Sail care
Ironing Works – Ever get a crease in your sail that you would like to remove. Well, if you had a wrinkle in your shirt, you would pull out the iron – right? Well, it works on your RC Laser sails too. Just one very big word of advice. Cover your sail with a terry cloth towel and iron on high steam. Don’t let the iron actually touch the sail or you may melt the mylar surfaces.
Sail Luff Mildew
Mildew spots can appear after prolonged periods due to water being left inside the sail luff pocket after sailing. The answer is to make sure you dry out the luff pocket at the end of every day’s sail. One method is to pop a length of tubing in the pocket to allow air circulation until all the water/moisture has dried out.
Waterproofing Maintenance (Cockpit)
The following are recommended to maintain the waterproofing the cockpit of your RC Laser. The cockpit is the compartment beneath the hatch cover that holds the boats electricals. It is a moulded part of the deck. The boat has been very well designed to keep water out of the electrics but if you get into serious racing and/or sailing in heavy wind & swell conditions then the following suggestions are cheap, quick effective and highly recommended;
a) Keep a de-watering spray in your kit. A pre-start spray of the electrics with the dewatering compound is an easy and sensible precaution.
b) Before you replace the cockpit hatch cover, scrunch up a couple of tissues & place into the electrics compartment.
c) The most likely points of water entry are the holes where the 2 servos (winch & rudder) penetrate the deck. To improve the water tightness it will be necessary occasionally to repack the holes in the deck with vaseline or lithium grease. Lithium grease may be purchased in most cycle shops in small tubes at little cost. The vaseline or lithium grease will also be handy for sealing around the hole where the antenna tube enters the hull cockpit. We recommend that you do this every 15 ? 20 sailing hours if you are sailing in heavy conditions. Each servo has a control fitting on deck. The sail winch has a round drum and the steering servo has a double arm. Both have screws that must be unfastened in order to remove these fittings and repack the holes. Do not remove the square radio compartment cover or the metal bridge over the winch drum.
The sail servo is a little tricky because of the tensioned monofilament control line. After you remove the screw be very careful to pinch together the two control lines as they enter the drum before prying the drum up and off the post. And don’t let go. Alternatively you can tape the control lines before putting the drum down.
With the post exposed put an ample amount of Vaseline or grease into the cavity around the post. Better too much than too little. When you reinstall the drum, any that squirts out is easy to clean up.
The steering servo is straightforward because you can pull the arm off without any adverse affects. Follow the same procedure for sealing around the post. Make sure you centre the rudder before re-installing the arm.