Well I got her wet!

Took her to a little pond over the weekend … she planes! I was kind of shocked as she only has a 1000kv motor and sits real low at the stern. Speed wasn’t impressive but she was did manage to climb out of the water and throw a bit of spray … after a bit of cavitation … burble, burble.

I ran an unbalanced, kinda cleaned up Octura X432 and even after a few min at full throttle the motor wasn’t even warm.

I’m tempted to just wait for my new Feigao 380-14S 2820kv and strap it in, but there are some problems with the hull that I’d like to remedy. So Looks like I’ll go back to the building board.

Issues:

Like I said she sits real low in the water at the stern (about 1/4” clearance or less) As you can imagine it’s a bit scary when you drop of plane and watch this “big” wake catch up with the boat. I’ve already drawn plans for a boat with more freeboard, but I’m concerned about the amount of vee I’ve incorporated (currently 11 degrees: new 20 degrees) The ponds pretty protected so chop isn’t really an issue …. Flatter = faster?

The bow wave at half throttle is pretty impressive … viewed from the side, the wave is easily three times the height of the boat. Luckily, if you’re going in a straight line, the wave doesn’t fall on the deck. Once you get past 3/4 throttle the hull rises and the wave dissipates. I’m not sure how I’ll remedy this, ideally some chines …. But with the way I’m building these things, it might be easier to do a highish strake that reverses toward the bow.

The hull is very small and with balsa construction lots of space is lost to stringers etc. As things stand, I'm about a 1/4" away from achieving the suggested 33% balance point. I’m thinking I can increase the size of the boat a bit… an inch wider 2 inches longer… and still come in at a similar weight. Hey the battery pack accounts for 40% of the boat mass.

Here’s a question, how much should a boat like this weigh? With a 1100mah NiMH 2/3a pack mine comes in at 16oz.

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted