785boats
Nov 18, 2008, 08:17 PM
I stumbled across this "Museum Display Model" of the Typhoon on Ebay.
As the engine bay hatch covers were able to open I thought to myself 'You could easily convert that to R/C.' I knew that I would have to seal the inside of the hull with epoxy or something to stop the warping & splitting of the timber. And installing a rudder post & control arm was obviously going to be a problem as there was no access.
Well I was the only bidder & picked it up for AU$250.00. Plus AU$55.00 postage.
I knocked out the engine bay floor & sides & the rear cockpit floor & back after removing the seat.
To my surprise the inside of the hull had already been coated with an epoxy type resin all the way up to the deck.
The deck planking is solid timber of 1/4" thickness as are the hatch covers. I would be surprised if they warped or split.
The way they had removed parts of the bulkheads & keel to fit the cockpits & engine bay was a bit brutal to say the least. Looks like they had been twisted & split out with a pair of pliers. I thought that I was the only one that did that sort of thing.
I drilled in a prop shaft mounted a 7.2v 700 size motor to an aluminium mount made out of some 3mm angle & screwed that to some pine wedges shaped to fit in the bottom of the hull.
The shaft & motor were lined up using some close fitting tubes of brass & aluminium. The wedges were then epoxied in position with the whole thing assembled & aligned.
I cut out the bulkhead behind the rear cockpit with the dremel tool to gain access to where the rudder post would be. Unfortunately there is another bulkhead in the way that I couldn't get at. So The control arm had to be mounted outside the hull with an aircraft braided rod in a nylon sleve exiting the step at the rear of the hull. Not exact scale but it works.
The boat now felt very heavy & with the batteries added it felt too heavy. But surprise surprise it floats right on the waterline.
Looks like I've got the shaft angle and/or the prop depth wrong because the prop cavitates & you can see the air being sucked in at the corner of the step when she gets up a bit of speed. I don't want to try & get the prop shaft out now to change it, so I'll try some different props & I'll upgrade the motor to a 14.4v to maybe get the boat up out of the water a bit more.
I tried some skirts made from aluminium behind the step & under the hull which helped a bit but there must be a better solution.
All in all I'm quite pleased with the outcome & it only took about 10 hours including making up the rudder post & tiller arm.
Here's the result. See what you think.
Paul.
As the engine bay hatch covers were able to open I thought to myself 'You could easily convert that to R/C.' I knew that I would have to seal the inside of the hull with epoxy or something to stop the warping & splitting of the timber. And installing a rudder post & control arm was obviously going to be a problem as there was no access.
Well I was the only bidder & picked it up for AU$250.00. Plus AU$55.00 postage.
I knocked out the engine bay floor & sides & the rear cockpit floor & back after removing the seat.
To my surprise the inside of the hull had already been coated with an epoxy type resin all the way up to the deck.
The deck planking is solid timber of 1/4" thickness as are the hatch covers. I would be surprised if they warped or split.
The way they had removed parts of the bulkheads & keel to fit the cockpits & engine bay was a bit brutal to say the least. Looks like they had been twisted & split out with a pair of pliers. I thought that I was the only one that did that sort of thing.
I drilled in a prop shaft mounted a 7.2v 700 size motor to an aluminium mount made out of some 3mm angle & screwed that to some pine wedges shaped to fit in the bottom of the hull.
The shaft & motor were lined up using some close fitting tubes of brass & aluminium. The wedges were then epoxied in position with the whole thing assembled & aligned.
I cut out the bulkhead behind the rear cockpit with the dremel tool to gain access to where the rudder post would be. Unfortunately there is another bulkhead in the way that I couldn't get at. So The control arm had to be mounted outside the hull with an aircraft braided rod in a nylon sleve exiting the step at the rear of the hull. Not exact scale but it works.
The boat now felt very heavy & with the batteries added it felt too heavy. But surprise surprise it floats right on the waterline.
Looks like I've got the shaft angle and/or the prop depth wrong because the prop cavitates & you can see the air being sucked in at the corner of the step when she gets up a bit of speed. I don't want to try & get the prop shaft out now to change it, so I'll try some different props & I'll upgrade the motor to a 14.4v to maybe get the boat up out of the water a bit more.
I tried some skirts made from aluminium behind the step & under the hull which helped a bit but there must be a better solution.
All in all I'm quite pleased with the outcome & it only took about 10 hours including making up the rudder post & tiller arm.
Here's the result. See what you think.
Paul.