I want to get started in RC Boating. dose anyone have any advice on what to start with. I don't want a toy, I want something descent.

If the water is flat, get an outboard tunnel. If it is choppy, you need a mono. I've always liked outboard tunnels because they have great performance, and the motor is easily accessible. Also, there is no shaft that goes through the boat so leaking is far less likely. Are you planning on running nitro or electric? And how are the water conditions?

Hi Mike

What kind of budget do you have, and do you have any batteries & chargers from other RC models you can reuse/share to save some expense?

-yellow-bird

how much cash are you willing to spend?

I'M thinking electric, seems like a good place to start. The lake is flat to lite chop. Not to concerd about price, don't want to go to crazy sense it will be my first boat. But want to get started in the right direction.

helps to know how much your willing to spend..
some think $150 is not crazy but $200 is
when I spend $1,000 plus a boat, to me that's not crazy to start with..

you will need lipos and a good charger.. the bigger the boat the bigger the packs and charger needed...

$300-$350 but I would like that to be with what I need to go. </p>

ok that helps...
$350 tops with lipos and a charger, right?

I was going to say the Aquacraft Revolt30 is one heck of a Mono!
with a prop change you can see low to mid 40's out of that boat, and it's a real racer built by a true racer to boot!

but RTR its abut $340 and you need Lipos along with a charger

Don't forget about a rescue boat or other means to get to your boat unless you get a self-righting hull.

oh man, don't burst a bubble..

Get a miss g. Only cause im a catamaran fan or if you have the effort build your own for the same price but more powerful setup

All sounds good. I also want a boat that I can do upgrades and hop ups, something that keeps my interest for a while. I would like to build my own boat later, after I get some experience.

lots of stuff out there but the price kind of limits you

Fastrcboat.com pretty much specializes in boats that are designed to be tinkered with.  If you want to get a mono, get their mono unlimited.  They are also coming out with a tunnel that can be upgraded.

what do you think is better? gas, nitro, or electric. What would be the best to start with? 

LOL to each their own on that one, I love running nitro but electric is more popular around here now so I run it more. If you know your way around internal combustion engines thats pretty easy. More CAN go wrong with electric if you really don't know what your doing. I'm still more worried about cooking an electric setup than I've ever been running nitro, easy to tell in a few feet if the mixture is wrong, electric you know something is wrong when it lets the smoke out.
For a first boat go with a cat or mono hull. Outboard tunnels have to be set up near perfectly to run right, one of my favorites to run but take a lot of tuning and testing to get it right, but what fun when it is right! Hydros are somewhere in between in terms of difficulty, need to be set up well to run right, they are more sensitive to an improper setup than a cat or mono but easier to setup than a tunnel hull.
A mono will handle chop better than any other hull design.
If you would like to try your hand at racing I would suggest a mono hull, can be run in mono and offshore class with the same hull, just usually a prop change.
All three are a little out of your budget range but I really suggest saving for another week or two and looking at either the Revolt, Impulse or my first choice would be a Pursuit mono from Kinetec or Offshore Electrics. Much better motor and esc and a few inches longer, would be best to run a pair of 4s packs in it due to the slightly bigger boat and motor. Plus it's a proven race winning hull design, even if you don't want to race the hull handles great and is faster out of the box than the other two. A lot of people upgrade the other two with the motor and esc combo out of the Pursuit, that says something right there!

Take a look at the vids of the mono unlimited from fastrcboat.com.  It is an ass kicker for a mono.  Siberianhusky is right, tunnel hulls are extremely hard to set up correctly.  However, they are really fun to run once set up correctly.

Gas = bigger more expensive, but IMO the goal.  Long dependable run times.  look to warehouse hobbies (dreaming of a Magnum 57, or Magnum Monster [X(])<div>
</div><div>Nitro = good runtimes, tedious little motors. (I moved away from these as I got tired of tinkering)</div><div>
</div><div>Electric = fast, quiet, the usually short run times, sometimes things go poof for what would seem like no reason.</div><div>
</div><div>I am personally sticking with electric and saving for gas.</div>

Hi Mike

Electric is less messy, no fiddling with carbs, and quieter so you can find more places to run - e.g. ponds near peoples houses.

How big is the lake you want to run on, and is it near houses?

You can find a "starter" boat for around $150-200 + $50-100 for batteries and charger, but if you like it you may find you are bored after a month, especially if you start off with a brushed motor boat. At that point the cost of upgrading will be significant to get something noticably faster, and you will be pulling out nearly new motors and speed controllers. Examples include the ProBoat Shockwave 26 EPmonohull and Apache catamarn. These boats are typically ABSand can be a bit more durable than fiberglass when it comes to bumping into things at first.

If you want to keep to about $300 all in, the Aquacraft Wildcat EPmay be your best option. Its ABS, comes with a brushless motor and you can buy the boat for around $220 and a single battery and basic lipo charger for about $80.

A "good" boat you can learn with and grow into will be closer to $300-350 and maybe $100 for batteries and charger. Popular examples are the ProBoat Mystic/ Geico/ Blackjack catamarans and Impulse monohull, or Aquacraft Motley Crew cat or Supervee/ Revolt monos. These boats are typically fiberglass - stiffer but more fragile than ABS.

Another alternative would be to consider buying a second-hand "good boat" to bring the initial outlay down.

-yellow-bird

A Gas boat sounds like somrthing I may want to try later on. it seems you can get a descent gas boat for not to much more thin an electric, if you consider the cost of batteries and chargers.  

They sell the wild cat ep here in san antonio for 140 brand new at hobby town usa. Secondly i would never recommend anyone ever ever get a aquacraft.

I apoligize for mistaking aquacrafts mini and ep versions they are actually 230 rtr

http://www.hobbytown.com/Shop/Wildca...amaran-2-4GHz/

I highly encourage you to buy anything but aquacraft tho. Im sure these guys could give you a few links to there fav rtr boats under 300 they could point out a couple that are twice as reliable as aquacraft.<br type="_moz" />