1. Personnally, I don't recommend to play R/C sail boat at sea, due to many dangerous conditions exposes to player and the model yacht itself. I said this word is based on my past afloat experience in HK water. I had faced many worst conditions at sea with dinghy, and tackle it only by myself, luckily I am still alive and talk with you here. 
But if you really like to play at sea, just becareful on your self-safety, and then the little model yacht..., don't try to swim to rescure the out of control r/c boat 
2. I can guess your case correctly is because I had this experience before (in real dinghy, not R/C). If the tidal/current is high enough, and the wind power drop to some value, you can only sail "BACKWARD".
3. Refer to my R/C sailing experience, 4 no.s fully charged AA size Ni-Mh batteries, the " anaxxxxx" 2400 mAh cells brought from Ap Liu Stree, can last for 5 hours or more, for spare purpose, you may charge 4 more for one-day (8 hours) r/c sailing activity.
Actually the power to drive the yacht is wind, not electric, the servos draw little energy by compare with other R/C vehicles, may be your cells is ageing and need replacement.
4. To improve your skill in R/C sail boat, you may try to race/compete with other players, you will have more fun when you known more in this "Sport".
Happy sailing. |
