1QwkSport2.5r

June 7,8, and 9th will be the weekend I'm planning to bash the hell out of my airboats. Hoping to get a few guys and half a dozen boats out on the pond.

I'll have both of my SI3's, my big Kamikaze and probably the Minikaze too.

1QwkSport2.5r

This is my unedited video (courtesy of crispyspa) of my RCAA Speed Run. 49.6MPH! http://youtu.be/UtU1aUSGzdA

I am optimistic to see 60mph or better, but with a few mods I can get to 55mph pretty easily I think.

I love this engine!![8D][X(]

1QwkSport2.5r

So it seems that speed was taking a toll on my sponson skin... Part of that was my fault in not reinforcing it. So under the knife it went:


Peeled the skin off, adhesion of the epoxy was fine, and no water intrusion.

Cleaned up the sponsons with a light sanding and added balsa strips to support the skin. This was done in the tub, not sure why I didn't do it to the sponsons originally.


After a quick sanding, I'll glue new skin on and get it fiberglassed again. We are trying to get another meet planned and I'm hoping to break my old speed record by at least 5mph... Wish me luck. More pics to follow.

1QwkSport2.5r

New skin is on! The skin is MUCH more rigid. It shouldn't deflect much energy, so hopefully this translates to faster speeds. I added a small chunk of 3/16" plywood on the inside of the sponson transom on the port side to reinforce the turn fin brackets mounting. I couldn't track down any 4-40 T nuts to use, so I will just use wood screws. 6-32 T nuts were too big.


Rebuilt sponsons:







I don't have enough resin and possibly enough cloth to cover this so I'll stop by the hobby shop tomorrow.

1QwkSport2.5r

Got a layer of 3/4oz cloth and a coat of resin on the rebuilt sponsons. One more resin coat tomorrow, a couple coats of polyurethane Saturday AM and off to the pond I go to bash the Jett some more...


Here's the top deck after re-sanding down to bare wood to remove some fuel stains. One more coat and its seaworthy again.

1QwkSport2.5r

My baby is done and back together. It turned out better than the first time, and its incredibly sturdy now. I tested it on the water but it was too windy to open it up. Now if I can get the engine to finish breaking in...

1QwkSport2.5r

We ran a bunch of boats over the July 4th holiday with this little SI3 20-series being one of them. The GPS geeked out at the end so we didn't know what the speed was until a few days later. 54.xx mph this time. That's a 4+mph gain over the last recorded run. Heck of an improvement!

Thanks to Crispyspa for the use of his GPS! Video of the runs will be uploaded later.

crispyspa

I had a lot of fun. We needed another body for running the camera though. Had a pretty good race between my SI mini and 2.5r's 20 series... His 20 series wiped the floor with my mini. LOL Of course my top speed is 36 and and his is 54 mph. I figure with my handicap of 4 laps I won the 5 lap race. Some videos were posted on my You tube channel, feel free to head on over and check them out.

Jeremy_H

Great stuff guys, love the vids!

asmithnc

54 Mph is a great speed for a mini. Can't remember but I think I was at the same speed with my mini. Great work

1QwkSport2.5r

Yours had a .46 on it I think, too. Screaming Flea, right?

I havent had time to upload the video of my Mini in action yet, but I will try to get it put up later today. I'd say not bad for a clone! Haha.

asmithnc

Yes... OS .46 AX

1QwkSport2.5r

These Jett .35's are pretty strong engines. .46 power in a .30 sized engine. Very impressive. I'm looking forward to the day mine actually breaks in and makes peak power. I wouldn't doubt my mini could hit 60mph. I think I was getting 17,400 on a 9x6 APC (peaked) on the last run. Advertised power is 18,200 on the same prop.

asmithnc

Found this.... It will give you a target to shot for. 53.9mph Short burst in Florida. The video did not count due to the quality. The Screaming Flea is stupid fast and stable and I still believe 60mph or greater would have been achieved. No one ever challenged so I never made it formal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGE41ltn5i0

1QwkSport2.5r

Thanks for the video. I already have 60 in my sights, already surpassed 54mph. Everything is on the shelf for awhile due to other priorities, but there will be further mods and testing on this boat and my big SI3 copy.