Got this kit from the wife of a fellow in my flying club who had become too ill to do anything. He had apparently taken all the pieces out of the original diecut ply, but had not marked anything. There is one page plan but no instructions. Have framed up the formers, but it's slow going. Were there any instructions that came with these models? I have one 700BB motor and figured another would make a good powerplant. Also, where's a good place to get drive train, props etc.? Any other thoughts as to what kind of setup I need. I have sailboats and airplanes but this is my first pwered boat. Thanks, Bill S.

Bill,
Dumas has power and drive line kits for the Dauntless which may be the simplest way of going about it. From seeing some of their drive line kits, I'm not sure you couldn't do 'better' with just a little judicious shopping around. You might also give 'Dumas' an email about plans. No idea if they would duplicate them for you, but it's worth a try.
- 'Doc

I know for a fact that they will mail you a set of directions. I got my Donzi without directions. I think that they charge about $5.00 the contact section on their web page will give a number to call. www.dumasproducts.com they also have tech assistance with their boats aswell. I have called to ask about my Donzi, some of the Dumas directions are not so good. For power, a 700BB might be a bit high on the RPMs, I would gear them down quite a bit, I have my Donzi runnig a couple of 800s on a 3:1 reduction on 14 cells, and it really moves. I would look at some Johnson 8200 motors, way more torque, lower RPM and more efficient. My boat wieghs in at about 25 lbs, adn I have no problem pushing her up out of the water with about a 25-45 min runtime depending on the amount of throttle. The Dauntless is similar size wise and the underside of the hulls have similar designs(semi displacemt hulls)

You are right the Donzi and Dauntless boats are similar. I am currently fiberglassing the hull on the Dauntless. I am pulling my hair out trying to find the right motors to make my Dauntless moove out!.. Art at Dumas has suggested 2 AstroFlight 40's Any thoughts??? Where did you get your motors at? I want the boat to plane out and have some real speed. I have also used MACK Products and they are great. I have purchased their running hardware. They suggest using 2 motors per prop but their set up just for motors is $175 X 2 []A bit pricey but I want to make sure I am making the right move. Thanks Marty

I have never understood why it is neccessary to place these large amp draw motors with a gear reduction setup in boats like this.
In combat warship clubs we are running boats as large as 8' with direct drive. All of my warships, from Schnellboote to HIJMS Shimakaze are direct drive.
The geared motor will draw more power than a smaller direct drive system. If you take a high RPM motor and gear it down you are looseing amps from your battery. I find that it is far more efficient to utilize a smaller motor and do a direct drive.
A motor like that which I have linked to All Electronics would be more of what we would look for use in driving a boat of the size you are building. Just in case it is item number: CAT# DCM-165.

[link]http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=400200&item=DCM-165&type=store[/link]

I have a Dumas Typhon on hold ( one of many projects) when it comes down to out fitting the drive for this boat, I will most likely use something very similar to what I have linked you to. I see no reason to spend your money on a system that is designed to reduce your RPM's to make a large motor fit.

Tachikaze,

I hear you on the gear reduction issue. I do not plan on using any gear reduction. According to the Dauntless plans that I am reading under power notes. It states that the real Dauntless was capable of speeds up to 50 mph! S for me scale speed is a high power motor. I will need a strong motor that will push 12,000 RPM Here is the motor link:

[link=http://www.astroflight.com/e/env/0001oRUUlm03IVcr9I5q2O0/store/store-Marine.html?link=/store/store-type-tem.html&item=products:af-440]Astro 40 Marine motor[/link]

Thoughts? I plan on fiberglassing the hull this weekend.

HEY man are you in luck i happen to have the COMPLETE DOCUMENT SET to the dumas dauntless kit! Its still in the process but if you contact me i would be happy to send you copys of everything.

Does anyone have plans or instructions for the old Sterling Chris Craft 32' Cruiser Kit??

If you are looking at the Astro 40 motor, at 12V that motor will be giving you just under 8000 RPM's if I read the specs currectly. At about $100.00 that is a lot more than I would be willing to pay.
Unless you want that boat to stand up out of the water when you hit the throttle you do not need that rapid torque to get up to 8000 RPM's. The Pittman motors that I ran in FNS Mogador were 24V rated motors that were run on 12V. This produced 5600 RPM on the bench, and I estimated about 4400 RPM's in the water. At flank speed this would allow this 6' 3" boat to cover 100' in 30 sec's. Not as fast as what you would like, but you can obtain a Pittman 14V and run this on 12V and you will be pulling close to 10,000 RPM's.
The E Bay item # 3180386441 is the type of Pittman motor that we often run in our warships.
If you can find one of the silver cannister Maxon motors rated at 7.6V , these can be over run at 12V to give you near 10,000 RPM.
The Astro 40 is a great motor, and is very efficient, but you can find motors out there that will do what it does, draw more amps, but cost a lot less.

hello there. i too have the dauntless and will not be goin electric drives. instead i will be putting in 2 3cc aquacraft marine engines. i am finishing mine now . as to fibreglassing i will only be resining the hull and deck. one coat out and one coat in where the engines are goin to sit and the tanks. what are the schemes of paint you guys are using? i wanna go with silver ,royal blue, and white. also i am building a floor for the cabin as well. make it scale as dumas did not have plans on this ... i have full plans and instructions as well. i will be putting in alot of lighting. also instead of painting windows on the port windows i cut them open. i will also be making working doors and hatches. all windows , doors and hatches will be thin plexi. walkway to the back deck is complete. ....will post pic of walkway in a bit

I think that many of you are getting misinformation about the use of reduction gearing on high speed motors for use in large model boats. As for the difference between the DUMAS DONZI Z-65 & DUMAS DAUNTLESS, besides the obvious of one being fiberglass and the other wood hulls, the Dauntless hull when completed can be quite a few pounds lighter the the Donzi. Also the Donzi is a 49" long hull while the Dauntless is 49 1/2". The big difference is that the Dauntles has 1/2" more beam, thus will have less draft than the Donzi. The hull bottoms are also different with the Donzi having a deeper for foot and sharper vee with less beam at the water line than the Dauntless. The Dauntless is a modified vee bottom with its beam carried almost to the chine, very much in the PT boat style. Remember that the Donzi was built for offshore, while the Dauntless was a river runner. As for the motors for these boats one has to ask himself do I want speed or runtime. Anyone who says you can have both is lieing to you. To increase run time and still get a good turn of speed reduction gears are used to allow the motor to come up to max rpm's under load with large props. For top performance or speed, large motors are running direct drive matching propellers so as the loaded motor can still run at close to maximum rps's. The amp draw will always be higher on the direct drive motors thus the need for higher amp rated speed controls. Also do not be fooled thinking you are saving money by "I can buy such and such motor or speed control for a lot less money "when it comes to these bigger models. Even in our club, members thought they were saving money, only to come back and buy the correct setup after their savings went up in smoke.

thus this is the reason i decided to go with dual inboard marine 3 cc engines. the real boat only did 50 mph. with dual 3cc i will be getting around 10-15mph. i want it just for cruising. i have the nitro vee for speed...[8D]

my Dauntless is currently running two Mabuchi 550s and two 6V gel cells wired in series to make 12 volts. I have cooling coils installed but they aren't hooked up because the motors stay cool on their own. It is a direct drive setup. The boat's 1 3/4" 3-blade brass props are configured for counter-rotation. I use a Novak EVX for electronic speed control, but don't like the whiny noise the EVX makes at slow speeds... not very scale[]. These motors don't draw too much power yet move the boat along nicely. I used to have just a couple microswitches and a servo for full forward or full reverse and it was still fun and easy to drive, if saving $$$ is a goal of yours.

I tried Dumas 2" props and the boat was a bit faster but the motors nearly overheated after about 15 minutes. In this setup I should have probably went ahead and got the water cooling finished.

I FIXED THIS UP---ALL DONE---
THANKS