You have done a very good job and with just a little fine tuning itll be a real screamer i promise ya..the fact you are new to rc boats and yet you have tackeled one of the hardest boats to get set up and running right says alot about ya and i say more power to ya[sm=thumbs_up.gif]... here are the pics of the rudder and strut I got off ebay I realy like em the rudder is small but I think itll work fine on your rigger and like I said I am going to use it on a 1/2 a skee vee 10 I am building for my wife... use this strut and rudder and it will solve alot of your problems and then we can see if and how much ride pad and rear sponson you MAY OR MAY NOT need..keep in mind there is another very good reason to having some small sponsons on the side at the back..when the rigger enters a corner what do you do????you slow down right????what does that do to the riger????it settles deeper into the water at the rear follow me so far?? when that happens as the prop goes deeper it wants to slow down due to the increased drag of the water and you loose some of the prop lift that has been holding you up at the back and also you have more hardware in the water as well creating even more drag..well now the rear of the tub is in the water as the rigger begins to spin around the curve.the front is planted pretty good by the turn fin the rigger is starting to feel the effects of g force and it wants to slide the back around a bit..BUT..you have that flat side hanging in the water not much but enough to realy create some drag...this is what TRIPS riggers and flips em on there sides ( thats why the sides of the sponsons are called side trips!) Now then..if you had a small sponson on the sides with a nice angle to the side trips and a perfectly flat bottom to them . they would provide just enough lift to replace what the prop has lost and would allow the water to move under the rigger with much less drag.....just some food for thought...OHHH BTW the strut and rudder combo came with the prop shaft,drive dog,thrust washer.teflon liner,brass stuffing tube and flex shaft.all for like 32 bucks.

Oh and Simon O..I will admit I am new to Electrics thank god im not advising him on engines or batteries or electronics for it... some things with any rc boat applys whether electric or nitro or gas or what ever moves it..I dont coment on ANYTHING I DONT KNOW OR UNDERSTAND PERIOD. if I coment on anything I firmly beleive in what I am saying to be the truth to the best of my knowledge...this is the first ive seen you coment you know so dam!!! much open your mouth and answer the guys questions! mine are just sugestions there are THOUSANDS others out there so dont be scared put your 2 cents in..and we will just have to agree to disagree on the weight thing..my way of thinking any weight you save is more speed for the boat..in full scale auto racing we have a saying..excess weight at the drag strip.....it simply means if it weighs anything it weighs to much dont use it only use what ya have to...Im used to fabricating devices where weight is a very bad thing the lighter is allways the best..thats how I treat everything from my boats to my vette...and I have built many differant boats. vhulls,hydros,tunnells,riggeres,airboats...there are pictures of most of them posted on this sight go take a look.see if you think I know anything about boats..I dont do RTR I own one and thats all I will ever own..a couple are designs of my own one has definatly been run alot andf is a blast and a handfull the other will soon be in the water(its my first FE build ) and we will see yes I will absolutley post video BTW you got any pics posted or videos we can watch???? How many riggers you have in the water???BTW are you realy a firefighter or is that just a pic you found?