mwohlenhaus

here is the almost finished boat and my daughter driving it on the river on it's maiden voyage. She did a good job for never having driven anything rc before. She did run it aground in the muck of the riverbank, but it was a two-fold blessing. One it was uncomfortably low on gas, and two one of the strut screws had vibrated out in the drink, and the other one was very loose. I ended up getting about 10-12 minutes run time on about 200CC's of fuel. This thing is a gas hog compared to it's life as a weed eater! It went pretty decent for what it is, turned good too. I did notice in lower speed turns the prop cavitated pretty bad. I ended up removing some of the baffling in the muffler and boring the carb to about 10mm. It runs pretty darn good. I did not completely gut the muffler because I don't want to aggravate the surroundings residents. I did have the cavity behind the electronics about 1/2-3/4 full of water after it's maiden voyage. I have since siliconed the hole for the rudder pushrood shut except for a small sleeve for the push rod to go through, and I sealed the rest of the area around the cover with silicone. The hole that was for the rudder was almost as big as the opening that was machined in the rudder so I think this will greatly help keep water out. Very little water (about a tablespoon and a half at most) got into the engine bay and it was all on the right side so it makes me think the right turns got a little sharp and water splashed in. I floated it for a bit before driving off into the depths of the river (and more importantly the dam), and I did not see any noticeable water leaks. All in all it was a fun project that I can see being upgraded to a bigger motor in the future.
I did end up sharpening and crudely balancing the prop. It isn't watch out or it will cut fingers off sharp but it has a little bit of an edge on it.