Got the bullets in the mail today...will start up the sodering tomorrow since i will be working from home...transmission in my truck died on the way home..had to drive the last 5 miles at 40 miles per hour in 3rd gear....what a day!!

Well..car is out of the shop..

Started soldering the bullets last night but my iron is not hot enough...going to home de-pot to pickup a bigger iron to solder those huge bullets.. Have all my required hardware for the motor mount as well. I was on a "mission" yesterday to get that turn fin done ...so i finally managed to put a piece of ply inside the sponson and drill small pilot holes thru the hull....looks good so far. I am going to slowly step-up the size of the drilled hole...but keep it smaller then the actual screws. I will post pics tonight...

whatever happend to this build?

Sorry its been awhile on the updates. I work at a couple of hospitals and around this time of the year they either spend the budgeting dollars on projects or it goes to something else....so lots and lots of projects....

Anyway, before i left for work this morning i took some pictures to post during my break..i now have every component i need to finish this up and realistically could be done within a week or so ...but again i have a couple of weekends coming up that i will actually have to work so ....i will try to stay current.

First pics are of the work i have done to the hull. I placed my turn fin in the general area i want to mount it in and using a pen marked the area. After that i put a piece of ply inside the hull so i could mount the fin to a nice solid surface..(thanks scorp).. That was a MONSTER to accomplish..you have litteraly no room to get inside the sponson. I ended up using ca glue to afix the piece of ply to a long piece of balsa...sort of an extension ...finally got the ply in there. After getting the ply in there with my little extender..i didnt like its position but couldnt really change it. So in a bold move i broke out the drimmel and cut into the wood railing on the inside of the boat. I tried to keep it neat so later i can go back with some 0.5 fiberglass and resin and seal the cutout peice back inside. I figured since its not really a "load bearing" part that i could sacrifice it for peice of mind on that ply "back plate". Once i am done with the turn fin i will lock in the cutout with enough glass to secure it...

As you can see i removed all the wood in the forward section where the batteries will go.

I also picked up some 8gage wire for my bullet connectors. I soldered up the parallel cables...they look like jumper cables. I also soldered up the esc and the motor....

After i finished up the soldering i went back to the motor mount. I really want to use the hardware i paid for so i worked a bit longer on trying to figure out the mounting. I ended up cutting the end off of a flat metal 'L' bracket. I then inserted screws to hold the cut peice to the back of my motor mount. This brings the height of the back of the motor up a inch or two which allows the motor to line up better with the flex shaft coming into the boat. I have to make another one of these cutoffs for the other side...im thinking of using the entire 'L' bracket for the other side..the plan would be to bend it over so i can also use it to mount my esc on. Its a little hard to describe but i will post additional pics later

Question:

Is there a rule of thumb for the turn fin position....how close should it be to the outside of the sponson? When i mock it up i can put it in 2 positions...1 it is closer to the inside of the boat...the 2nd is it is closer to the outside edge of the boat..

sorry if this was confusing..was in a rush

..the first two #1 pics are with the turn fin close to the oustside edge of the sponson.
..the two #2 pics are of the turn fin close to the hull....

option 1 or 2????????????

Ideally, (IMO) the fin should be just inside the outer edge of the sponson and follow about the same angle as the outside edge of the sponson. (slight angle inward at the bottom).

You'll need to put your bracket to the inside of the fin.

Bill, so that sounds like option 1 correct.....close to the outside, right?

Yep, option 1.

Thanks guys..i am mounting that fin hardware today..also pressure testing the cooling tube on the motor...will post later with pics

Had alot going on today but managed to squeeze in some boat time. I made some slight modifications to the motor mount assembly and it is lining up a bit better. I also FINALLY mounted the turn fin bracket..as you can see.

Also pressure tested the cooling tube and no leaks....I still need to sync up the servos and then figure out how/where to put the speed control. I should have the servos done tomorrow.

Question: i have a total of 3 water pickups..2 on the rudder and 1 mounted on the transom. My plan was to take the 2 on the rudder and put 1 on the cooling tube and 1 on the esc...then take my last pickup and also put it on the esc.....but then my esc will have 1 tube remaining.....should i use a splitter to split one of the 3 to make 4....in other words that would be 1 into motor and 3 into esc ( the esc has 3in 3out)

**note...there are exit tubes for the cooling tube and the esc...same number in..same number out....

On the last picture of the motor mount....on one of my "custom" cut 'L' brackets...if you zoom in you can see were i cut a small indentation...that gave me enough room to swivel the hole back brace in order to line up the motor...you may not see it...but it made a world of difference...

coming along stiks...looking good!!

Thanks Darrell...almost there!!

I think i figured out the setup for the water pickups. Although i have 3 pickups; 2 on rudder and 1 on transom, i am only using the 2 from the rudder.

I have 1 from the rudder going to the cooling tube connector for the motor...then the drain going out the side.

The 2nd pickup off the rudder goes into my esc... The esc has a 3 inlets and 3 outlets. I plugged the single inlet line from the rudder into 1 of the esc inlets...then i interconnected the other 4 plugs....that leaves 1 that goes out the side as a drain... If you look at the pictures you can see the loop back tubing that connects all the inlets..think of a spiral staircase going down...the feeding tube from the rudder comes in ...the water swirls down and around the esc...then out ...too much imagination???

Once i have get ready to mount the esc i will cut out the excess tubing...

Hey Stiks, I had the ESC in the same location and it didnt get any waterflow up high and sideways, fried the first one....................... I now have it down low on the starboard side next to the motor, but outside of the stringers.......................just FYI

Scorp ...so standing behind the boat...looking down, i need to put the esc on the right side of the motor....outside of the wood railing? You dont happen to have a pic?

thanks