2024 A Year in Port Polar Bear

Brouhaha

Brouhaha 2024 was ultimately canceled ending the streak at 15 consecutive, hopefully we can get it back and running next spring.

Port Polar Bear Memorial Weekend Battle Sat/Sun May 25, 26 2024

We battled Saturday and Sunday before Memorial Day again this year. In attendance were: Tyler (Florida), McCoy (VU), Addie (Tourville), Bob (Nagato), Zach (Nagato), Andy (Matt’s Nagato), Mike (Seydlitz and Caio Duilio), Peter (Erin), Owen (Moltke), KC Tom (WW1 Montana). Rick was in Spain on vacation with his wife. When he returns, I expect he will be inspired to start battling the Spanish cruiser Canarias. Mike and Tyler can’t wait to ask if the rain in Spain does in fact fall mainly in the plain.

The whole crew went to the Twins game on Friday night, they played an hour earlier than usual because the Timberwolves were also in town for the Western Conference Finals (they lost to Dallas). We got out at a very reasonable time, the pitch clock continues to significantly cut down on game duration. The Twins beat the Rangers 3-2, Bob was fairly consistently text messaging taunts to Jeff, who lives in the Dallas Metro area and is a huge baseball fan. Bob’s other goal was to get on TV, which he did when there was a sharp hit down the right field line (we were sitting on the lowest seats right at the field level about half way between first base and the home run fence) and Bob stood up to help the umpire signal fair ball.

Mike and Andy are the only two MN guys planning to go to Nats this year. One of the goals was to save the sheeting on their primary ships so they wouldn’t have to re-sheet in the next month, Nats is June this year. For this reason, Andy took Matthew’s Nagato out (since he was unable to make the battle and sounds most motivated to get his Seydlitz going for the fall) and Mike took Brandon’s Caio Duilio to battle. We learned that the Caio Duilio needs more bulge and bow water channeling, it can’t currently take enough damage to be competitive. Also, Matthew’s Nagato seems too top heavy, either the superstructure needs to be lightened significantly or the internal components need to be rebalanced, as it has a nasty habit of taking on an inconsistent list with light to moderate damage. When Andy took the superstructure completely off it was fine. Something will have to change.

Saturday we battled Hellands + Andy + Tom vs the rest. Mike started with the Cioa Duilio but switched to the Seydlitz thereafter. The battling felt fairly close. Team Helland won the first battle by 1600. We broke for portable grilled foot longs (burnt on the outside and frozen in the middle is the preferred style) for lunch and did a second battle. Unfortunately unlike last season, Owen’s mom didn’t send desert with him to share, we were sure to firmly set expectations for future battles. Team Helland lost the second battle by 1000 points. This was a 3 sortie battle because the day was getting a bit away from us.

Saturday evening we had pizza at Bob’s garage. There was very minimal serious boat work all weekend but we patched and visited for a bit. Addie wanted some pitching instruction from Bob so we threw the ball around, she had to go from 35 to 40 foot distance and increase from 11 inch to 12 inch softball this year throwing her mechanics into a bit of an adjustment period. We clocked her at 35mph. Even as I write this two weeks later she is already coming around. McCoy wanted to check out Andy’s 3D printing projects and we headed over there briefly as well. We were impressed by his RC aircraft collection and his printed PT boat project.

On Sunday we changed teams, Hellands + Zach + Tom vs the rest. Owen didn’t show up right away so Mike took his Moltke for a quick spin. Zach must have carried us, Hellands won by 3600. More foot long hot dogs for lunch, but this time Tyler brought some gas station cookies for dessert. For the 2^nd battle we flipped McCoy and Peter so the Helland pig boats could dual. McCoy and Peter were disappointed because they had been having a lot of fun prior to that slugging it out with each other in most of the prior sorties. The Hellands – McCoy + Zack + Tom + Peter (this is getting confusing) team won by 1450. We were making good time and did a full 3^rd battle with the same teams and a similar result, 1750 point win.

The Florida was out for the first time ever. Tyler built it without wood (fiberglass decks) and magnetic strips for deck seal. He built it because it came with a stack of ships obtained from Gerald and was the correct combination of ugly and bulgy. Also, he wanted to battle a slow pig boat with McCoy. It performed fairly wall overall, the guns were quite reliable. It doesn’t turn as well as the VU due to the single rather than twin rudders. Damage taking could be a little better, it needs to adjust batteries forward slightly and get some more water channeling in the bulges as it tends to list when sinking. The barbettes will likely be sealed better as well. When driven aggressively it sank with 33-8-31. Tyler found out that you have to be a little more gentle with small boats, the Yamato and Nagato can slam in to ships relentlessly and get half pushed into water without noticing, but the Florida doesn’t have the mass to play like that. On a very positive note, there was zero muscle soreness or back pain hauling the Florida around (as opposed to the Yamato), even allowing for a 5.5 mile run before battle Sunday morning.

Owen had the Moltke out as his new primary ship. He previously had been living on loaners but obtained it this winter. The ship originally belonged to Ron who built the plug/original for Swampworks decades ago. Bob ended up with it (completely re-built and re-branded it Goben) and battled her briefly. Bob then sold it to Johnny. Johnny sold it to Brandon. Brandon sold it to Owen. Though it has lived in MN, Texas, Nevada, I don’t think it battled much outside of MN and the Brouhaha in Louisiana before it came full circle back to Port Polar Bear. Bob helped Owen get it back up to ship shape over the winter including a very impressive Mike inspired deck seal. The thing can drive half under water and pop back up without problems fairly consistently. It takes a slight list towards the funny gun (starboard) as it sinks but the deck seal is so good it doesn’t matter too much. The real problem at this point is that Owen needs some defensive driving lessons. He worked hard to narrowly take the most damaged for the weekend away from Tom and did succeed in the end, with a total of 259(a)-73(o)-243(b). Tom didn’t let it go without a fight having his own 528 above, but Owen had 33 more below than Tom.

Nats is in June this year. We will battle again in Chanhassen Sept 7/8.

Tyler

Port Polar Bear Ice Breaker Fri/Sat/Sun September 6,7,8 2024

We battled Friday, Saturday and Sunday since we had out of towners in town and Bob wanting to sneak away on Sunday late morning for softball. In attendance were: Tyler (Florida), McCoy (VU), Addie (Tourville), Etta (Minneapolis), Bob (Nagato), Andy (Nagato), Mike (Seydlitz), Matthew (Seydlitz), Peter (Erin), Owen (Moltke). From Kansas City: Tom (Alaska), Rick (Jamaica). From Reno: Brandon (Caio Duilio).

I wasn’t there but evidently a lightly loaded trip to the pond with enough stuff for 2 quick sorties was undertaken on Friday afternoon. Ryan stopped by.

On Saturday we completed 3 full two sortie battles. On Sunday we did 2 full two sortie battles with Bob leaving after the first battle and Mike not making it out. Etta the 9 year old in the Minneapolis said she had a great time and wishes she would have battled on Saturday too, she sank 3 out of 4 sorites mostly because she has minimal ability to actually control the ship. I could tell Addie was starting to catch on a bit and saw her taking some reasonably good shots. The Duilio was a bit bow heavy when taking damage, some bow water channeling should help that. Tyler sank 5 times in the Florida, that ship needs some bulge water channeling since it tends to sink inconsistently from side to side, also the batteries need more consistent places to live since it was despite some foam wedging thinks in place was not consistent enough to generate a reliable stable sinking experience. We had Costco hot dogs for lunch both days. Weather was awesome with clear sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s. We had amazingly few technical issues that caused delays or missed sorties. Rick fried all of his pumps and missed a 2^nd sortie on Sunday. Peter had a rudder mechanism break but was able to fix it with some string.