztian (K2)

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Malta 2023 IOM Spring Series: 🥈2nd Nicholas Sammut Borg (K2)

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 2. Mondsee Regatta – IOM class – 🥇1st Valentin Fuchs

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Japan 2023 IOM National Championship: 🥇1st Osamu Yamawaki (K2),  🥈2nd Yasuyuki Ikematsu (K2), 🥉3rd Tomoyuki Yagi (K2)

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Canada 2023 IOM National Championship: 🥉3rd Peter Grimm (K2)  –  [🥇1st CAN national IOM competitor]

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Spain 2023 Torrevieja International meeting – PreEuropean regatta: 🥉3rd Zvonko Jelačić (K2)

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&  Nordic and Swedish Championship – PreEuropean regatta: 🥇1st Michael Colberg (K2) ,🥈2nd Jonas Samson (K2), 🥉3rd Odd Ornulf Stray (K2)

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 North Adriatic Cup – IOM class regatta: 🥇1st Robert Grubiša (K2) ,🥉2nd Garay Gyorgy (Kantun S)

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 Izmir IOM Cup – IOM class regatta: 🥇1st Mehmet Levend Gurkan (K2)

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On top of all of these “Kantun” designs that were winning medals on podiums, there are even more of our IOM monoSRC™ SAILS mounted on our Complete RIGS but on other IOM sailboats and they were also enjoying even more success by being in the TOP 3 places. This list would be simply huge if we kept track of all of that so we had to leave them out. Instead, we are going to celebrate all of those victories that follow us in IOM class and return some happiness back to all of you by giving the discount coupon codes for the next three orders (first come, first served!):

  • Complete Rig A (No.1) – 10% discount on the whole Rig A: SRCrigA10

  • Suit A (No.1) Black Edition – 50% discount on black color suit materials: SRCblackmaterial50

  • Suit B (No.2) – 20% on the whole suit: SRCsuitB20

Kindly note, all coupons you find in this blog end in 8 days, so on 1st of July 2023. they will expire – better hurry up and get your goodies or share them with your friends who might need them! 🙂 That means you have 8 days left to act on it and visit our webshop if somebody else does not steal it right away from you as every coupon can be used only once. Let the games begin!

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Regarding more items that came out of our new production facilities in 2023., we also released quick “Packaging for rigs & sails”. That means shipping your Complete Rigs & Sails just got more affordable with our new V2.0 of this RC sailing goodie from our webshop (this item represents the option to add to Cart if you already have your own IOM Rig Box at home, it is not a replacement for our IOM Rig Box for sure, but it is still very useful). 

But, we didn’t stop there. Instead, we have one question for you here: are you tired of uncomfortable lanyards that constantly tug on your neck while you hold RC in your hands? It’s time to upgrade to our new Lanyard (Neck Strap) V2.0! We’ve taken our initial success with our highly recognisable lanyards and improved them now with two different versions to suit your needs the best as we listened to you carefully before. The new Neck Strap V2.0 Lanyard is not only more comfortable, but it’s also even more durable and also functional. A new improved metal buckle now can endure any nervous fingers pushing down on your radio for many years without risking metal hook distortion. Summer or winter conditions are both covered and also you can pick the width according to your needs & preferred feeling around your neck. Check out our webshop to learn more about this upgraded item, and don’t forget to browse the full photo gallery for all the details. Make the switch to the Lanyard V2.0 today and experience that safe feeling and comfort you deserve on high-level RC sailing events! The link is over here: Lanyard Neck Strap to V2.0.

Around February of 2023, we also released our own RC sailing buoys (regatta marks) that were designed to be highly durable, very visible and in great shape/size for RC sailing. They easily rotate with even slight touch of your hull so any penalty is easier to catch, but also they are pretty safe as you will not be able to catch rope below with your keel considering the width of each mark. Fair warning only right away here; don’t miss them out as they are already on a very low stock by the time we are already writing this (we just can’t hide everything until it is released officially, ha!). We released a short video too: Watch it on YouTube – CLICK HERE👈!

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Another thing we wanted to address is the recent issues with the sail winch we are using from RMG Sailwinch from Australia. Considering some of you had issues with new ones, RMG is fighting hard to repair them ASAP for you, but in the meanwhile, if you want to use any other type of winch we just wanted to let you know that our winch mount inside the K2 hull also fits Red Ant winch. So, if you are waiting for repair and have a spare one to use, why not, go for it? You can use our 45mm drum with it as well, no need to change it. As soon as a new batch is with us, replacements will be sent to you immediately. The good news is that Rob in Australia pinpointed all issues that caused problems and he is laser-focused on eliminating them for good, we are all eager for more good news from Australia.

 

One more very important update is one that we can put shortly and proudly here in case some of you missed it…for all new orders of our “K2’ IOM sailboat, the new waiting time is now even lower than our record-breaking times from years before!

So, now, as promised last year, you have to wait reduced number of months for us to ship your Premium K2 IOM EasyOrder option or only just a little bit more for the Custom K2 IOM option from our webshop. Always check item description for latest (most updated) lead waiting times for K2 or any other IOM we manufacture and offer on our webshop. Yes, new production facilities are up and running 100% now, if there are no holidays or hard-earned vacations that our employees take occasionally, we will ship your fully equipped Premium with absolutely all items included or maybe your Custom with some parts excluded that you already have. That was our promise from last year and we delivered on it, thank you all for your patience and the trust you put in us.

…and here is another gift from Sailboat RC to our readers to celebrate our new production facilities that is now faster than ever. We are giving you an opportunity to secure a 35% discount on the mesmerizing metallic hull colour “Violet Starlight”! Be the first to swiftly claim this nice deal by typing in the code “SRCvioletS35” at checkout when you order your new K2 IOM now. Check out color samples HERE as this is going to be the first of its kind hue. Send us an email if you want to see more photos of the actual hull as it will be ready soon!

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Now, if you thought back there that we ended up giving back to our community in 2023., you are wrong, sorry. By the end of this year, we are planning to introduce you all to our new “RC Sailing Ambassadors” programme which will have several tiers for members who contribute the most to its vision. Rewards will be various freebies, discounts, perks, bonuses, etc. There will be stated special possibilities which we will offer for all of you who enjoy RC sailing to the fullest, and that is just another reason to be a part of the Sailboat RC global family – we truly try our best to treat you like one of our family members. Here is shortly how our programme will work, the more advanced you are, the more points and benefits you will unlock, meaning we will also give early access perks, exclusive offers, limited edition items…to be honest, it is pretty exciting just to think about all the possibilities that are opened with Ambassadors programme, and we hope you share our enthusiasm too! 🙂 Today, Sailboat RC is a well-known brand worldwide for sure, but there is still so much room to improve in every aspect possible; be it with the manufacturing of IOM sailboats which is a mix of art and science by itself, or by improving overall satisfaction within our community by supporting events, organizers, volunteers and all other enthusiasts who simply like to share with others so we can all grow together. That is why we want you to be a part of our journey even more; there is hardly anything better in this world than to actively pursue your dreams, your own lifestyle and your passion in life.

Another thing which would be interesting to mention probably as it will be a useful service to many of you who are looking for extra information on our website: we are also planning to introduce you to our Sailboat RC AI-powered Chat which will be a new quick/instant layer of our Customer Service added on our already proven email support that we have at your disposal. There is also something cooking for the EC12 class out there, we have new goodies upcoming for all of you guys as well, so stay tuned…

If you didn’t know it yet, we love Latin proverbs (history can teach us a lot if we listen to it). And, there is one right on the spot to start ending this long blog post: ‘Non progredi est regredi’. Translated, that would mean the following: (to) not to go forward is to go backward. We hope you will also share our philosophy in many years to come, so let’s together sail forward towards a sea of endless possibilities, RC sailing (and IOM class especially) are offering that for sure. 

We would like to end this mid-2023 analysis (finally, huh?! 😅) with two photos that show you exactly where we feel the best – sharing our time with all of you at many wonderful IOM events worldwide. Now is also the best time to mention we are going to try to prepare one little bit shorter course similar to our Masterclass just before the South American IOM Continental Championship 2023 and also one shorter course in the USA for North America. But, in the USA we will also have one full Masterclass event too on top of it as the accumulated interest is already showing us a promising number of participants. You will hear more on this in the following weeks, so tune in. 

Thank you for being a part of the Sailboat RC family.

Fair winds and following seas,

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