Something a bit different! Model Power Boating. RC Catamaran build thread.

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How did I miss the building, inevitable smashing up and rebuilding of this beauty? Awseome work dude!

I don't know, how did you mate?

Pics time


Filler & water outlet ports fitted again.

All vents and rear hardware fitted with the exception of the lid clasps and exhaust mount. I think the combo of the black, brushed ali and green looks amazing.

Full length showing the beginning of the fitting of the rubbing edging strip, I'll get that finished off first thing tomorrow, I imagine its going to be a pig of a job to do.

Oh, the 3 front air vents are going on tomorrow as well. I've had to leave them for a few days for the lacquer to dry, but they have been painted black as well - also I have some black pinstripe stickering to add somewhere, currently undecided where though.

 

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Pics to follow. But I finished the boat this morning. Just need to check radio configuration but from a hardware perspective it's totally finished now. It looks fantastic, I must say

 

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Evening all

Glad to see the shared interest in RC stuff here - this morning I did the remaining jobs. Front air vents fitted, exhaust bracket fixed, painted, and fitted (along with exhaust fitted) then the rubber edging also fitted - which has done a lot to really finish the look of the boat off.

Here she is.

(propshaft has since been greased and fitted before anyone comments on the missing prop )

BTW I am still toying with the idea of putting additional black striping down the boat - design ideas welcome!

This evening I double checked the radio config - throttle cut needed to be re-configured and failsafes were also double checked and are working.

We're all ready for Saturday!

 

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Nice to see you so hopeful

There will be GoPro footage no matter what happens

 

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100% Finished now - programmed in failsafes today. So now if the transmitter & receiver lose a connection it will shut the engine down immediately and also if the battery voltage drops too low it will also shut it down

In light of this, it seemed like a good opportunity to break the proper camera out for some pics

Its getting wet tomorrow

 

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Looking good, all the best for tomorrow.

(I assume you've checked all the thingys are secured to the wotsits this time? )

Double and triple checked.

In fact after I checked for perhaps the 4th or 5th time Dad from behind me said "its fine, Jake"

 

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It's fake

 

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Update. It got wet!


But it broke again! But we didn't crash

We did a lot of testing before committing to trying and sailing it and during testing the throttle linkage broke AGAIN (it's a metal threaded rod this time so not sure how) and also we found a fuel leak.

So we came home. Fuel leak is repaired and the servo rod has now been soldered in place this time.

Tomorrow, we try again!

We did get the whole thing on GoPro though, so I can share that later

 

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It's over two hours 'later', Jake. Where's the footage?

Not sure when it will be Mr Feek my MacBook isn't exactly a video editing workhorse. But I do fly home on Monday so I'd say Monday is a safe bet.

Also hopefully I'll have lots of video footage from tomorrow to compliment it

 

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OMG it is a Missile - what I have I done. It is scary quick!


Had a spectacular day. More info and footage to follow later - overall incredible successful which ended with a bang

 

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So, today!

The work from yesterday was worthwhile, no issues with the throttle today, we did find another fuel leak (which I since fixed) - we spent a good couple of hours fiddling with the fuel mixture config and trying to get it to run correctly. The fruits of our labour soon began to pay off

However, we did have a mishap today! (I did say it ended with a bang) - I was having a good run keeping it at more or less full speed (which is scarily quick...the acceleration is beastly) - during this we noticed that the boat was cavitating and the prop needed lowering. Before this was done and on a particularly speedy bit the boat bounced along with a strong gust of wind hitting the lake and the whole boat went airbourne

Exhaust mount broke off, taking the exhaust with it which is now at the bottom of the lake

New one ordered. Need to make a new exhaust mount and find a way of fitting it in a stronger & more secure fashion.

Exciting day and absolutely brilliant all round. I do have GoPro footage but the GoPros died while we were messing around with the setup but I can post some footage later anyway - I am back in March so there will be more then.

 

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Hoping that isn't another crash! Looking forwards to seeing this monster in action

See above

 

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Woof, that thing is quick! Shame about the exhaust, but I imagine that's fixable with less effort than the last mishap

Yes indeed. What I will do next time is put longer threads onto the exhaust mount so I can physically bolt it down underneath the shell. So it can't come off again

 

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You're not kidding, that was incredibly quick. Please hold the phone in landscape mode next time though - It means it's easier for you to track and it's so much nicer to view.

Having said that, let's see some more footage, I'm drooling

Yes normally I am not guilty of VFS but the excitement got to me

I will go through the GoPro footage when I get home tomorrow and Tuesday and get something posted. Its nothing too exciting. We were still having lots of problems before it really got going though but its still fun. I also have some other phone videos. I'll go through those as well.

In other news, the manufacturer of the boat (who is world famous in the RC Boating world) has put photos of my one on his website, which is unheard of! - he emailed me saying it looks amazing - see link. https://www.prestwich.ndirect.co.uk/ORION48.htm

Proud as punch right now!

 

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One thing that is crazy about this boat. When its going slow it does not turn very well...you HAVE to drive it fast for it to handle properly - its a racing boat through and through!

 

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Evening everyone.

I got around to going through the GoPro footage and trying my hand at editing.

Apologies for the quality and artifacting. I am still very much learning. Hope you enjoy.

 

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Footage looks amazing! I skipped a few bits so sorry if it's explained but I have questions -

- What's the brown stuff splooping out of the exhaust? - Excess oil that hasn't been burned. During run in/setup process we run fuel with a higher amount of caster oil. It helps protect the engine when its especially tight. When the boat crashed and the engine was screaming for that 30 seconds before I was able to stop it we're certain that the excess oil stopped the engine damage. The next time we run the boat it will be on our usual fuel which has a lower caster oil content. The engine will run cleaner and will be able to really open up then.

- How come the boat appears the shift relative to the camera? Is it a flexible mount? Almost looks like the camera leads the steering! No its just the GoPros fancy image stabilization. Next time I want to play with settings to see if I can get vertical stabilization only and leave the horizontal stabilization

- Does the boat turn left or only right? It goes both left and right, but it turns right better. When the boat is running faster turning performance improves.

I think you should keep the GoPro on there at all times, the first person/water level perspective is great! I once went on a trip up the Thames in a little speedboat and the photos were lovely, it looks so nice right down on the water

There you go - glad you liked the video!

 

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Watched that all the way through, very interesting. Is it just a case of tweaking until you get it to a state where it doesn't stall? How is the boat recovered each time?

Typically, yes. Although we have ordered a water pump now and plan to pump water through the engine manually, that way we can set the boat up stationary in the water by holding it. This should speed up the setup process massively. Also you can't do this for long without a waterpump due to risking engine overheating and then it going bang.

Boat is recovered with the rescue boat. You see it in the video. Looks like a dark green bath tub with a battery powered outboard on it. We jump in it and go and get it!

 

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I've got a few friends with boats and the first thing I thought when I saw the engine running with it out of the water was that it was unusual. I was quite surprised because I know how anal some of them are about running (or not running) the engine out of the water. Yes, get that pump fitted so you don't do the overheat thing.

You're Essex based if I remember correctly or at least in and around Essex? Our lake we go to is at Brentwood if you ever fancy coming along to watch

With regards the engine outside of the water. Each engine is different. In my smaller Sprint Cat I have a MAC engine and it needs the coldest spark plug you can get plus as well if its running out of the water for longer than 8 seconds or so it starts to smoke up. So no messing around with it. This CMB handles it better, although I think the higher caster content helps massively tbh - The water pump will help get us a long way thats for sure.

 

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There is a rescue boat with an electric outboard. We go an get it.