travisz1000

I have what i believe is a Dumas Miller boat but i cant be certain... I picked it up off a guy in his late 60's who claims he has had it setting on his shelf sense it was new. It has a sticker on the bottom that says AMA 1991 member?? It has Futuba radio and servos, The engine that i pulled out of it was an O.S Max 65 with a V stamped in it, had never been fired up until i took position of the unit. Is their anyway someone could tell me a little about it if i post pics up? I am also thinking about selling it to fund another project, but am not sure what the value of the boat it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hydro Junkie

Okay, from what I can tell, all Dumas hardware was used with the possible exception of the skid fin assembly. The internal layout screams Dumas, though the Circus kit I have doesn't have that many cross frames in the rear of the boat so it's hard to say. I'm thinking it COULD BE a modified Newton with Dumas hardware due to the location of the crossframes, the location of the radio box as well as the sponson design. If someone has built a Dumas Miller American that knows the internal crossframe layout and/or has build pictures, it would be nice to compare the two

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

It could very well be a Dumas as they did produce a Miller American kit.
The AMA 1991 was just the year of membership as they do have a boating section but not that popular. They do have a pond at their HQ in Muncie, IN.
What's it's worth, I don't know as I'm not good at pricing scale hydro's. Roughly $400-600.00 RTR.

R.J. West

having actually built a Dumas Miller American (and many other boats by Dumas) yeah thats a Dumas Miller American you have there and a very good looking and well made one at that.. Good find man!

travisz1000

Hey thanks a lot guys for the info, theirs just not a lot of info about these things and the different variations that I could find.

Hydro Junkie

RJ, is the boxed in stuffing box normal or was that someone's add on? I've never seen a scale with that arrangement in competition

R.J. West

The Dumas Miller American was the only 1/8 scale hydro that I know of that used the straight hard shaft. All their other boats used a flex shaft. That hull is built stock. Looks like a decent build too.

coriolan

Hydro Junkie

Boxed drive shaft are not uncommon, it help give some extra lift to keep the prop from digging in the turn. My present build is using that very set-up (its a semi scale 1/2A Hydroplane with a straight shaft).

Hydro Junkie

In almost 30 years of building sport and scale hydroplanes, that is the first boat I've seen with a ski other than riggers. The back of the boat is normally supported by the prop and air pressure so a ski is not normal on a scale boat. An enclosed drive shaft is not adjustable so it makes tuning the boat through prop height and angle adjustments impossible.

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

It may have been something that the builder put on himself. CMD (Andy Brown) and others have been doing this for years and now we're seeing this on the JAE 'riggers. In competition I don't know if it would be legal or not.

Hydro Junkie

To me, this would not be legal per either the NAMBA or IMPBA rules. NAMBA's rule book says that all ride surefaces must be forward of the hull midpoint on all sport style boats(scales fall into the sport 60 class) while the IMPBA rulebook says the bottom of the hull must be scale appearing, so this ski would not be legal in either class since there wasn't a ski on the 8401 hull. To take this one step further, there were no shoes on the 8401 until after 1986 if I remember right. If someone that knows more than I on the NAMBA or IMPBA rules would like to comment on this, it would be totally welcome

R.J. West

Jeezuz HJ, at first I thought you were just a Rc boat poser, now im convinced beyond doubt that your just a Rc boat forums troll...........

How can you claim to be involved in the hobby and not know anything about straight shafts? You have heard of a U-joint yes? Straight shafts have been used in model boats when you were still crawling around in your diapers up until the mid 80's or so when flex shafts became all the rage... Dude! Ita a hobby... Let those who are involved in it enjoy it, you can still walk around with your pen and note book at the next race bothering people with your endless list of questions, accidentally spilling their 30.00 gallon of fuel and dreaming of building a boat someday...a task,, that you my friend have yet to achieve....

Heres a book you really need to read HJ.....


Travisz, you have a very nice ride, race it, enjoy it, have fun with it.. Im jealous as h_ll that you have it and i dont as that is a beautiful model you have there.

I'll see you guys later, Im sure HJ is gonna cry to the Mod and have this one deleted......

Hydro Junkie

I'm well aware of u-joints and all of that, what I was refering to is that can't be done if the shaft is inside a housing as in the Miller pictured. Call me a troll if you want, I really don't care since my first four of five boats all were hard shaft and one I have now is also a hard shaft. In all actuality, I prefer the hard shafts

Mike McKnight

Ok no need for name calling and all the rest of this silliness. Travis it is a nice ride and Ihope you have a blast with it. If you are plans are to just go out and run on your own you're fine. If you plan to race it competitively you'll need to change the shoe and housing around the stuffing tube for the shaft. As a former District and National Scale Chaiman Ican tell you both of the national racing organizations,NAMBA and IMPBA will allow that shoe in competition in the 1/8 Scale Unlimited class. The hard shaft is fine but the shoe is not. It is seen as a performance advantage since it was not original equipment on the real boat as it ran in 1985-86. The hull appears to be Dumas but the ride pads have been modified from the original Dumas plans and they are fine. If you plan to race cometitively you might want to consider changing it to a flex shaft and replacing the Dumas hardware with Speedmaster or something else. The Dumas hardware was never really intemded for racing. I've seen several Dumas hulls be competitive with those changes. Welcome aboard and I hope you have fun. If you need help with anything just shoot me a message and I'll do what I can to help.

toyotatruckin

Welcome to RCU Mike!!

Mike McKnight

Thanks Yota!

Actually I meant to say they will not allow it in competition. BTW NAMBAs1/8 Scale Rules are in addition to the General Racing Rules not under the Sport 60 rules as earlier mentioned.The bottommust resemble the real boat witha couple of exceptions. Ride surfaces can be modified and the shaft can be artculated...meaning flex shafts. So if the the real boat had rear shoes or ride surfaces the scale version can. Unfortunately Iam not aware of a real boat that had a center shoe over the stuffing tube. Sport hydro rulesdo not allow any kind of shoes.Hope this clears things up.

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

I know that we get into a lively discussion about racing yet with a lot of members in here, they have no intention of racing. If it's just a recreational boat then he doesn't have to worry about what the sanctioning bodies have as rules.

Blackout

Nice boat and nice engine too! [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

R.J. West

Its a guarenteed lively disscussionthe moment anyone posts pics of a 1/8 scale hull on any of these forums because the moment someone does most of you guys start growing hair on your lower extremities and whip out the notebooks and rulers & start pointing out everything thats wrong.

It is a hobby, not a competition.

If you guys would stop giving yourselves migrains over rules and measurements and whatever then perhaps innocent guys like HJ wouldnt have been so influenced to build the perfect boat and he'd be out there enjoying watching his boat run on the water instead of being chained to his basement building pay n pak sport 20 number what? 3 or 4 now?

Hydro Junkie

Nice try RJ, but I've been building boats since long before the internet even started so the others in the forums have nothing to do with my building style. Getting back to this thread, nobody said TravisZ has to change anything on his boat. What was said, in a nutshell is:
1) IF HE WANTS TO RACE, THE SKI HAS TO GO
2) THE SKI WILL MAKE IT NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM TO TUNE THE BOAT'S RIDE USING PROP DEPTH OR THRUST ANGLE
I didn't see anything said about that any part of the hull being so wrong so that he couldn't run the boat if desired.

Now, getting back to my builds:
1) how many Paks I'm building should be no ones concern but mine
2) how long it takes me to build a boat should be no ones concern but mine
3) how much I modify a boat during the build should be no ones concern but mine
4) how much I pay for a paint job should be no ones concern but mine
Do you get my meaning RJ??????????????????????????

advanced builder

I'll second that. You can tell it's a Dumas by the stand, that's the construction stand Dumas asks you to help in the build. I like the color. Thanks for the post.

R.J. West

Stop sending me PM's HJ...I'm a married man for crying out loud!

Mike McKnight

Ok just relax. Inever suggested breaking out the tape and picking his boat apart....Isimply popped in to clarify some rules. Since he didn't state what his intention was I thought I'd clarify the options a little. Oh and RJ while this is a hobby...it is also competition...in building and racing...

Larcor69

I just ran across this old thread, 1. yes its a Dumas kit 2. the stuffing tube shoe is built as per the dumas instructions, I have a kit with plans sitting here and that is the way it was intended to be built by dumas.