2025 A Year in Port Polar Bear

Port Polar Bear Memorial Weekend Battle Sat/Sun May 24, 25 2024

We battled Saturday and Sunday before Memorial Day. In attendance were: Tyler (Barham/Derfflinger 2), McCoy (QE), Etta (Minneapolis, Tourville), Bob (Nagato), Zach (Nagato), Andy (Nagato), Mike (Seydlitz), Peter (Erin), Matthew (Seydlitz), Owen (Moltke), Tom (WW1 Montana), Rick (Jamaica). Brandon (Caio Duilio) came in from Reno. Chris Pearce (Furutaka) came Texas stopping in Missouri to pick up Kevin Bray (Moltke).

As is typical, we split teams various ways throughout the weekend trying to keep things both equitable and variable. We did three full two sortie battles on Saturday and on Sunday we did a two sortie battle followed by a 3 sortie battle. Flag team won every battle except for the 3rd on Saturday which was a very narrow margin.

Kevin Bray has been out of the hobby for roughly 10 years. It was good to see him getting back. He wasn’t quite ready for the first sortie on Saturday but put his new Moltke in harms way for the rest of the weekend.

Brandon’s Caio Duilio received some bow water channeling upgrades and seemed to perform well throughout the weekend.

Tyler had the Barham out for the first time since 2018, 7 years ago. Technically Hudson had battled it somewhere in there but for the most part it had been collecting dust in the interim. The plan is to have McCoy in his brand new QE be wingmen with his dad for nats this year. McCoy did very well just noticing that there are some acceleration differences compared to the VU, but he appreciated how much more damage it could take. The old Barham dove in to punish Matthew’s Seydliz who was stranded on shore during the first battle, second sortie on Saturday and ended up catching a stick in the props. This fried the drive train and Tyler had to run the Derfflinger 2 for the rest of the day, finding that that ship probably needs some more bow water channeling. Similarly on Sunday the QE was working great right until it called 5 at end of the the 2^nd sortie of the first battle when electrical gremlins won the day, ultimately forcing the switch back to the Derf2.

Mike wasn’t taking damage like we were all used to, turns out the distance from the restrictor to the outlet was too short.

Peter had a gun upgrade over the winter, it took a little shaking out but ended up performing well.

A new prospective captain Brenton came for much of Sunday, he drove the Shannon around.

It sounds like most of the crew is planning to head to Nats in North Carolina next month. With a quick turnaround of just 4 weeks, we better start getting the ships ready.

NATS 2025, June 23-27 2025

A large contingent of port polar bear headed to Oakboro, North Carolina for Nats 2025. Peter (HSM Erin) and Matthew (SMS Seydlitz) were planning to fly in. Tyler (HMS Barham) was scheduled to run the Grandma’s ½ marathon on the Saturday before so he and McCoy (HMS Queen Elizabeth) drove Bob’s car from Duluth to the MSP airport after the race to catch a 12:50 flight with the other two. Meanwhile Bob (IJN Nagato), Zach (IJN Nagato), Andy (INJ Nagato), Mike (SMS Seydlitz), Owen (SMS Moltke) headed out for a 2 day drive with Tyler’s Truck and Bob’s van the day before. Ultimately the birdy bus folks got to town first (Albamarle) and checked in about 1 hour before the drivers got there.

As usual, Sunday was a long day of testing and getting the boats ready for the week. In addition to the above mentioned primary ships we also had cruisers: Zara, Emanual Filiberto Duca d’Aosta, Gloire, Gloire, Gloire, the Pre-dreads: Zirinyi, Radetzky, and the Armored Cruiser Shannon. Tyler also brought all 4 of his Hikawa Maru convoy ships and Peter had his Liberty Ship. The weather was hot and humid the first half of the week with temperatures in the high 90s including a very sweaty testing day. It was similar temps but less humid on Thursday. There were no major issues, both QE’s had to change a drive gear down 1 tooth but the process was overall smooth. Japanese food for supper.

Tyler, McCoy and Matthew were team Green and the rest were team Orange. Immediately at the start of battle Monday morning Peter’s Erin, Matt A’s Baden, and Rob A’s Arizona broke through the battle line to mix it up. The majority of the fleets however were a little more cautious as is typical on Monday morning and played a little slower. Throughout the course of Monday, the Nagatos with Mike’s Seydlitz in tow did a good job wolf packing targets of opportunity. As this became evident to Tyler, he had to make a choice as to whether to shoot the guys he always gets to shoot or continue to work with McCoy in a different part of the pond. Over the course of the week the decision was made to do some of both. Supper was East Coast Wings, most other restaurants were closed after 7.

Tuesday fleet battle was fairly typical of most of the battles of the week, the Nagato battle group was trying hard to work together and isolate ships generally with a high level of success and Tyler and McCoy frequently with Tim in the Bismark worked in some balance of following their own battle plans and keeping the Nagatos honest. Tuesday campaign was won by the Orange fleet. Fairly similar efforts were spent to get the larger convoy ships across by both teams but Orange fleet was more successful. Matthew, Tyler, and McCoy shot the targets down very quickly and proceeded to hunt convoy ships with their cruisers. McCoy eventually completed some convoy ship runs too. Tyler threw the Barham out very late in campaign and basically was ineffective due to campaign winding down. The two Radetzkys harassed convoy ships along with the Glories and Shannon. In the later stages of campaign the three Nagatos got on to the water and hounded Brian L’s NC, ultimately Zach parked on top of the NC and pushed it under, counting as a ram sink and later earning him the “Best Ram” award. They then harassed convoy ships. A common target was Will’s RMS Queen Mary, a 1000 foot, 80 ton passenger liner that must have had 6-8 inches of freeboard, a very juicy target for stern guns. Supper was taco Tuesday.

Wednesday we did 4 sorties of cruiser battle. There were several pre-dreads and armored cruisers making this just for fun battle decreasingly cruiser specific. 8 of the Port Polar Bear crew battled, Peter’s sister lives relatively nearby and they spent some time together, going to the battleship North Carolina. Wednesday afternoon (after getting ice cream of course) we had a pool party, the water in the pool must have been 80-85 degrees, so it was fun but minimally refreshing. Supper was Log Cabin BBQ. Night battle was canceled due to incoming inclement weather. Peter and Owen were disappointed, the rest were more-so ambivalent.

Thursday fleet battle was for the most part similar to the rest of the week. Zach sank when both pumps failed to prime simultaneously. He had a similar snafu Tuesday morning where he almost sank but got it back from the brink. Generally, all fleet battles were within only a thousand or so points making for fun and competitive battle conditions. Thursday campaign however probably was heavily influenced by Kevin P having to leave early, along with his multiple convoy ships. The Polar Bear captains did similar things however Steve A’s NC was the object of affection this time, realizing what was going on however he was able to run away for his 5 minutes, later thanking the Nagatos for a good ride. Without Kevin P’s convoy fleet, and with Tom P’s Saratoga having reverse drive issues, the Green fleet gained a huge lead during Thursday Campaign. We were a little slow getting back to the hotel on Thursday due to Tyler’s truck requiring new front breaks and rotors, there was some shaking and grinding noted by Andy when he was driving in to town on Saturday through the mountain roads and luckily a local shop was able to do the work Thursday afternoon, but it required an extra trip to and from town with Peter’s taxi service, since we still needed the truck to get the gear to and from the pond. Supper was Courthouse Tavern, they had really good food and drink, though Andy’s chicken wasn’t caught and slaughtered yet when the rest of us got our food, luckily they were very apologetic and the meal was free. Thursday rules meeting was fairly smooth, we were done after about 1.5 hours.

Unfortunately due to some issues with battle site insurance and reporting the correct dates, the Friday morning fleet battle was canceled. Peter went to the NC again, this time taking Tyler, McCoy, and Owen with. 3 hours drive there and back, and about 3 hours on the boat. The banquet was again at the Oakboro community center. Owen won rookie of the year. Zach won best ram sink. Andy won best of class 6 in his Nagato (tied with Cameron Hunt, KGV). There seems to be a lot of people using 3D printed pump technology with the outlet being manufactured as part of the pump housing. This is following a general trend of increased 3D printing with most super structure and increasingly warships being designed to come together after being printed.

Bob tried to fly back Friday afternoon but after he boarded there were multiple issues leading to a much later flight. Peter and Matthew flew back on Saturday. Andy, Zach, Mike, Owen, Tyler, and McCoy drove the 18.5 or so hours back returning just in time for a summer storm, evidently there were several confirmed tornados in the south metro right when we were driving through.