2019
A Year in Port Polar Bear
Brouhaha Sat/Sun
March 23/24 2019
Brouhaha 2019 is in the
books. Myself (Nagato), Peter (Trans HMS Erin), Erik (Tyler's Brother running the
Barham) were the PPB guys that went down to Boutte Louisiana. We did 3 full
battles per day, 12 total sorties. Generally, we played Axis vs Allies for
Saturday with a few times swapping the Italians. The allies won big. We did
split fleets where we made nations fight vs their countrymen for most of
Sunday. At the end of the last battle on Sunday it was an all-out get Tyler
battle (81/19/58). I was able to sink Erik in the fury. I can't confirm but
I've been told Tom (who was on my team) was in on it and went elsewhere to
battle when it got heavy - thanks Tom :). In all we had a great time. The
attendance was a bit lighter this year with 14 ships on the water but it was
still a blast. Peter won Winning Admiral, Tyler won Best of Class 6 and
Most Feared Axis, Erik Won Most Feared Allied.
Tyler - Nagato
Peter - Erin
Erik - Barham
Tom P - Alaska
Rick W - Jamaica
Dirty Dave - Setsu
Gerald R - Hiei
Ted B - VDT
Mike T - Bismarck
Brandon S - Caio Dulio
John (new guy from
Houston) - Andrea Doria
Gary P (new guy from
California) - Des Moines
Kevin P - Againcort
Randy S - Glorie and Italian Cruiser
Tyler
NATS 2019 July
8-12, 2019
Nats 2019 was a 17.5 hour drive for the Polar
Bears who made the trip to Oakboro North Carolina for the annual national
competition. Tyler (Nagato), Bob (Kongo), Andy (Kongo on loan from Tyler)
teamed up for some Japanese fury. The Axis had a more powerful roster from the
onset and the scores reflected this early in the week with a 10,000 point lead
after the first battle. However a few key Allied ships were having troubles
that were mostly related to new boat issues and were worked out as the week
wore on such that the scores tightened. By Thursday the Allies had managed to
win the fleet battle. This in addition to winning each of the two campaign
battles (Tuesday and Thursday) by 10,000 points each made for a very tight
Friday battle. The score before the final battle was a 1000 point differential
in favor of the Allies. On Friday the Axis once again battled very well as a
fleet and were able to make back the difference for a 4000 point victory for
the week. On the water the Port Polar Bear crew was very successful. With the
help of Mark L in his Nagato we were able to control the water and in several
instances work very effectively as a group to take out the targets we called on
the fly. Specifically, we sunk a Jean Bart and Revenge at the end of the first
campaign and then do the same thing to an Iron Duke and NC in the second
campaign. In addition to a great deal of fun had on the water, there were
plenty of mishaps and shenanigans to make for a very memorable week. There were
3 fires - Tom T’s battleship had an ESC catch fire on the bench in which open
flames were coming out of the boat requiring a fires extinguisher to get it put
out, Nate’s Destroyer direct shorted between battery wires and the insulation
went up in a blaze until it was disconnected. John J’s destroyer lost control
and was shot to shreds in Cruiser battle, the cause of the control loss was
soon discovered when the improperly waterproofed ESC erupted in flames - this
one was particularly impressive as there was smoke coming out of the BB holes
in the side of the ship. And who could forget the hush-puppy puppet named
Timmy, a discussion about the home town football mascot (which for the record
is not the Fighting Moppakichens), and getting a
waitress to call Jeff “paint chip.”
Nats was great and is even more fun with more guys
on the water, you should come next year.
Tyler
Ice Breaker 2019 September
8, 2019
Ice Breaker 2019
was intended to be a two day battle but due to incoming rainy weather and a
number of the usual guys not really being able to make it out, we ended up
doing 3 battles on Saturday and calling it good. Of course the shoreline was
completely overgrown again so we cut down a fair bit of under
brush with weed wackers and a machete and hand
saw. They have built a pump house to take water from our drainage pond and
irrigate the nearby baseball field, so there is a little path down to the water
that has a lot of tree cover along the shore, and that section is really close
to the walking path making loading in easier but getting from the pits down to
the pond a slight bit more of a down hill trudge. The
weather was about perfect, cool but not cold in the lower 60’s with minimal
wind and overcast. We were all fairly comfortable in T shirts or light long
sleeves and the water was actually fairly warm still. Bob had the hip waders on
but I ended up going in once to my thighs and it really wasn’t bad. Tyler
(Nagato), Peter (Erin), Tom (Alaska), McCoy (Zara), Clint (Tyler’s Tourville)
squared off against Andy (Barham), Bob (Kongo), Zach (Invincible), and Rick
(Jamaica). We did our best to stay true to PPB form and slugged it out within a
few feet of shore for the bulk of the battle.
In the first
battle Peter and Tom seemed to be focused out. Tom later found a piece of epoxy
had made its way through the pump house but was stuck in the outlet. He sank
with 48-4-25. Peter sunk with 57-8-27. Andy’s team’s capital ships each had
about 30 below and none of them sank. Andy’s team won by 980 points.
Andy went for
lunch as we patched, he brought back taco bell and made a special trip to
McDonalds for McCoy, thanks Andy. McCoy ate 3 cookies, telling me “It’s Ok
because mom isn’t here.”
In the second
battle Bob and Tom were perfectly happy to sit next to each other and play “who
will sink first.” Tom won and sank first with 65-6-49, a notable pumping
improvement after removing the obstruction. Bob however came in a close second
place and sank shortly after with 64-6-41. Peter also sank with 50-5-35. McCoy
sank after getting shot by Zach, 11-6-10. After he sank the water was dumped
out and he was in fact able to drive around without even pumping that hard, I
didn’t see him sink but was told by the other guys that they didn’t think his
pump was on, typical 9 year old move. Rick also sank right next to shore with
2-0-0 but only because he accidently swamped himself while clearing moss and
pushed it back in without realizing he had done that, I guess experienced
battlers can do silly things too. Zach and Andy both had notable damage, Andy
had 113 aboves, or as I like to call them, misses.
Zach had 41 below. Andy’s team won by
370 points.
Between battles I
was able to test fire Derfflinger 2’s guns, throw
batteries in and float test it. It was a bit poorly balanced, being way too
stern heavy but seemed to drive around OK until the pump (without proper
filtering of course) clogged up. I was hoping to battle it Sunday but we didn’t
end up battling. It should be ready for next time.
In the third
battle things turned south for Andy’s team. Peter finally realized that part of
his issue earlier in the day was a clogged pump filter, and was back to taking
“man damage” at 80-14-31 without sinking. Also Tom slugged it out and took
33-14-49 without sinking. On the other team Andy took 136-9-31 and sank, Bob
too 91-3-74 and sank, Zach took 76-21-66 and sank. Bob and Zach had actually
flipped ships for the 2nd sortie. And some of that damage was after
re-floating so they probably would have tallied fewer holes in reality. Either
way fortune had flipped and Tyler’s team won the battle with 4720 points.
After that last
battle, the day total reflected relative parity with a margin of victory in
favor of Tyler’s team by 3370 points. The combined accuracy improved throughout
the day increasing from 29% to 32% to 43% for the last one. Zach’s Invincible
was struggling with having enough voltage to fire the solenoids when the pump and
drive were under load since he only is able to run two 10 amp packs, Bob was
thinking about firing the solenoids off of a separate 9 volt battery in the
future, AKA the Stangle method. As mentioned, look
for the Derfflinger 2 to make an appearance soon at a
pond year you. McCoy said he had a ton of fun. I had a bunch of fun too and
took surprisingly little damage for the 3 battles, a total of 138-27-68 which
was the lowest for any of the capital ships there by a factor of 1.5. I guess
they other guys were sick of shooting at me and wanted to spend their bb’s
elsewhere.
We went to
Buffalo Wild wings after the battle to debate defects in the campaign rules.
We will try for
one more battle in early October.
Tyler