Not new to RC boats just to riggers.

I have a fast cat and a development mono plus an interesting air powered beast, I am looking to expand the family and add a rigger.
I can draw and build boats, I am looking for design tips and a good starting point.
I am after a rigger primarily as a straight line rooster tail spitting speed machine to honk down the pond.
If someone has some basic plans or can draw some basic ideas then that would be very cool. I am looking for hull forms ( cross sections ) for the forward sponsons and some overall ratios of length to beam, cog distances etc.
I have a hot 540 looking for a home, but may consider buying a motor and drive such as a speed 700 ??
There is a good supply of 3 and 6cell stick packs here and a lot of material to make running hardware, Rx gear, servos, switches etc. I know I will need a shaft and prop so any hints there would be good too.

Check out my air powered machine, I can and will build and develop a boat!!

Hi Simon!

I'm glad to read you are entering the zone of insane speed of those lobster-like devils! "straight line rooster tail spitting speed machine to honk down the pond" I couldn't agree more with this perception of a rigger!
I have just finished my own scratch-built electric rigger from plans available at http://www.pirespreto.com/newversion/rigger.html

The layout is really simple and the materials you'll need are mainly balsa wood and thin plywood and some epoxy resin for making the structure water resistant. You can get an idea of how it looks like in the pics.
The specs are as follows: length 59 cm, beam 30 cm, weight appx. 1 kg
I am currently using 6 cell NiCd batteries(the design is meant for 7 cells, which is going to happen soon by the addition of 1 cell to each 6er pack) and an LRP 14 turn car motor. The ESC is a car Mtronics Sonic 3 Tempo, modified to be water cooled. The motor has also a water cooling spiral tube and 2 additional short water tubes soldered on the two brush hoods(the latter seems a good idea to avoid the wires from popping off!-things do get hot over there, perhaps the motor is too fast for that usage(too few turns, that is)
Tests on the lake are so far promising, it really gets off the water in a snap. I have tried 2 Graupner props, one with 32mm Diameter and one 45(!)mm. To my surprise it goes faster with the big one, maybe the big prop is working off the water to a considerable extent, thus letting the motor speed up adequately. However, I'm already looking at brushless combos to really spice things up...
What kind of 540 do you plan to use (turns)? What voltage? Do you have any personal experience with brushless motors and ESCs?
Hope you like the boat and decide to give it a try. If you have any questions, don't hesitate.

Andreas

Wow is that a wood turn fin and rudder?

very very interesting.
is your strut adjustable?

Speaking of adjustable, I modded my Fullers hardware on my rigger so that the rudder is adjustable.

Good times

good.
I have done that as well. I like having the bow out when i turn. and knowing if i hit a log that the rudder won't sink.

Yep, the rudder is carved from 8mm ply down to an airfoil shape of about 3mm maximum thikness and the turn fin is 1,5 mm ply. The rudder is strong enough to have been digging the lake's bottom when returning to the shore (no damage yet-fewwwww...) but I don't know if the turn fin will handle the forces appearing at higher speeds (cause I'm planning to go brushless)
The strut is fixed, simply epoxied on the hull and that might be a weak point when it comes to tuning.
By the way, I found at my local store the Supervee27 brushless motor and ESC as spares, total price with cooling jackets should be about 150$ and I'm thinking of that option. I am now using 6 cell packs on this boat, but if I go for the Supervee powerplant I could find place for two 5cell packs in the rigger's hull, making for a total of 10 cells. I think it shouldn't be bad in terms of power, considering that the boat weighs in at 1 kg with the 6cell pack and with 10 cells it would be 1,25kg to say the most (while the supervee27 uses 12 cells, but weighs almost the double!). My concern has to do with boyancy: will it jump out of the water when I hit the gas or will it become a U-boat-rigger and head for the bottom of the lake?...
Does anyone have experience with overpowered, overweight hydros or riggers? I should first look for some feedback before investing, I guess..

Be well, be fast!
Andreas

Andreas, thanks for your reply. That is exactly what I am looking for.
Could you please take a couple more pics for me.
1. Detail of the back end with rudder etc
2. A clear plan shot with the deck cover off
3. A front shot showing its cross section

You can post them here or mail to [email protected]

Thanks, Simon.

o.k here is the plan
I will aquire but any means the parts that I need from motor to prop, and the build a boat around what I have.
I am undecided whether to run a flex shaft or go for a universal like I have in the Kyosho powered mono.

On that note. Is it absolutely mandatory to run the output shaft parallel to the bottom of the boat where I need to use all this gear or can I mount the motor well forward and run a long straight at a very shallow angle to the prop, this would be a lot cheaper for me.
Boat stuff is very expensive her in N.Z

I will be running direct off a hot 540 (water cooled) so I may have to experiment a little with prop sizes to get the right rpm to torque mix.......... Ohhh development of home-builts is fun !!
I will be running a standard configuration 6 cell stick pack so this will have to fit in the boat as well. The esc will probably sit aft of the motor and the pack forward.
I intend to use the plans in the above provided link as a guide and scale it from there to fit what I have.
The hull is looking to be glass over laminated balsa with ply frames.
Alloy sponson tubes and g.o.b sponsons or just plain painted balsa sponsons. Alloy fins etc.


I’m workin’ on it…. I’m workin’ on it…!!…………Bring on the rooster tail.

Simon,

here are a few pics that might be helpful. What is your exact email adress(is it [email protected] ?I got a little confused by the adress in your post)I can send you some fotos of higher resolution there.
As for the strut, I opted for the straight axle option for cost reasons mainly (shaft and shaft tube were fabricated from stock rod and tube--->virtually zero cost). My motor (oh yes, it's a brushless now-can't wait to test it!) is placed about in the middle of the hull yet the strut angle isn't that shallow, which I assume costs speed. I just tried to keep the prop in relation to the stern as far to the rear and as below as indicated in the plans, but at a negative angle to the hull due to the non-flexible shaft. You could also exit a rigid shaft at the corner between hull bottom and stern, thus having more space to keep the angle shallow. In that case though the prop would be positioned too high and you would need extra shaft length to get the whole prop into the water when the boat is sitting.
If you plan to run a 540 with 6 cells, there's plenty of room at the extreme forward of the hull for the batts. If you make a quick C.G. check as per the plans you'll see that you need to keep the batteries in the very front portion of the hull to achieve the proposed C.G.
My construction is mainly 2,5mm balsa with 1,2-1,5 mm ply skins and is very strong without any glasscloth reinforcements. Maybe you would be adding too much weight by laying glassfibre over your structure...
The sponsons can be built out of thin ply and be filled with PU foam, a good flotation help on the one hand and you won't have to make them 100% water tight on the other hand(no cavities to get filled with water[8D]). The sponsons can be attached with hollow carbon fiber rods to the hull. A bit more expensive than aluminium rods but you'll always be certain they remain straight (ALU bends a great deal before breaking, while carbon fiber will either stay unbent as new or simply break-if you and 2 buddies step on the boat)

I'm by no means an expert on this field, so I would also appreciate some feedback on the strut issue myself from other people out there..

Be well, be fast!
Andreas

strut is to deep and to much of a angle.
the strut would be the same depth as the sponson and only a 3-4deg. down which that isn't. I would get your self good hardware that is adjustable.

try some hardware like this
N2 rigger (6 cells) ( N2 mono) hardware will work for either hydro or mono
I have Hughey, speedmaster,fine design and fullers.

do you have any plans on how to make the sponsons?? I am starting to make my first rigger.

Thanks for the input so far guys.
I think I will have to fabricate a rear strut myself to get the rear shaft horizontal.
Factory gear here is too steep. $250+ for an Octura M strut assembly [X(]

Andreas, my e-mail is overys @ yahoo. com I have put the spaces in so that it is pure text.
Brad, the link further up this thread takes you to the plans for the boat that Andreas built.
I will wait til I get to work tomorrow to download those plans as i have no printer here.

I’m workin’ on it…. I’m workin’ on it…!!…………Bring on the rooster tail.

andreasturb, can you take a photo or two of a side view showing the front end of the hull? thanks

Thanks for the comments and pics Taylor Shaw. What do you have to pay on average for such a strut assembly?Is it so expensive as in Simon's area?
@ Simon: it seems I'm not the only one trying to build their own models and components cutting modelling cost (and increasing creativity). Of course it's very hard to match the performance of commercially available products, but trying things out teaches a lot about how things work. Taylor Shaw's comments make me think I overdid it with the strut angle. Have you found a smart way to achieve a shallow angle? It's a hard one...
@Brad: here are some front end pics. Let me know if they're what you asked for.

Might take her to the lake tomorrow to test her with the Supervee27 motor on 10 cells! (oooomph, that's heavy! [X(])

be well, be fast
Andreas

^^^ those pictures are exactly what I wanted to see. thanks a lot! I am currently building the hull for my rigger. It turning out well so far. I hope to have it done in a week or two.

alright, can't wait to see your first pics!
good luck!

If you just want the strut and the bracket, this will work:
http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...=oct-oc4sbbr-a
and
http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...rod=oct-struts

Or you could go this route for about the same $$. It's shiny-er :
http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...d=ros-21-strut

Or you could make your own, it's not that tough:
http://rumrunnerracing.com/plans/hydromite/Hdwr1.jpg

It'll run you about $30 for just the strut and the bracket. In addition to that you're gonna need:

more brass tubing for new propshaft
blow torch or gas stove to bend brass tubing
new motor mount
flex cable and teflon tube (probably .130)
motor-flex cable coupler
new prop, which one depends on your motor/setup
prop nut to retain prop on shaft

And I'm sure some other little misc stuff. Check out this page for rigger setup: http://www.rcboataholic.com/building...ard_rigger.htm

Hi guys,
I wasn't aware that more than one person had built the rigger from my plans (LOL)
I had feedback a few years ago from a Spanish boater that was happy with the design.

I never ran my rigger but the design principles looked solid. I was almost sure that it would run well with a few tweaks.
It was designed to be the most inexpensive boat you could get.
I'm glad that it works well!!!

i'm sorry but most of those are crap and to big.
go for hydro hardware . it is i beleve the second one down on Fine designs list.

Right. I am now back at work with a good printer here but can not open the zip files on the page this page so that I can get the plans.
http://www.pirespreto.com/newversion/rigger.html

I only really need the basic shape as i can scale off that to build the size I need.
I also need to know where the COG should be.
If anyone can help me here I will be very happy.

Simon,

As I said a couple of posts back I'm the owner of the site and creator of the design. I've just checked and the file is there and it's downloading correctly.
Scroll down the page and click ACAD14 version.

If you have any difficulties just let me know. I can send them to you by email

A. Pires Preto

Yes please
I have trouble with zip files and that sort of thingIf you could send them in some sort of format that can be opened and printed easily I will be a very happy man.
Thank you
Simon.

Your problem is getting an Autocad to open them or open the zip file?

If you don't have Autocad or access to Autocad, Autodesk has a free viewer for opening a "special" version of these files

Look here for the viewer
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...&siteID=123112

This viewer needs a DWF format file and it's also on my site.... but it's hidden

Here you have the link for the DWF file
http://www.pirespreto.com/rigger.dwf

You can print from this viewer if I can remember correctly.