Team Lindenau Smith cat

[keithbradley]

Ran her today...5s on 1520's with X447 cr props. I planned on running 6s, but changed my mind. I have 1518's here I was planning on swapping out to run 5s with but figured I'd try this now since everything is already in place and it will be plenty fast for a first outing.
All I can say is I miss my monos I can get a mono to handle the way I want but these cats are killin me.

It looks like this setup is going to be way too heavy to run as a sport boat at all. I flipped this cat probably 5 or 6 times today. Anything under what I would judge to be 40mph and it rolls over in the turns...badly. At (guessing) 20mph or so it puts the left side under water when turning right (and vise versa going left) and almost rolls right over onto its lid. I figured out at higher speeds it actually starts to flatten out but its starting to get to speeds that can cause a crash when turning just from hitting a ripple in the water the wrong way. I was also at a pretty small body of water and long sweeping turns at 60mph wernt much of an option.

She is fast though. If I were to throw caution to the wind and make some SAW passes with the 1518's on 6s I bet I could set some new personal records.

I think I am going to go in a different direction with her. Maybe 3000kv motors on 3s each. I think the weight loss would make a drastic difference in handling.

Any advice on this matter is welcome. I knew I was pushing the weight limits when I built it, thats part of the reason I decided to go with 1518s but it looks to me like this hull is sitting at double the weight it will run at. Ive never had a boat handle this badly at lower speeds.

[F1 madness]

have a look at the leopard motors on 4s they do a huge range of different sizes and kv
Im thinking of purchasing a couple 3660,2200kv for my 32" cat on 4s on each should be fun as the boat runs 2860,2881kv on 3s each and 34mm 3 blade props,gonna maiden her tomorrow but still plan on changing the motors

[Gerwin Brommer]

Try to get in contact with Jay Turner , Fluid.
He has (had) the same hull and runned it succesfully.

There are at least 2 versions of the Smith cat.
Yours has the weird sponson-design :
step 1 and 2 have some V , the third step is flat.
step 2 is totally "in the air" as you can see on your pics.

The other version of the Smiths has V in all 3 steps.

[Fluid]

The Lindenau Smith's Cat I ran was SAW only, I never even tried it on the oval. Like most German cats it is very narrow for good turning ability. I'm not certain that reducing the weight will help much with this design issue.

Before I spent much $$$ on the model I'd put on a very long rudder - the longest you can find. This has worked pretty well on other narrow German cats with turning problems and won't break the bank. I'm talking 6" or more - short rudders can have plenty of problems on cats. I think the even my SAW cat could have used a deeper rudder.



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[keithbradley]

The Lindenau Smith's Cat I ran was SAW only, I never even tried it on the oval. Like most German cats it is very narrow for good turning ability. I'm not certain that reducing the weight will help much with this design issue.

Before I spent much $$$ on the model I'd put on a very long rudder - the longest you can find. This has worked pretty well on other narrow German cats with turning problems and won't break the bank. I'm talking 6" or more - short rudders can have plenty of problems on cats. I think the even my SAW cat could have used a deeper rudder.



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I bought a long rudder for it and cut it down before I ran it Guess I'll have to buy another.
Thanks for the input guys. If all else fails I may just end up running this as a saw boat and see what kind of speed I can get out of it. How fast did you get yours Jay?

[BakedMopar]

The Lindenau Smith's Cat I ran was SAW only, I never even tried it on the oval. Like most German cats it is very narrow for good turning ability. I'm not certain that reducing the weight will help much with this design issue.

Before I spent much $$$ on the model I'd put on a very long rudder - the longest you can find. This has worked pretty well on other narrow German cats with turning problems and won't break the bank. I'm talking 6" or more - short rudders can have plenty of problems on cats. I think the even my SAW cat could have used a deeper rudder.



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Jay T. is right on. On my Skunk Ray Fuller sent me this (after giving him all the dimensions and power system info). When I got it I was like . It runs really well but doesn't corner like wider cats. Also keep in mind that running twins you put a lot of the weight to the outsides of the boat. I found that running the batteries on the tunnel made it corner much better. I've been in the same boat as you trying to get it to turn with smaller batteries. The only thing happened was it ran slower due to the big voltage sag on 1p.

[keithbradley]

If I could get it to run like the cat in that vid I would be much happier. I would have flipped a few times. The lower speed cornering is where mine has a problem. If I stay in it and make long swooping turns, it might do ok, but to do so I would have to be in a much larger body of water, which would only mean my boat would be that much further from me when I castasrophicly flipped it
My PIP Bittburger cat is even narrower, and it doesnt turn great, but it doesnt roll over like this either. It just hops like a mono without a turn fin. Its a single drive with the batteries in the sponsons. I was thinking of running twins in it, but Im having second thoughts now.

I have been running the batteries in the tunnel area on the smiths cat...I cant imagine how bad it would be in the sponsons

Here's to hoping a longer rudder makes a BIG difference!

[keithbradley]

I ordered a pair of smaller and lighter (36x50) 3000kv motors, jackets, x442's, and the replacement rudder for my speedmaster setup. The rudder comes as 6.25" (before I cut it). I will try it on 3s1p each side with the 442's and the longer rudder and see what happens. If it is a drastic difference I will go from there and find a way to get a happy medium between speed/handling. Will post results.

[keithbradley]

Got some paint on it, went with a green and silver scheme but had some problems with the paint curing so it came back off. I ended up changing it and painting it black, then dusting the top with a somewhat transparent blue. Its dark and going to need some decals to brighten it up. Paint quality isnt too good due to the fact that I painted it in a poorly lit room at work but it will do. It looks very stealth in person with the dark colors and sleek lines. It looks fast just sitting on the counter!

[keithbradley]

Meow!

[Brushless55]

That's going to look sweet when your done!

[LarrysDrifter]

Commence the build!