This is an “amphibious race” to make use of the large tarmac ramp which runs down into the water at the Apex Lake and to encourage good old fashioned British ingenuity, design and creative skills…and to have fun!  
The race is open to any RC electric powered model of any design, type or size, but it must be “amphibious” as half the race course is on the water (the wet bit) and half up along a ramp (the dry bit). 
Why not build something and join in the this time? The full rules are here > Wet n Dry Race – The Rule

Wet n Dry Race 2024 – Sun 16th June
Report by Russ Chilcott
Photos by Russ Chilcott & Chris Warr

We were blessed with a perfect summers day for the 2024 running of this race.
Sadly, we only had 3 entries, myself, Chris Locke and Mark Shipman, the same 3 who entered last year and all of us using much the same models with just a few tweaks.

All models were powered by model aircraft electric turbine fans using Lipo batteries. Mark and Chris used a single fan while I had 2 of them.
Chris’s was attached to an old Mono 1 hull which had retractable wheels so it ran well on the ramp and once they were raised it had good speed in the water as well.
Mark has his on a little “Bingo” Mini ECO boat. The Bingo has 3 wheels in a tricycle layout with 2 at the front and 1 at the rear. All made from thin alloy so not to cause too much drag in the water, with the rear one also acting as a rudder.
My 2 fans were attached to a block of Celotex which was shaped to form a twin hull design. It had 2 “normal” wheels fixed at the front but were just high enough to lift above the water and 2 thin alloy wheels at the back for less drag much the same as Marks design. Mine had a Monkey as its driver, for this year I had made boxes of bananas to add to the overall effect – this turned out to be a very big mistake!

In the race Chris got away to good start closely followed by Mark. I soon discovered the banana boxes had added too much weight and the bow would not now raise above the water. This meant the front wheel were dragging and slowing it down even more.

By the 2nd lap I removed 1 battery pack to lighten the weight which did work and I was back on the pace though a lap down on the other two. Out front Mark moved ahead of Chris as he was suffering from the exact same problem he had during last years race. After a few laps his wheels would lower by themselves while in the water causing massive drag and a loss of speed. He thought he had fixed the sporadic fault but clearly it had not worked.

Recently the council had resurfaced the tarmac ramp. It is now very smooth and completely different to what we had in 2023 when Marks narrow tricycle layout really struggled over the bumps. This year his model sped across the smooth surface and was very quick in the water also.

During the race Mark and I had a crash on the ramp as mine tended to spin on the smooth tarmac. One of his thin front alloy wheels sliced deep into the soft Celotex hull but once parted it was nothing to stop either of us from carrying on. After just 4 laps my single battery was flat, so I stopped again and switched to back to the first one I had removed.

Meanwhile Chris was struggling on with his wheels doing their own thing – all very frustrating for us both!

This left Mark to move further ahead as he went on to the win the 10 lap race 2 laps clear of Chris. I had to settle for 3rd place as the second battery was completely flat after 7 laps. Technically, switching batteries mid-race was against the rules, but finishing 3rd from 3 or a DSQ makes no difference.

Well done to Mark on winning the 2024 race, it was well deserved. He will take some beating next time. His name will the 4th different one the trophy.

It would be nice to see a few more taking part in 2025. Having a ramp as long as ours leading down into the water is very unusual, not many, if any other club in the UK could run such a race.

Thanks to Kevin Roberts for being our OOD and lap counter.
Thanks also to Chris Warr for taking photos and video (see group Facebook for video).

A few photos of previous Wet n Dry Races – we’ve had some very interesting creations over the years!