Thanks To Two Great Men

[Das Boot]

My son reminded me of something the other day. He remembered running submarines at Carmel, Indiana. The two people that let him was Skip Asay, and David Merriman. I remember when Skip let my oldest son run his sub and I was so nervous. But he did a good job, and Skip walked away and let him have the controls. David did the same thing, and I didn’t know what I was gonna say if something happened. Thank you to these two wonderful people who let children play with their submarines that cost so much money.

[goshawk823]

Way back in the 90s, David did the same for me with a 1/96 Skipjack at Lake Trashmore in Va Beach. David has always been generous with his time and his product. I have gotten an old WTC 3.5 of mine refurbished by David after years and years of owning it. When we would be at the lake or at a regatta, David was always available for a repair, a part, or knowledge. Knowing David, he’s not going to even respond to this praise, but it’s well deserved, nonetheless. (Remind me to tell you someday about the time we were on the road for a regatta in Groton, and what David did for a somewhat confused old timer that parked near us in a rest area in some state (maybe NY?) on the way there.)

I used to talk with Skip all the time when I did advertising editor way back in the day for the SubCommittee magazine. When Skip found out I was building an OTW Type XXIII, he sent me a bunch of fiberglass sheet and other materials for my build. Skip is no longer here with us, and we are poorer for his passing, I have somehow ended up with Skip’s legendary Type XXIII model, which is sitting on a shelf in my hobby area, waiting for a total refit. After 30+ years of this model’s existence, it’s still in great shape. His electronics were exactly what this hobby needed when he introduced them.

This hobby would have never gotten off the ground without these two pioneers.

[Davjacva]

Merriman is great at handing you the controls and letting you figure it out. He did it to me flying a balsa airplane once (I almost crashed it...twice). Oh, he also threw me a radio over his shoulder while yelling something (catch this?) while he dove after a sub he built for a guy...that he failed to put the WTC bulkhead on. Our Diver Dave was so fast he got that submarine while it was still in it's fiery death throws going to the bottom. He came back up and I asked, 'I guess there's a problem?' He had nothing to say. That was my initial view of the submarine hobby, back in 2002, and I stayed away until 2022. Seriously, Dave and others make it look stupid-easy like a wind-up toy, and people get hooked on it as a result. We all copied that at our Tank events and had a lot of new recruits from it. Subs are not on the same level as they are definitely harder to get initially started into.