<bt>Tom Causin keeps five sailboats at his Ashburn home, though he does not live anywhere near a lake.
The boats are stored inside his house until the second and fourth Sundays of the month and possibly another day during the week. Causin is one of 40 members of the Ashburn Model Yacht Club, established in 1999 to give radio-control enthusiasts a chance to race and sail model sailboats.
Causin, club commodore, and Vienna resident Brian Roberts, vice-commodore, started the club with two members and by the end of 2000, were two of 40 members.
Club members, mostly from Northern Virginia and Maryland, sail twice a month, reserving the second Sunday for racing and the fourth Sunday for a fun day, all held at the Ashburn Pavilion Lake in Ashburn Village.
Members participating in the second Sunday races accumulate points for the year-long Formal Series racing, competing either in the one-meter class, typically using Soling 1M model sailboats, or the Victoria class for boats less than one meter. Members and non-members, who cannot receive scores, race in eight races for each class that typically last 10 to 20 minutes each.
A separate junior’s race is held annually for members who are 15 years and younger, since those 16 and older can drive an automobile. The club currently has six junior members.
“Models is what we can do, since we don’t have the size of lake we can race boats on, so it’s models,” Causin said
The fourth Sunday of the month is designated for informal sailing sessions, when members are willing to hand over their remotes to newcomers and spectators. “We let everyone else come out and play and try it out,” Causin said. “We can have anybody learn how to do it within five minutes. … A lot of times, you’re hooked from the beginning.”
MOST OF THE MEMBERS are retired sailors or sailors living too far from the bay, so they join the club. Causin is a formal professional sailboat racer who began racing when he was 12 years old. He received three national championship awards and, since injuring his back, starting model racing in 1998. The 41-year-old has been sailboat and model racing for nearly 30 years.
“Model sailing is a way I can continue to enjoy sailboat racing,” Causin said. “It allows me to still continue my passion of sailing. I don’t think I’d be whole if I didn’t have that.”
Member George Panos sailed his 28-foot sailboat for seven years before he decided on model sailing, joining the club two to three years ago. "This is cheaper, simpler and closer to home," said Panos, who lives in Leesburg and owns four radio-controlled model sailboats, including a J-boat, two model submarines, 10 to 15 model airplanes and is working on assembling a model tugboat. "It's quiet, beautiful and relaxing. ... You can talk while they are sailing, and they don't sink too fast"
The rules, course layout and racing procedures for model sailboat racing are the same for the models as for full-scale sailboats.
“You’re not in the boat, but the competitiveness of sailing the boat from start to finish is the same,” Causin said.
Causin and the other members of the club radio-control the model sailboats around buoys on a closed course. The pattern of the course is selected by the race committee or race director, the roles alternating with each race. As commodore, Causin sets up the course each time. The members have one chance to prepare their boats before setting them on the water, unlike sailing when they can tune the boat and adjust the sails as they travel the course.
MEMBERS use radio controls to power the model sailboats, which are hand-held transmitters that communicate with the receivers in each model. The radio through the transmitters operates the rudders for steering and the movement of the sails, each controlled by servos. The distance between the transmitter and receiver can be the line of sight, usually a half-mile.
“It’s the sailing. When you get the bug, it takes you,” Causin said. “It wraps you up and makes you want to do more.”
The Ashburn Model Yacht Club is a sister club of the Capital Area Boat Club in Washington, D.C. The Capital club, one of more than 100 model sailboat clubs nationwide, acts as an ambassador club and meets at the Capitol reflecting pond the first Tuesday of the month.
The Ashburn and Capital clubs are part of region 3 of the American Model Yachting Association, the national organization for model yachting that includes six regions nationwide. Region 3 extends from Washington, D.C. to Florida.
The Ashburn club hosted regional championship races in April 2001 and a national championship for Soling 1M (one meter) in October 2001, each event with up to 30 races. This year, the club will host a national championship for the Victoria class in October.
“We’ve been a busy little yacht club,” Causin said.