SUBFEST 2022

SUBFEST 2022 was our third annual RC submarine event sponsored by the Nautilus Drydocks and it was, by far, the best SUBFEST event to date. With over 50 registered attendees, over 100 scale RC submarines, and even a massive 27ft long replica of a Russian Typhoon submarine, attendees were not disappointed when they pulled into the beautiful Red Clay Resort in Cohutta Georgia September 16th through 18th, 2022.

Industrious skippers showed up early on Thursday afternoon to claim tablespace under the covered patio areas, set out their boats and begin trimming and shakedown exercises for the coming days. I think next year we'll make this an official setup day.

It always surprised me how far away some intrepid RC sub captains would travel for SUBFEST. Jason and I traveled from the Houston, TX area to Cohutta. That was 1900 miles round trip. We had attendees from up in New York, Utah and even Nevada. Now that is RC submarine dedication!

Vaughn Schmitt arrived later in the day, towing his massive 27ft long replica of the Typhoon from Hunt for Red October. As the day wound down, the crew headed over to Cold Creek Restaurant for some great food and companionship. Unlike previous years, we had a huge turnout for dinner with over 14 people in our group.

As they day wound down, some intrepid attendees pitched tents and hammocks and stayed onsite right beside their boats while others arrived in RV's and motorhomes to stay onsite. The rest of us headed back to our respective hotels to rest and prepare for the weekend's activities.

Friday began with morning greetings for the newcomers and our Skipper's AM meeting where we reviewed the day's activities. This year was different, as in the past we would run competitions. This year Ed Tordahl suggested to change things up and do skipper qualifications instead. Each skipper in attendance was given a SUBFEST badge, and could earn tags for it to show successful completion of one of three qualification procedures, those being the navigation course, docking maneuvers, and the conning challenge. The course tested both surfaced and submerged navigation. Docking saw the boat have to pull up to a simulated dock, parallel to the structure, within 6 inches of it, and at a full stop. The conning challenge saw skippers pair up and have one person con the boat while the other piloted it through a modified course. This new format went over exceptionally well, and the move away from a competitive event meant that far more beginner submariners enjoyed testing their skills.

We ran a series of seminars at the event as well, including "Sub Operations 101", where we reviewed best practices for operating submarines, and also went over common RC submarine behavior while underway. "High Frequency in RC Submarines" was also very well attended and generated a lot of discussion about the future of the hobby.

Saturday saw more qualifications, but also saw a return of our Great Submarine Race. This year saw another change to the structure, as rather than doing a head-to-head drag race across the pond, we tested skill and nerves by switching up to a 3 lap figure-eight race. We had about a dozen participants with a wide variety of boats. In the end it was Tom Chalfant who barely edged out his competition to claim first place and a $250 cash prize.

Our famous raffle saw thousands of dollars of prizes given away. We did allow non-attendees to purchase tickets, and three people did win who were not there in person. Watch out, however! Next year the raffle will be open only to attendees as we'll be doing a different structure to the raffle prize selection. Attendees also were allowed to vote for winners in three categories of model building. Here are the winners, and their boats:

Engineering Award: Steve Hodges for his 1/48 Thresher
Scale Model Award: Mike Martin for his MASSIVE 1/6 German Seehund
Performance Award: Ed Tordahl for his 1/48 USS Shark

Later, we were once again spoiled by Daryl whipping up some steaks and potatoes for us, a perfect end to the day. As the sun set, about a dozen people put their boats back in the water, turned on the lights, or strapped glowsticks to the hull, and navigated the black waters as we relaxed on the shore, reliving the weekends activities with each other.

For those interested, there is a video of the event highlights that you can watch on my YouTube channel here.

We are already looking forward to next year's event and (fingers crossed) we are hoping to expand to a West Coast SUBFEST event, perhaps in the wintertime. Stay tuned for more! Thanks for reading. Bob Martin The RCSubGuy