About Us

The Air Capital Model Sailing Club (ACMSC) was formed in the winter of 2003, and was formally recognized by the AMYA (the American Model Yacht Association) in January of 2004. The club was formed to promote RC sailing in the Wichita, Kansas area. Club activities range from monthly Club Championship Series points regattas to low-key fun sails and informal practice/tune-up gatherings.

Our club sails at Tom Scott Lake, which is located in Sedgwick County Park on Wichita's Northwest Side (see Map/Directions page for directions).

The club welcomes anyone interested in the great hobby of RC sailing, and we encourage interested people to check our schedule and come on out to the pond and join us!

The ACMSC was founded around the Kyosho SeaWind, a one meter sized racing sailboat model. The SeaWind is easy enough for beginners to assemble and build, but challenging for sailors of all skill levels to learn to sail and race. For more information on the SeaWind, please visit the official site for the SeaWind in the USA--the SeaWind Resource Center.

A newer, smaller class is beginning to take hold within the club called the Dragonforce 65. This also is an excellent starter boat for new members to the club. With a cost around $290, the DF65 is 25” (65cm) long and the Almost Ready to Run kit includes the boat with a radio transmitter. There are multiple sail rigging options for the DF65 that allow it to sail in all of the wind conditions from 5 to 25 mph

Dragonflite 95

The Dragonflite 95 is the newest boat to the Air Capital Model Sailing Club fleet. The DF95 is larger than the DF65 (65cm to 95cm) and has many of the same sailing characteristics.

ACMSC HISTORY

1970-? The Wichita RC Sailing Club

Not much is known about the club that existed in Wichita, prior to the formation of the modern club in the 2000’s, but here’s what we do know. The club sailed Marblehead 50/800 and 36/600 class yachts in at least the 1970’s. Only one photo and a few boats from that time period are still around, and the one photo shows a bustling shoreline with skippers launching their boats on Tom Scott Lake, now a part of Sedgwick County Park in West Wichita (also where the modern Air Capital Model Sailing Club sails ironically enough). It is unclear how many years the club existed, or exactly how many members they had, but based on the above photograph, it appears quite a few.

2003 – Club Beginnings

In the fall of 2003, one of the two founders of the club—Andy Rust purchased a Kyosho Seawind one meter kit from a local hobby store and began sailing it around local lakes and ponds by himself. While sailing by one’s self is enjoyable, our hobby is meant to be shared with others and it was soon apparent that finding others to sail with would be advantageous! While visiting a RC sailboat forum on the internet, Andy met Aaron Roush (the other founder of the club), who also had several RC sailboats and had been sailing some in the local area. They soon decided to get together and form a plan to invite others in a more formal setting. After many meeting over coffee at a local restaurant, fliers were distributed at local hobby stores as well as websites advertising a “Fun Sail” meeting at the end of April of 2004 encouraging sailors to bring whatever boats they had (sail powered of course). Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us on that day, as winds were in the 20-30mph range (much too windy for the boats we had)! The good news was that several people actually did show up and the basics of a new club were being created.

2004-Present – The Air Capital Model Sailing Club

After that initial meeting in April, it was agreed to meet again for some formal racing the next month. In those early days the club featured a mixed bag of classes of boats—from Megatech Nirvanas, Victor Model Products one meter boats, Victorias and finally the Seawind. The fleet was haphazardly grouped by sizes (31”-one meter, 0-30”) to try to handicap things a bit and for the most part it worked ok. Such a good time was had that the club began scheduling regular monthly regattas that ran from April-November. Attendance flourished early on, with as many as 13 skippers racing at one time. Over the years attendance has fluctuated, but 10-12 active members is a good average to say that the club has maintained. Also it was clear after the first few races of the season that the Seawind one meter and Victoria (30”) were the favorites, and slowly members began purchasing them (the Seawind in particular) to stay competitive and take advantage of those boats’ attributes which proved superior to most other RC sailboats available at that time particularly for the price.

Probably due to the relatively small size of the club and having the membership to maintain it, the Victoria fleet unfortunately failed to gain traction past the second year, and the Seawind became the official fleet for the club. In 2010, for the first time since the Victoria days, the club adopted a second fleet. The Graupner Micro Magic became an active fleet (traveling to various pond in the area during the sailing season) in the club up until around 2017, when a shortage of kits and parts due to Graupner’s bankruptcy stifled fleet growth and essentially killed activity. About the same time, a new smaller boat—the Joysway Dragonforce 65 hit the market and began to become popular amongst several local members. Eventually that increased even more, and now there is a healthy Dragonforce 65 fleet within the club. In fact, most members own both the Seawind and Dragonforce, which means both fleets are active and healthy.

Over the years in addition to the 7-8 regular Seawind (4-5 Dragonforce) club races held during the season, the club has hosted at least a half dozen Seawind Region 4 AMYA (our sanctioning body) championships and a National Championship Seawind regatta in 2013. The Dragonforce 65 also started to become active in this way-hosting AMYA Region 4 Championships on two occasions (so far), so the future in that regard is bright! The club has never had official officers, nor any elections. We only have dues occasionally when a piece of equipment or something club-specific is needed, and even then considered it a ‘donation’ and not a mandatory fee. This low key approach has served our club well, as we have never had trouble obtaining things we need or had a need for a particular leader. We all find out what is needed and chip in effort of financial help when needed.