As we close out another year I would like to thank all that made it out this year. Also
I would like to welcome a couple of new members, Chris Campbell and Virgil Brown. I have also
been exchanging Emails with Jay Vahaly from Louisville KY who has joined the SubCommittee. I
hope he will be able to join us in this next season.
Before I recap SubRon6's 2002 season I would like to discuss the coming season and what I hope
will be in stored for SubRon6. I hope to see an expanded running
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| Carmel Indiana Reflecting Pool |
| Photo by John Schagane |
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season with more runs and more members there. The start to this season will be May 17, 2003.
It has been moved from Champaign IL to Carmel IN. Chris Campbell has worked with the city of
Carmel for this event. We will also have the Indianapolis Admirals there to run with us
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as a join event. For those of you that do not know about the Carmel location
I will explain it to you.
The city of Carmel has just finished building a large
concrete reflecting pool that is much larger than a football field. It is about
2 ½ to 3 feet deep with a filtration system. There is a sidewalk with lights all
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| Carmel Indiana Reflecting Pool |
| Photo by John Schagane |
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the way around, parking, and electricity. Best of all the Mayor and city of
Carmel would like us there. As you can see from some of the pictures it is
going to be a great site to run our boats with lots of clean, clear water.
After the season opens we will try to have as many runs as we can. SubRon6
has a vary large geography and it is very difficult for our group to get
together all the time. So it becomes important that we try to pick convent
locations and try to make as many runs as we can. Also please encourage others
to attend and recruit new members. If
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you have yet to attend one of the runs please come join us, with or without a boat.
This last year we had about 12 SubCommittee SubRon6 members that where at most of
the events. At the end of this newsletter you will see some of the scheduled events
for the coming year. If there are any suggestions please send me an email.
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| Steve Jensens U644 Type VII-C |
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SubRon6 also will have a new web site coming. With input from the group we can
make it very nice. So keep your browsers pointed to www.SubRon6.com.
Also send me any suggestions on what you would like to see on this site.
Now on to the events of 2002. We opened our season on May 4th in Champaign IL.
The weather was great but the turnout light. Mike Driskell and sons, Steve Jensen,
Al Bass, Chris Campbell, Virgil Brown, Tom Wise ( SubRon6 Staff Photographer )
and myself. As always the 1st run of the season can be filled with the unexpected.
While I ran my 32nd Type VII-C and Chris
ran my Thor LA new problems where found. My Type VII lost one of the motors while the
rudder linkage broke on the LA. This was fixed very easily as soon as I got home.
Steve Jensen's Type VII continues to run better every time he puts it in the water.
During this even he also had a motor problem that he fixed once he returned home also.
Al Bass ran his Skipjack.
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| Al Bass getting his Skipjack ready to run |
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On September 20th members of SubRon6 sailed into Union Station in St. Louis.
This was our big event hosted by the St. Louis Admirals with the SSMA there
also. This time most of us stayed at the Drury INN by Union Station. This
allowed us to spend time together trading stories and
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| St. Louis Admirals Regatta at Union Station |
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advice. Some of those in attendance where Al Bass, Steve Jensen, Art Meyer, Albert
Johnson from Texas, Tom Wise and the locals Jeff Jones and Jerome Simon. The event
started on Saturday with a huge mix of Captains and their boats and ended Sunday
with the awards. The submarines were judged in two different classes, Nuclear and
Non-Nuclear. For more information and lots of pictures please go to the St. Louis
Admiral's Web Site. www.StLouisAdmirals.com
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| Photo by Jerome Simon |
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| Photo by Tom Wise |
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| Photo by Jerome Simon |
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| Photo by Tom Wise |
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| Photo by Jerome Simon |
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| Photo by Jerome Simon |
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The last event that I attended was one that Tim Smalley had put together. He had
arranged for SubRon6 to put on a demonstration in Duluth MN at the National SubVets
Convention held on September 20th.
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This was a 2 hour demonstration in the indoor pool of the hotel. I had decided
to bite the bullet and make the long trip, over 1800 miles round trip. I loaded
the truck with my boats and along with Tom Wise hit the road early Friday morning
heading for Chicago IL to pick up Steve Jensen and his boat. There where four of
us that were able to make it.
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On Saturday we set up Tim's SubCommittee display and our boats. The turn out
was quite nice there was always a large group of Submarine Veterans asking question
and telling stories. We where able
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to keep at least one boat in the water while the others explained the operation of their
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boats and answered questions. For me and I believe Steve this was worth the long
trip. Our boats ran their best, we where among lots of Submariners and their
families. We were told that they would be headed back into our area in a couple
of years and would like SubRon6 to come back. Thanks Tim for a great job.
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For some of us we are hard at work getting ready for the new season. Some of us
have new boats that are being built and some others have overhauls planned for
their boats. For those that are building new boats keep me posted on your progress
and send me pictures. Here is a list of those that I think might be working
on something new.
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| Steve Jensen |
Rebuilding his WTC on his Type VII, installing bigger motors and new electronics tray. |
| Albert Johnson |
Has a new Doug Badgley ( now Thor ) 1/48th Type XXI that he is building. He is building his own WTC's. |
| Chris Campbell |
Has a new Thor 688 LA that he plans to build. |
| Virgil Brown |
I believe has taken delivery of a new Thor Permit kit. |
| John Vahaly |
Was going to order a Blueback. |
| Jeff Jones |
RebuildinWorking on his scratch built 1/32nd Type II. |
| Tim Smalley |
Building a sinking (and refloatable) target freighter, a 1/48 fleetboat and installing a WTC in the Type XXIII hull he bought from AL Bass. |
| John Schagane |
1/32nd Gato, a Badgley ( now Thor ) 1/48th Type XXI and would like to overhaul my LA to repair all of the nicks and broken scope sheers that the targets have caused running over me. |
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