Happy new year to you all.
The weather having turned a balmy but gusty 9 degrees here in the sunny south. I thought I'd try my 34" boat again today.
Now somewhat lightened and with a new speed 600 motor and 9.6v Ni-Cad battery pack. she ran considerably better but is still somewhat bow heavy. As I have only restored her from an ebay purchase I'm not fully aware what might be causing the weight in the bow area but perhaps will try some weight further aft before attempting frontal surgery. Any ideas welcome.
Best Wishes
Chriis

Bit of fun with a video camera on my restored 1960's fireboat at my home club St. Helens MBC. had to be really carefull with the throttle and rudder sticks so the whole lot didnt end up upside down due to the camera position...

34" fireboat built 1965 restored late 2009 by me
running graupner 8.4v speed 600 on 8 cells (9.6v).

love the way the boat is in and out of shadow and sunlight throughout the video

ok, my first ever attempt at posting a video on here and youtube..

my Aerokits Sea Commander restored but not finished running a direct drive graupner speed 600 8.4v on 40mm std 2 blade plastic prop. battery is 9.6v 8cell 3300mA nimh. sailing Sunday 15th August 2010 at Taylor park st Helens mbc

thanks
David

This is my second attempt at scratch building using a a grp hull. My first boat was an MTB/MGB built on a Perkasa hull as a semi-scale model. (see All things Rc - Power setups).
This time I have concentrated on keeping things lighter but it still weighs in at 2.5kg!
I have built without plans, relying on internet photos scaled etc using "Photo deluxe" and "Photo Express".
Virtually everything is built from plasticard apart from a 3mm liteply deck.
The dinghy is epoxy resin and microballoons, ths scramble nets are Lego!
Power is again courtesy of Graupner -2, Speed 600 8.4v using lh. and r.h 35mm props. Esc is one of those 50amp ones from the far east. These are far cheaper than the Viper Marine 40 used in my MGB, but slightly heavier and less sensitive at low speeds. Current drain (in the bath!) is up to 30A but this gives a superb on the water pace of an, estimated,8mph. Battery is a 4,600 mAhr NiMh.
(A true scale speed approaching 150mph plus).
I sail it on Ullswater in the Lake district and the Vosper Perkasa type hull shape is superb in the real waves that we get there, flying over the crests and taking aboard No water!
It really looks the part as my photos would show if I could learn how to load more than one! Can anybody help with this?

I just finished this ship, based on my Fiberglass hull. Ship is powered by 3x Speed 600 with gearboxes 3:1

This is my Sea Hornet which was rescued from Ebay see photo 1. Gray (Froggyt996) recognised it as a Sea Hornet even with the hideous cabin attched which the prvious owner had made. Also see the propshaft angle in photo 1 - would this have ever worked? Gray again restored this for me, I wanted a mahogany boat which looked like an italian speedboat and this is what he did for me see photo 2. Photo 3 sees the Sea Hornet on the sea at Southsea just after the start of the Round Britain Race in 2008. The receiver battery failed and a very nice Lifeboat Man from Southsea happened to be watching me run the boat and rescued it when it stopped running. it was put in dry dock over this winter to be tidied up again after a couple of years constant use and photo 4 sees it with its 2 new screens, re-varnished and 2 new rubbing strake. it is powered by 2 Graupner Speed 600 motors, a Ripmax sea sprint watercooled speed controller and 2 x 3 blade prop shop props on 2 x light weight shafts. it is also filled with bouyancy foam it case the inevitable happens which makes it quite heavy. it is ran on 2 x 8.4 volts nicad sticks and gives me a running time of approx. 20 minutes with quite a good turn of speed.
Marie (alias Mrs Froggyt996)

this model has been extended by 2 inches for better handling looks the part powered by a single Graupner speed 600 on 8.4 volts built from liteply weighs 4 pounds all up,built 2004 and sails at the Goole club waters near the coal hoist ,Goole docks (saturday afternoons)

Hi, this is my Ebay Crash Tender restoration project stripped ready for re-build.

It is an original kit but needs a lot of work as you can see (some times I think it would be asier to start again - but good fun).

I'm not sure how old it is exactly, it cost me £50 from ebay. Hopefully it will be ready for next summer.

It will be electric powered, probably by a graupner speed 600 single screw.