PREPARING A RESURRECTED SHIP FOR BATTLE

There you stand with a frown on your face. Before you lie the remains of your battleship, leaking pond water all over your work table. Just a few hours before, it was glistening in its new paint, begging for battle. Now it sits like an old bucket that can't remember the last time it held enough water to bathe a bird!

The need for REVENGE fills you. You just KNOW you can trash the dirty wharf-rat that sent you to the bottom! But first, you need to get your ship back out on the lake. Certain important preparations have to be made, or you'll go under again without much effort at all!

The typical condition of a recently recovered vessel is this:

• It's full of holes, naturally!!
• It's very wet inside and out.
• There is a good amount of standing water in the hull. (See #2)
• The guns and motors are flooded.

To eliminate these inconveniences, you'll need these tools:

• Turkey baster.
• Absorbent paper towels or rags.
• Alcohol.
• Masking tape or water-resistant packing tape (clear).
• Penetrating oil.
• A magnet.

The repair tools are in addition to your normal maintenance tools. While they vary in order of importance, when used together, they can get a properly constructed ship back on the water in a short time.

As soon as you have pulled the ship from the water, shut off the CO2 source to kill the guns, and turn off the electronics. No sense in running current through a system that may have shorts in it.

After you have drained as much water as possible, and have set your ship up on its stand, the first thing you need to do is remove as much decking as you can. Pull off every top-side hatch, cover, and turret. This eases the whole process.

Use your turkey baster to suck up the water standing in the bottom of your hull. The small tip reaches nicely around propshafts, pumps, plumbing and other goodies at each end of the ship. Let the hull settle by the bow or stern to make the wet stuff flow to a collection spot.

When you have sucked out all you can, check for debris. Debris comes in MANY forms. It includes:

• Hull splinters; sheeting and ribs, sometimes decking
• Blast shield pieces. (Make sure your enemy is properly Tech'd and Safety Certified!)
• Enemy rounds rolling around and finding nice places to get stuck and hide.
• Moss, algae, leaves, bark, fish (just kidding), and anything else that may be floating on the lake.

Most of this stuff you'll need to pick out with your hands or thongs. The steel shot comes out nicely with a magnet. The exceptions will be those rounds that have embedded themselves in the hull, superstructure, or rolled under a battery, gun or other item.

While not immediately obvious, it is true that large numbers of 1/4" steel rounds can cause your ship to list to one side quite easily. As it lists, more and more of these rounds roll to the low side and make the situation worse. It's not a problem on ships with damage high above the waterline. But those with holes just above the waterline will find water pouring through these holes in very short order.

Since you are now cleaning out a ship that sank as a result of these steel balls hammering into its hull, it is likely that there is a good number of these things rolling around inside. Their weight hurts more on small ships such as transports, destroyers, torpedo boats or other small vessels. To picture how this works, just move your ballast slightly to one side...

During the clean out phase, certain items require close attention:

• Pump pickups: These should be protected by a screen. If they aren't, I guarantee you that a piece of something or another will get pulled up into your pump along with the water, and jam it solid. When that happens, you're likely going to be reading this again. :) Check the screen for moss or other materials that can cover the screen. A bigger screen is harder to clog. Stay away from small pickups if you can.
• Motor cans: The openings in your motor cans allow pieces of balsa strip and other things to get in. They will lock up or slow down the armature, and cause a large drain on your batteries.
• Servo linkage: Check bellcranks and other servo linkage parts for interference. This includes depression, rotation, steerage and any other exposed servo works.
• Gun barrels: If you fire off a salvo with moss in your guns, they rounds will lock up and back pressure your magazines.

When the invading elements have been removed, check for more insidious seepage. You should have "waterproofed" the servos that don't have the luxury of an air-tight box. Even if you have, you still need to check for leakage. While it is impossible to be certain that water has not seeped into the housing, you can still inspect the silicone seals for good adhesion. Make sure they haven't peeled away, and that the O-ring under the servo arm is still seated properly. If all looks good, you are most likely okay. If you didn't protect your servos, you'll need to disassemble them right away, and dip the innards in a bowl of alcohol to displace the water. Let them sit a bit, dry them out, and reassemble / install them.

Look closely at your radio box. Check it for leakage. It should have a clear top to enable visual inspection without disassembly. In the unfortunate instance where your box has leaked or imploded from the pressures encountered in deep waters, disassemble the electronics and soak them in alcohol. Just a couple minutes will do the job.

Your motors can be helped in a few ways. You can use canned air, such as found at computer or electronics supply stores, to blow water from the cans. Afterwards, oil them. You may use WD-40 to displace the water AND lubricate the motors. You may also pour alcohol through the motors and lubricate them afterwards. What ever method you use, do it soon. The bushings and brushes don't like water.

Check that your propshaft housings haven't been invaded. Unless your housings have grease fittings or other sealed oiling access components, they may have some water in them. Your chances of having a failure are actually fairly slim, but don't forget to service your shafts well when you get the ship home and start your regular maintenance.

Your guns need to be completely unloaded. Ball bearings will rust at some point. Get them all out, and pour alcohol through the magazines, and the barrels. Make sure that all the water is gone, and let the guns dry. Canned air blown over the units will help the alcohol evaporate quickly. Oil you barrels if need be, and reassemble the magazines.

Next, clean / dry your hull's exterior. Make sure no pond scum is on the paint, if the enemy left you any paint to clean. The surface needs to be clean and dry to attach the custom patches you will make. The "patches" are nothing more than tape strips large enough to cover the holes in you hull. Tear off a section of masking or other tape, and lay it over the hole. Use your fingernail to work the tape down well. It will darken slightly in color when it has been pressed well to the paint. Do this for all holes. If there are a lot of holes in one area, don't be bashful, use a big piece! It's quicker, and more secure. One ship had so many holes in its side that several strips of masking tape were used. They stretched almost the length of the ship!

This temporary repair process should take about an hour, maybe less, for the average BB. If you have a couple pals along with you, it's even shorter. Check all your ships functions for proper operation. Rotate and depress the guns. Do a couple of dry fire cycles with no ammunition loaded. Check for good puffs of CO2 from the barrels. Run the motors at all speeds, wiggle the rudder, and trip the pumps. When it all looks good, load up and launch! IT'S PAYBACK TIME!!!

Remember that the masking tape has a life of an hour or so when applied right. Check it for signs of wear when you come in for reloads. It's not nice to have your shipyard efforts go to waste, and turn your BB into a sub.