FLEET HISTORY:

Established: JAN 20, 1998 When the Philippine RC Sailing Club (PRSC) was established, the first RC model boats the founders owned were Mini Solings from Victor boats.  From the original 2 boats registered with the club, the Mini soling fleet would help the PRSC promote the hobby of RC Sailboat modelling in the country.  The Mini soling fleet is the only Mini soling fleet as far as we know in the world.  It is still one of the biggest fleet in the club today and is also  one of the most active fleet in terms of racing.  Now with the introduction of the locally built Soling 30s in the country, the Mini soling fleet will be integrated to a new class called Soling 30, yet the Mini soling fleet and class will still be maintained to separate the original Mini solings Imported from Victor.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE FLEET:

The Mini Soling is not recognised by the ISAF-RSD (International Sailing Federation) nor with AMYA (American Model Yacht Association) or CRYA (Canadian RC Yachting Association), which means that the Mini Soling can't compete in International or American/Canadian sanctioned model yacht races.  Unlike the 1 meter Soling (the big brother of mini soling), which is a recognised ODOM (one design one meter) class boat by AMYA.

The PRSC decided to formulate the One design class for the Mini Soling, because  the hobby of RC sailing is relatively new in the country, people will be more willing to join a fleet/class that is based on a cheaper kit compared to the ones that are recognised by other more established RC clubs around the world.

After the fleet was formally introduced by the club through the PRSC website, Arvin was chosen as the class secretary and was in charge with the development of the Mini Soling Class rules.  After the class rules was initially drafted, the next agenda was to invite people to join by purchasing Mini Solings instead of the more popular brands available locally.

Most of the RC Sailors are members of Yacht clubs and are sailing enthusiasts.  Because of this, it made it easier for the fleet members to inform interested parties to join the Mini Soling fleet.  The fleet also would do exibition races at Yacht clubs, which would always spark interest among the spectators. Thus some of the Yacht club members would ask friends and relatives to purchase a Mini Soling for them directly from Victor boats.  Some opt to have their boats delivered Door to door purchasing through Victor's website.

MINI SOLING CLASS RULES:

After searching the internet for information, the class secretary came upon the class rules for the Soling 1 meter.  Because the Mini Soling is just a small version of the 1 meter Soling the class secretary decided to use the Soling 1 Meter class rules as basis for the Mini Soling class rules.  PRSC of course asked the permission of the class secretary of the Soling 1 meter class (Art Jacobsen), the Soling 1 meter class was very much happy to oblige.

The Mini Soling class rules basically mirror the One meter version, but some revisions were made so as to allow a little bit of freedom for the fleet to tune and improve their boats.  This is to make sure that the fleet is allowed room to improve the Mini Soling design, yet making sure that the overall One Design concept is not affected.  Improvements also is necessary, because the Mini Soling fleet will also be racing against other boat classes in Open class races.

MEMBERS:

Both the PRSC and the Mini Soling fleet are non profit organizations, joining is free.  If one is interested in RC Sailing, then even if the one still doesnt' own an RC boat the club will accept him as a member.  In order to join the Mini Soling fleet, the only requirement is that one owns a Mini Soling.

Currently there are 9 Mini Solings with the fleet.  Making it one of  the biggest RC Sailboat fleet in the club and in the country.

The PRSC has just held it's first ever Regatta and all the boats in the Mini Soling fleet was present, even if the owners of some of the boats couldn't go, they still sent their boats to join the regatta through the class secretary.

THE MINI SOLINGS: