SubDave, send me a pic of that cutout if you can. here are a few pics of the brushless and dummy motor

Done.

Guys,

Just got the hull "welded up" and painted. Looks really nice all together. Will send pics tonight..


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Now I see the photos...Nice Dave...... I love that we have 3 separate builds going on in 1 thread! Here are the painted pics. Got all of the superglue welds on. I do this after final primer and sand so the detail isn't lost. Never had an issue with falling off. Not even my subs. Just got my 35 amp reversible ESC and it works great. I get a nice delay and about 1/4 throttle in reverse......It also has water cooling so I put a pickup and exit venturi on the bottom. Should be enough to keep water flowing...I also just added some smoked plex (so I don't need to build an interior ) and some bollards. Took a bit of liberty here as I didn't like the side bollards the real boat has. I am also toying with the idea of making this a Sheriff boat. Not sure yet..Non-skid on the bow is next and a sea trial over the weekend...

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Sheriff version

Wow that's turning out nice!

Excellent Mr D ! nice detail...

there are quite a few different boat styles out there, short cabs, long cabs, rescue, fire, sherriff...kinda hard to pick just one!

Progress so far, cage mounted, dummy motor mounted and rudders built:

Sea trials are tomorrow. Have the ESC, cooling, magnetic hatch and rudders in. Second image shows the water pickup / venturi and a couple 4-40 threaded inserts which are sealed from the inside. This will allow me to experiment with various fins to get the boat to track how I like it. Looks like the motor will have plenty of power. It started to move across dry grass! I hope the ESC gets enough water without a pump. I don't need any complexity. Lighting will be wired up after the boat checks out. It will need a small electronics panel and a couple switches...


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Rudders on and ready for trials. Added a ton of flotation as a precaution. Additional details will come after that. It still looks a bit plain..

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D, this is turning out great! Looks great "Plain", it's called simplistic beauty. The only thing I can think of that will make this pop is lettering and decals. That's my goal, but let's see if I have the skills to pull it off, ha. Can't wait to see this in motion...

Looking good.

Did a quick run in the pool. All went fine until I got a lot of waves coming off the side. Boat was taking a bit of water over the bow. This shouldn't be an issue on a large lake. I am still a bit worried about right turns. When it goes left, the prop torque helps it to bank but the opposite happens to the right and it looks like I could flip it. All I can suggest is to keep the wheelhouse and upper stuff light. Mine started out that way but lights and details have changed that..Lake run is tomorrow..

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The Turnigy 35 is a nice ESC.
Very nice throttle curve.
I don't really care for the double tap reverse especially if you need to stop fast.
I hope your lake tests go well. Dave.

I have seen more than a few airboats with a 'duckbill' on the bow to negate spray problems like that, some of them even fold so they make it shorter to trailer the boat. I would think a piece of abs with a couple of light braces would work for that.
Foo

You may want to think about experimenting with the rear trim tab.
It would look cool too. Dave.