Making an outrigger boat kit available for $35 shipped, need input!

[slowsl]

So..... I am new to R/C boating, however after finally getting my father's nitro boat in the water and playing around, I'm now hooked. I looked into buying a kit, but decided to build my own. I work at a fab shop, so I just decided to model up some plans and lay it all out and cut the pieces with our waterjet, and it turned out perfect. I'm currently in the process of building and testing now. A thought came to me.... why not make a good handful of these kits and see if anyone wants to buy them. I'm shooting for $35 shipped. There is going to be a lot of trial and error before I put any of these out there, and I'd like some help along the way to make it the best kit that I can.

-The kits will have the parts tabbed for easy removal from the sheet.
-The boat will be fabricated from 1/32" and 1/8" ply.
-the stern will have no holes, so different hardware can be used.
-Include a 24"x36" printed blueprint.
-aluminum tubes, or nylon 6/6 included for sponson booms.

I've also thought about an option for adjustable main sponsons. This would allow the sponson angle , height, and distance from the boat to be tested and adjusted very easily while at the water. The idea is in my head and partially on the computer, I just need to build a 2nd boat and try it out. Again, I'm new to this, I know this hobby and these boats particularly take a lot of learning, but if I'm going to start somewhere, I'm going to jump right in, and hopefully through some digging and with the help of members here, it will all turn out for the best. If I have success sourcing and making all of the hardware work well, another idea was to make a kit option which includes all of the hardware and the stern holes already cut.

Is this something that people may be interested in? Anything that should be considered while I'm revising the design?
-Mike

[sapdforu]

I'm interested

[HydroMike]

Pretty cool good luck

[kfxguy]

Neat. I might get one for the heck of it.

[bozo586]

nice,assembly looks real neat and will sell if put on the market! remember the kit must be right before that happens!
good luck-john

[Alexgar]

Cool

[Fluid]

Questions to consider:
Overall Size - length and width?
Voltage - 2S or 4S?
Tub size - what motor, ESC and packs will fit?
Speed goal?


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[slowsl]

overall size 13"x23"
tub size 2.75"x22"
The boat is this size due to fitment on typical sheets (12"x24") sheets. I have some sneeze room if anything needs to be adjusted though.

I'm still learning about motor & battery setups, which I still don't quite have a complete grasp on. I understand all of the trade-offs but it takes hands on time to know what will work. For example I don't know what's too heavy. I hear weight can be an issue but I've seen more than one post where long time guys say don't worry so much about the weight, as long as there is plenty of power with a properly matched battery, esc, and prop. I don't exactly have a target goal right now, maybe 40mph to begin, and 50+ after I get into the swing of things. I'm going to shoot a little big just to see what happens. I'm thinking a 4S & Leopard 3674 (2200kv or 2650kv) Motor to start, or is that overkill?
Could I have some recommendations on what you guys think might be a very fast setup, that way I can look at sizes of battery packs & motors and adjust to fit.
-Mike

[Fluid]

The boat is really too small for good 4S use, it is even a little on the small side for a hot 2S setup. What are the dimensions of the tub - width and height and openings?

A 3650 or 3660 motor with a Kv around 4500 would work well on 2S1P/4000 mAh set ups. Small and light to fit in the little tub, it could yield speeds up to 60 with decent run time with the right prop. It would be possible to run a 4S setup like a UL-1 motor/ESC but the pack would probably need to be 3300 mAH or less, reducing run time and increasing weight. You may want to size the tub for specific motor/ESC/pack combos so that buyers will know what power components to order.



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[NativePaul]

3674 on a 23" rigger is overkill IMO, most riggers in the Naviga Hydro1 class are about that size and most use 2860 motors with 280g of 2-3s battery 2s 6600mAh or 3s 4500mAh (these batteries are low C rate, the same 280g in high C would get you about 2s 5000mAh or 3s 3300mAh).
Have a look at this video does it match the speeds you are looking for?
a 2280 does have room for more speed than this if you don't need the 5 minutes + runtime this class needs.

[Peter A]

Is this done from the predator plan?

[Fella1340]

A little off topic but that racing looks like a blast! Those things really rip!

[slowsl]

The boat is really too small for good 4S use, it is even a little on the small side for a hot 2S setup. What are the dimensions of the tub - width and height and openings?

A 3650 or 3660 motor with a Kv around 4500 would work well on 2S1P/4000 mAh set ups. Small and light to fit in the little tub, it could yield speeds up to 60 with decent run time with the right prop. It would be possible to run a 4S setup like a UL-1 motor/ESC but the pack would probably need to be 3300 mAH or less, reducing run time and increasing weight. You may want to size the tub for specific motor/ESC/pack combos so that buyers will know what power components to order.

.

K, did some more research on weight. Yeah, a 4s setup looks to be quite heavy for this boat. I think I'm going to shoot for a lean 3s w/ a leopard 3650 and see how that turns out. The battery space is around 1.43" tall x 2.25" wide. front opening is 1.75" x 7", rear opening is 1.75" X 5.5". I still have some sneeze room if anything needs to be wider or taller. Those openings should fit everything just fine. I just bought a scale so I can keep track of the boat weight & all the components.

[slowsl]

3674 on a 23" rigger is overkill IMO, most riggers in the Naviga Hydro1 class are about that size and most use 2860 motors with 280g of 2-3s battery 2s 6600mAh or 3s 4500mAh (these batteries are low C rate, the same 280g in high C would get you about 2s 5000mAh or 3s 3300mAh).
Have a look at this video does it match the speeds you are looking for?
a 2280 does have room for more speed than this if you don't need the 5 minutes + runtime this class needs.

Yes, I would be satisfied with those speeds, would you say they are in the 40mph range? I don't think I'd want anything lower than 5 minute runtime. I don't want a saw boat, just something fun to play around with that handles decent.
Peter, this did start with the predator plans. The idea was to scale it up in size and change a few things, however, I quickly realized that it was designed to fit nicely on standard wood sheet sizes. If all goes well with this size boat, I'd like to jump up in size and give that a shot as well. I've sourced wood locally in larger sheets, so that shouldn't be a problem going bigger and keeping cost low.

I'm now trying to find hardware, but having a hard time finding the right stuff. Any idea where else to look other than OSE & hobbyking?
Thanks for all the help so far, I'm having fun building this thing!
-Mike

[slowsl]

Is there a trick to applying the fiberglass resin to the boat? Is it necessary to do the inside as well? Regular fiberglass resin good enough? Does this need to be mixed extra "hot" or just use the standard mixing directions on the hardener?