For sale I have a unique combo I would like to sell as a package. It includes the Robbe Prinzess, the original Robbe Roqua outboard and a modified MRP outboard with Hughey flex cable and brushed 700 motor. Here is what you get.





A brief history.
If you think this is a little long winded feel free to skip ahead to the pictures at any time. There are plenty of those!

I purchased this boat new in high school in the early 80’s. I ran it with the Roqua on 8 round cells for awhile and then bumped it to 12 cells. The higher voltage really brought it to life! Then it was shelved when I went off to college. Then in the late 90’s, married with my own basement workshop I picked up the MRP 550 outboard. I made a plywood transom plate that mated to the original Roqua bolt pattern and raised the MRP to run the prop on the surface. This was much more entertaining than the Roqua but soon running circles by myself in the local pond grew rather boring.

I got together with my dad and picked up a couple of 12 cell, 32" monos running 700 brushed motors that we could race. This was much more fun!! I wanted to see if I could get the old Prinzess to keep up the mono’s. I had the Hughey cable/stub shaft and a Fine Design Cordite 700 motor lying around so I made the stuffing box and the motor mounting plate to put them all together. A little plastic carving plus adding quite a bit of height to the cover and we were off and running!

This was a vast improvement over the original 550 power! It would easily keep up with the mono’s in the straights but would not turn at all and I do mean not at all! At speed the boat would yaw in the direction you wanted to turn but continue in a basically straight line until you backed off the throttle considerably. In an effort to correct this I stiffened the hull internally with a 1/32 ply sub-bottom and added plastruct to enlarge and sharpen the inner most strakes. This helped marginally so I added the brass fin to the bottom. That improved things dramatically. It is by no means a competition boat but it is a heck of a lot of fun! It’s a real challenge to drive however as the top heavy outboard makes it a bit on the tippy side. Fortunately the hatches are completely watertight and the boat will float upside down indefinitely (it did a lot of that!).

I pretty much fly planes and helis these days and am clearing out the boat stuff to make more room in the shop.

Included in the sale are the original Roqua outboard in serviceable condition with extra prop.

The Prinzess boat with all original documentation and scale details (never installed them),
Astro-Flight 212 brushed speed control,
Futaba S148 steering servo and a Futaba 2ch 75Mhz AM receiver.
I also have the matching Futaba Magnum Sport 2 channel pistol radio if you want it.


The MRP outboard with brushed 700, Hughey cable and sharpened & balanced Octura x640 prop.
The motor seems to run well but the can has some surface rust from repeated dunkings.
I think the motor plate I made could be easily adapted to brushless power.


This has been assembled and powered on the bench this weekend and runs smooth.

All you need is the batteries and you are ready to run.


I’ve spent a lot of time searching here and Ebay but can’t really get an idea of value so I guess I’ll just open it up to offers. What do you think its worth???

Now the pictures! Thanks for looking and sorry for the long wind.

A real classic. Toss it on ebay and I'll bet it will be worth your while

Originally Posted by Doubledog

A real classic. Toss it on ebay and I'll bet it will be worth your while

Yeah, it may end up on ebay if there is no interest here. I just thought I'd give fellow RCG'ers first dibs!

Mike

I would not post it on ebay. Too many fees.

priceless with father/ son project. u may as well keep it to have a great story for ur kids. and hope u guys will have fun together. good luck

Im interested. Really would not know what to offer. If you PM me a ball park figure, we could perhaps come to an agreement. I always wanted a robbe prinzess,, and the setup you describe might be just the ticket for further(mild brushless) mods to give longer runs and similar speed. Not looking for max performance,, just would like to kick up a wake, and look the part on the lake.

PM sent.

While I can appreciate Bigtruck's sentiment, my father, my son and I spent plenty of time together at the flying field and the indoor flying sites. With my 14 year old son converting an old 80" Citabria to electric and me building a 72" Ziroli Panther in the same 12'x14' shop, the boats NEED to find a new home!

Mike