Well, I guess we all live and learn - some of us are just better at letting out that magic blue smoke than others!
About the fan having a lot of thrust - that is awesome to hear! keep that power on tap and you can eat a nitro boat without even noticing that it was there! Oh, and the faster you go, the farther you fly, the harder you crash - Build a sturdy boat and you will be able to laugh it off when you hit a wave and do a few backflips (and get it on video of course!)
On a more serious note, kinda sucks that your ESC went poof - hope that doesn't slow down your build