As passionate designers, builders and sailors we want to keep you updated with the latest news about Red Ant, with a few hints and tips that we discover along the way to help you get the most out of your time on the water.
Red Ant wins 2025 ACT Marblehead State Championship
Congratulations to Lincoln McDowall, winner of the 2025 ACT Marblehead State Championship held in December. Battling soaring temperatures and gusty winds, Lincoln expertly switched between his C2, C and A rigs to stay ahead of the shifting conditions all while sailing a boat fully built by the Red Ant team. Congratulations on securing a well-earned victory.
Visit Facebook to find out more about Lincoln’s win.
Red Ant’s F6 Takes the Crown at 2025 UK Marblehead Nationals
Congratulations to Craig Richards, who took out the 2025 UK Marblehead National Championships with a commanding win in a 20-boat fleet – including five Red Ant yachts – at this year’s July event.
A highly experienced and decorated skipper, Craig is no stranger to the podium. But even the best sailors need the right gear – and Craig’s win is a strong testament to both his talent and the performance of the Red Ant F6.
Whether you’re an experienced racer or looking to take your competition to the next level, the F6 delivers the speed, control, and consistency top skippers demand.
Interested in joining the Red Ant fleet? Our UK and European distributors are ready to help – get in touch today for pricing and availability.
Visit MYA: Downwind! on Facebook to find out more about Craig’s win.
Larger running sheeting drums now available to suit your sailing style
Red Ant listens and acts. Since the introduction of the Red Ant two speed Stinger winches, many skippers have requested larger running sheeting drums to suit their style of RC sailing. So we have met your needs.
We can now supply four Double Groove Drums 26, 32, 38 and 42 mm dia. units. They’re now in stock and can be ordered through our website order form.
To assist you with your selection, the travel distance per one revolution of each drum is 26 = 81.7 mm, 32 = 100.5 mm, 38 = 119.4 mm and 42 = 132 mm.
When choosing a larger drum, be aware that battery use will increase due to the added load applied to the winch.
Visit Orders and Contacts to find out more.
New firmware update to Red Ant Stinger Winch improves sail control
The Red Ant Stinger Winch program has released a new two speed effects upgrade, plus two class-specific models – one for IOM and two for M and 10R.
This means for slow throttle movements, the winch will move slowly and for fast throttle movements, the winch goes full speed. The new release is in response to some sailors saying that the Stinger is a little too fast in light air when you make small adjustments to sails. Pleasingly, the updated firmware has received positive responses from the sailors who’ve upgraded, saying that sail control is much smoother and more precise.
What winch do I order?
- For IOM order RA-3
- For M and 10R models order RA-4S (single wire)
Contact David Thomas at redantradioyachts@gmail.com quoting your winch number if you’d like your current winch to receive the new firmware update.
Please note that some of the older models aren’t compatible with the new firmware. All stinger winches can be upgraded by a motor / PCB module. This can be done by our agents internationally. We’ll soon appoint an agent for the North America, Canada and South America markets.
New rigging screws
Red Ant now has stock of rigging screws to add to the range of fittings available for your rigging needs on IOM and Ten Raters. Find out more about the range of components available on our Sails and Rigs page.
The complete radio controlled yacht race start solution
Red Ant is supporting our friend Andrew Crocker who has designed and built this new StartBox. It has all the features needed for clubs to start and give transparent gap times between races. The StartBox includes speaker and timer display options. Red Ant is happy to assist in taking orders and sharing Andrew’s great design with the sailing community. Watch a video of the StartBox and download the operation manual for full details. It’s priced at AUD$250+GST and postage.
Red Ant F6 wins UK National title
Congratulations to Craig Richard who took out the UK Marblehead National Championships title in September 2023, skippering our F6 Marblehead.
In mixed conditions and a competitive field, the F6 showed exceptional speed to comprehensively win the title.
For results and full details about competition, visit
Red Ant F6 dominates in SA
It was an exciting and comprehensive result for Red Ant in the prestigious RM Bournville Trophy on the weekend of 27 and 28 August 2022 in South Australia, with six of the seven placings by the Red Ant F6 Marblehead. Congratulations to all sailors! Special mention to Duncan Groome who achieved his best result ever in an event.
Buying Red Ant components in the UK and Europe just got easier
Phil Holliday, an experienced and respected sailor, is now supplying our winches, servos and drum options to the radio yachting community in the UK and Europe.
Find out more about our winch drums on our electronics page.
Contact Phil on phil@k7yachts.com
New and improved Stinger winches arrive in limited supply
Our new batch of Stinger winches has just arrived in Melbourne. The new model features:
- 20 grams lighter at 125 grams
- Smaller in height
- Internal added heat dissipation to better protect PCB
They’re selling fast with 25 already sold. Get them while stocks last.
Red Ant F6 Marblehead launches in the USA
In March 2022, we were excited to launch our first boat in the USA. The F6 hit the water in light conditions in a test sail. Helped by our tuning guidance and experimenting with A, B and C1 rigs, the F6 will be ready for its first outing in coming weeks in a small fleet sailing in a Texan regatta. We’re looking forward to being a part of Jess’ success in the US.
Red Ant launches the new Stinger winch
Our boats use high quality carbon cloths and Epoxy resins. This means producing a light, strong and competitive boat that’s built just for you.
After months of testing in racing conditions, we’re excited to launch our new Stinger winch that’s shown to be precise, smooth and fast. It’s also a direct mount replacement for the RMG, which can be difficult to source.
Get better alignment with a free Red Ant Fin alignment tool
For those home builders looking for a handy alignment tool for ensuring the fin are perfectly aligned with the hull, Red Ant have a STL file for free download.
It is a two piece STL file that can be 3D printed. Then you just insert some 8mm tubes and fit it to your fin using your eye to sight the ends of the tubes to the ends of your hull. It is adjustable to various fin chord lengths and uses a 4mm bolt to secure once correct length.
This can very critical to the performance of your boat.
Contact us if you’d like us to email you the files.
What radio should I use?
It seems to be a very personal thing, like the old Ford and Holden debates as a kid…some people just trust a brand and there is no changing.
But in last few years there has been some big advances in radio technology available, mostly due the popularity of drone racing and FPV drones. There is an operating system called Open TX and more recently EdgeTX which is open source and free to any hardware manufacturers. So now we have a huge choice of high quality and good value radios. Some new radios have a 4 in 1 module that can bind to most brand receivers, and can also take an external module should you want to try a more advanced control link.
Now most of us have no interest in all the switches and gadgets these new radios have and wish there was just an easy 4 channel plug and play radio…but once you have watched a few YouTube videos on how to bind and setup your new radio I’m sure you will be very pleased with the performance.
- I like the Radiomaster TX16
- A cheaper one that works well is the Jumper T-Lite Radio
- Taranis Q x7 has been around a while and a few guys are using them which is handy if you need help setting it up.
The radio link taking the drone world by storm
The latest radio link which is taking the drone world by storm is the ExpressLRS.
This has been developed by an open source team and released for free. It’s a very efficient radio link with amazing range and low latency. This probably is not a great concern to most radio sailors but I feel I should mention this new radio link. I personally think that everyone will be using it within a few years.
When buying a new radio, I suggest you consider if it will take an ExpressLRS module. There has just been a PWM receiver just released for plane and boat users. There are also transmitters coming out with this ELRS built in.
Here’s a couple of places to get started:
Red Ant Radio Yachts 