well, I am back from my vacation... the Mamba isn't here yet and tower says late august [:@]

so that leaves me time to finish up the boat and play around with the stock setup. I have started making the sponsons - foam cores and all, and have epoxied in the stuffing tube and the aluminum tubes attaching the sponsoons to the center hull. The center hull has been covered with marine grade polyurethane on the inside. I am planning on painting the outside with some made up paint scheme, I have attached a basic layout of it at the bottom of the post. The letters will be vynyl prints...

...getting back to the present situation, I have made a 7-cell out of old nicd cells (1700mAh) and will see how it runs on them... I really don't know whether I will need the rear ride pads (sponsons?) with my "incorrect setup" so I will try without them and experiment with their placement later. I have also made an aluminum water cooling thing for my ESC and routed the lines. more pics to follow.