Submarine School

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

How does a participant, new to the game – a 'mud-puppy', who has some r/c vehicle experience; who knows little about the intricacies of r/c submarines; and is not too proud to learn under the wing of an assigned r/c submarine expert, a 'sea-daddy' – walk away from the four-day 2026 SubFest event equipped with the knowledge to select the right kit, devices, and preferred methods of putting it all together into a workable r/c model submarine?

You know who I am, Yeah!... I'm THAT guy!

And I'm willing to set up and administer a program to pair up mud-puppy's with sea-daddy's.

The objective is to train the next generation of successful r/c model submarine assemblers and drivers; to save this hobby from extinction!

If this is to work I need from you people... and I need it NOW... a list of names of perspective sea-daddy's and mud-puppy's. So, e-mail me (dmeriman@aol.com) your name, contact information, what skills you bring to the table, and what classification you fall under.

We 'experts' are dropping like flies. Time to transfer that vital Tribal-Knowledge on to the younger folk is long overdue. Failure to pass it on will result in the eventual loss of this hobby to the America's.

STEP UP!

David Douglass Merriman lll

[Ken_NJ]

One problem is I knew of one person in my state that WAS interested in coming to see what & how and see the inner workings of my model subs, but he moved to Florida. It is hard enough with the few people in my area interested in RC boats in general, surface boats! We have 8 people left in our 'club' which is now a social club. Of those eight, 2-3 actually build something.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

One problem is I knew of one person in my state that WAS interested in coming to see what & how and see the inner workings of my model subs, but he moved to Florida. It is hard enough with the few people in my area interested in RC boats in general, surface boats! We have 8 people left in our 'club' which is now a social club. Of those eight, 2-3 actually build something.

OK, no tag-along potential mud-puppy's you know of from your neck of the wood. But how about you, Ken. Wanna be a sea-daddy?

[Ken_NJ]

How does a participant, new to the game – a 'mud-puppy', who has some r/c vehicle experience; who knows little about the intricacies of r/c submarines; and is not too proud to learn under the wing of an assigned r/c submarine expert, a 'sea-daddy' – walk away from the four-day 2026 SubFest event equipped with the knowledge to select the right kit, devices, and preferred methods of putting it all together into a workable r/c model submarine?

So this would be an 'expert' someone with a bit more knowledge from a 'wanna be'. That would help a someone that wants to get started in the hobby, guide them while at the Subfest event? And what about after the event?

I'd be willing somewhat. I'm sure I'll be busy capturing video with my drone. Last year I was so busy with the drone capturing great video that I did not get much water time with my models. I do hope to run boats more than last year.

Bob needs to have a meeting of who is doing what helping out at Subfest!

[Fishb0y]

I love the idea, and I'd even take it one step further. I think we're missing places where people can truly unplug from the virtual world and get together to work on projects. I'm guessing that's what the old-school hobby shops used to be like.

I visited Homeport Models in Peabody, MA, last week. If you've ever been to the Groton run, you've probably seen some of their boats just begging for a torpedo! They produce some incredibly high-quality surface targets (ships), but what impressed me most wasn't just the products.

Eric, the owner, has worktables in the shop that people can rent to build and work on their projects. As he explained it, the goal isn't really to rent table space—it's to create a place where people with a shared passion can hang out, collaborate, swap ideas, and enjoy the hobby together.

I won't lie—if I lived closer, I'd absolutely be renting a table there. I think that's the kind of community our hobby could really use more of.

[SubSteve]

I’m in for mentoring and troubleshooting. Specialty is electrical/electronics.