RC Model Boat Design & Build - Any Advice?

[rhtmarine]

Hey Blackice, Here is a pic of a wood built, gas powered hydro. I built two of these, but they didn't perform as well as they looked. I started a new version late last year, but lost interest 3 months in. There is a lot to work out with the cowling. A plug is made , a mold pulled from that and finally a part is drawn from the mold... I have never fully lost interest in big boats and currently I'm restoring a 1960 Chris Craft sportsman. Boats are cool, best boats are wood boats. IMHO
Bob

[pistnbroke]

Great we have actually helped someone (again) I raced these things in my late teens and had thought of doing it again but on a visit found that in the UK at least racing has gone and its all scale models doing silly slow speeds ...like the canals and rivers in that country 4 mph ( 6 kmh ) sad sad place

[rhtmarine]

broke, go to jims rc boat dock... I have friends from down under racing models.
Bob

[rwatson]

Originally Posted by blackice

I'm looking to build a remote control model boat for my nephew and don't really know where to start with regard to design ideas and construction.

I'm looking to build an electric powered, sports type of boat .

You may have found out by now that you can buy plenty of ready made boats of this sort.

Having said that, the details of buying your equipment has gone far beyond what radio control models used to be when I was a boy.

I am in the process of doing scale model testing, and just getting the radio control to make the motor spin requires a new paradigm shift in thinking.

For example, unlike say an electric slot car, that uses a variable resistance switch to control power - all the electric RC engines are controlled by watercooled, solid state Speed Controllers. They have their own microprocessor that 'talks' to the intelligent 'brushless' watercooled motors, that will beep at you if things aren't right.

For example, you are expected to hold the speed arm of the RC transmitter to 'dead stop' before you turn the transmitter on. This will 'program' the motor to drop to dead slow if the boat goes out of range of the transmitter.

You will also find that all the fine detail of how to utilise the 'smarts' of this newfangled gear is written in tiny, hard to read 'chinese jargonees' on toilet paper, along with lots of warnings that if you do the wrong thing, you may damage your $300 worth of gear.

[messabout]

Rwatson you may be pleased to know that, arguably, the worlds best RC sheet winch is made in Oz. The winch is smart, it talks to you and costs close to the $300 that you mentioned.

For everyone else, I apologize if my first post offended anyone. Apparently it did. Most seriously involved model boaters just go ballistic when the T word is used by the uninitiated. One of the reasons for that is that they are passionate about their addiction. Another reason is that many modelers have big bucks invested.

The EC12class is a 59 inch, 17 pound, 72 inch mast height model taken from the Tank test model that Charlie Morgan used when he designed his Americas Cup challenger. There are hundreds of them scattered across the US and elsewhere. Average cost for a decent one, ready to sail, is about $3000, The world championship was held in New Zealnd a couple of years back. Many avid EC12 sailors flew half way around the world to compete.

The EC12 is not nearly as popular as another class called the International One Meter. That class is very active on five continents. A good IOM will cost in excess of $2000 and many owners have several of them. They are very sophisticated boats that have had the design benefit of some very good hydro and aerodynamic science. There are thousands of them, and they have regattas everywhere there is water to sail on.

And model power boats are pretty sophisticated also. There are models that achieve straightaway speeds in excess of 100 MPH. Surprisingly the fastest boats are electric powered. The guys and girls who do this sport are deadly serious.

[Ilan Voyager]

Originally Posted by blackice

Hi,

I've had a brief look around the forum and hopefully I'm okay to ask for some advice on here.

I'm looking to build a remote control model boat for my nephew and don't really know where to start with regard to design ideas and construction.

I'm looking to build an electric powered, sports type of boat and have a reasonable amount of knowledge when it comes to model making and the electrics side of things having previously raced both electric and nitro buggy models competitvely.

I'm looking to get some ideas and design the boat before building as I don't really want to make it up as I go along.

Any advice or links to useful sites would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

As usual the thread oscillates from the aggression to the out of subject. Read the question it's just a "uncle-nephew" project of an electric boat. Something simple and relatively cheap.

aranda1984 gives you an excellent advice. buy a kit and look for a club, often full of helpful proselytes.

For a first boat electric boat, the better is to buy a kit like the Graupner ones (there are several brands) with a small engine like a 540 with ten Ni Cad cells 1.6 or 1.8 Amps. A 3 channels basic radio is enough (although some 6 channels are pretty cheap). Good for beginners fun without big worries. If your nephew and you catch the virus ( take care it's very addictive....) it will be time to go to something bigger. But the fun is not directly related with the size or price of the model, often it's even the contrary as I've seen in boats and planes. The owners are terrorized to destroy a 3-5000 USD model, with a ten times cheaper one you're relax...

The main problem with beginners it's they go too fast (the dream syndrom) and spend a lot of money on a too complex boat with very expensive accessories etc. After breaking a few costly things, or being unable to run it correctly all the stuff goes to the trash, or it's cheaply sold...

I've been also an avid model vane-gear and RC boat builder in sail Class A (big classic boats with vane gear 45 years ago...)Class 1 meter, Class M, and a few multis. That can become pretty expensive with the competition virus. On electric boat models just a submarine, but a lot of electric motor gliders and strange flying things.

A google search will give you a lot of links of clubs in California and dealers. You'll find also links to model boat mags. All my links are in French, useless for you.

[kerosene]

Rcgroups.com or rc-groups.com is the place to visit.

Aircraft plywood is sold at very thin sheets and will work well for sheet designs. Balsa strips work well too.