Hello Dragon,
Don't want to burst your bubble - i really encourage you to take up boating, but it was in the trash for a reason. Really if you want the challenge of building up an NQD hydro try to do it on a 0$ budget (stuff you find lying about at home). For all the time, money and effort you're gonna spend on the hydro (and i guess after reading all that you've come to the conclusion that it involves a lot of input), and you'll get very little out of it. I'd save my 200 bucks...you might as well buy 20 x 10$ pizzas, eat a couple and use the rest as frisbees for sheer entertainment value or if you're really into models buy new batteries for your helis.

Or why not a decent RTR or ARTR. I've been in the hobby for a couple of years, and seriously this is probably one of the worst hulls i've seen. The plastic quality I can forgive, and even the words "sports game" on the side, i guess you can remove....but screwing the top and bottom halves using screws that go in at the bottom! IN A BOAT?

as soon as i finish my current project (rebuilding a hydro btw) i think i'm gonna run for world president and ban the words "sports game" from ever being printed on an RC toy again.

Good luck boating - it's addictive,
Stokes