2025
A Year in Port Polar Bear
Port Polar Bear
Memorial Weekend Battle Sat/Sun May 24, 25 2027
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 2nd
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.
Port Polar Bear
September Battle Fri/Sat/Sun September 5, 6, 7 2025
In attendance were: Tyler
(Barham), McCoy (QE), Bob (Nagato), Zach (Nagato), Andy (Nagato), Mike
(Seydlitz), Peter (Erin), Matthew (Seydlitz), Owen (Moltke), from Kansas City:
Tom (WW1 Montana) and Rick (Jamaica), from Reno, NV: Brandon (Caio Duilio, Roma),
from Missouri Kevin Bray (Moltke).
Most of the crew (not Tyler,
McCoy, Peter) Battled on Friday afternoon for a standard 2 sortie battle.
Evidently the wind was brutal and blowing right into shore and it was cold.
Peter was at work. Tyler and McCoy were at a football game – Friday Night Lights!
The whole crew was there on
Saturday. We did 6 sorites (3 full battles). The weather was quite cold and it
rained off and on albeit briefly. The heaviest rain was right as we started one
of the last sorties of the day, it made for pretty neat video. Darcy made us
shirts with a Kevin Bray silhouette and his famous quote “This place is a dump”
in reference to a 2010 boat trip to Boutte Louisiana where a motel was somehow
much below our notoriously low standards for boat trip motels. Later on in the
weekend I joked that if I won the power ball I would
buy multiple motels and ponds throughout the country but all the motels would
still be dumpy. We mixed teams a bunch and sank each other mercilessly. One of
my favorite moments was in last battle on Saturday when it became very apparent
that the sortie would be quick and brutal. I threw caution to the wind to get
shots on Owen’s Moltke, and was stupidly ignoring incoming fire from his
teammates. I got the Barham shot to shreds (actual counts were not impressive
but there were many blow outs) and evidently McCoy got all shot up as well. The
two QE class ships seemed to spin, stop moving, roll over and sink in complete
unison almost as if it were choreographed. Another funny moment was when
someone was taking friendly fire and called out “hey, I’m your friend” to which
Mike answered “not any more he isn’t.” Brandon battled the Duilio most of the
day, Roma for the last battle, the stern guns were ranged way too far out, he
angled them down to a more reasonable range for Sunday when he took it out for
the 2nd battle. The day was actually fairly smooth, no major issues
that slowed us down. We were done battling and packing up at 5:00, went to
Bob’s and ate pizza, counted, and worked on minor boat issues in his garage.
On Sunday both Bob and Matthew
couldn’t make it. The rest of us battled 4 sorties (2 battles). Rick was having
a few issues and didn’t put out for the first battle. Mike needed a rudder
servo replaced. We tried doing Axis vs Allies for the 2nd battle but
the Nagatos didn’t hold up their end of the bargain and the Allies did quite
well. To balance the fleets we flipped Mike, but ½ way through the sortie we
declared him a traitor and flipped his fleet for the rest of the battle.
Overall, I think McCoy is coming along very well as a battler and was pleased
with how he did. We were done battling by about 3pm and the southern
contingency got on the road.
Tyler
----
Bob’s Account:
We had two sorties Friday. It was
windy blowing into our shoreline. Chilly too, pants and jacket. Went to a new
BBQ place near by for dinner. Good food long wait. Ate
at the brewery next door. Then we watched the 70s classic Airplane.
Saturday we
got in three full battles and were back at my place by 5-5:30 for pizza,
patching and beer. It rained sometimes in the afternoon. 5-10min of rain.
Sunny. More rain… 13 battlers on the
water.
I had the waders on and got most
of the sunk ships out. I’m still sore, too much lifting. Tom and Rick cried
watching the Chiefs (Brought to you by Taylor Swift & State Farm) get beat
Saturday night. I guess the Refs no longer give the Chiefs every call...
Sunday there was another two
battles. Much nicer. Light wind and sunshine.
Mike Smith put in a ton of pond
prep work into the shoreline and getting sticks out of the water. So big props
to Mike.
Lot of team changes. All but the
blue/grey battle felt close. I think most people got to shoot most everyone
else. Lots of sinks. Tons of damage.
Kevin had his famous "This
place is a dump" quote immortalized on t shirts. Big thanks to Andy and
Darcy for making those.
Zach was voted most feared PPB
member for the year.
In the two and a half days we
got in 12 sorties. Pretty fun.
Bob H
----
Tom’s Rebuttal:
Bob,
you are getting old. the Chief's
game was Friday night. And there weren't any tears, just disappointment that we
played poorly. and still could have won.......
Airplane must have been Saturday
after Rick and I left.......
Tom Palmer