Fighter Cat Riversport Catamaran

[keithbradley]

Just got the first lipo off the charger, it only took 2454mah. Runtime with this setup is giong to be crazy! Oh, and the other battery was 3.77v on every cell as well. 8 cells all exactly the same to the hundreth of a volt...not bad NeuEnergy!

[keithbradley]

Just got back from her maiden.

Speed and acceleration were actually much more than I expected, especially with the little m440 I ran on it. You definitely have to ease into it if you want to keep this boat in the water. Acceleration was overwhelmingly powerful...a surprise with the m440. At full throttle, it held the water very well. This would be a great choice for a SAW hull in my opnion. It turned quite well to boot. Definitely the best handling cat Ive owned to date.

The higher RPM/smaller prop combo seemed to work well. Handling is great, speed and acceleration are there, and runtime was awesome. I ran for a good 10 minutes on 5000mah (majority of that time was lighter throttle) and the lipos came back with 3.77v/cell. I will be curious to see what runtimes are when I have flatter water and a rescue boat, so I can be heavier on the throttle.

Temps were...well, irrelevant. I didnt even temp anything, it was all cold to the touch. Two days ago the pond still had a layer of ice all the way across, and there was still a small patch of ice at one end, so the water was so cold nothing got a chance to build any heat. I will know more once things warm up a bit.

[keithbradley]

ah i figured it was the braided loom, cleans things up nicely, i actually always thought putting the water outlet facing up would be cool, especially if there was enough pressure to shoot it out like a seadoo, then you wold really know if you ever lost cooling! lol

No i have never had one of those suppo esc's, i just read a few posts about them being way overrated for what they can actually handle, i swear theres a topic on here about them somewhere.

Well I hope this one's not overrated, as its only rated at 80A!
Im a little unsure about how this esc will do, but only because its just an 80A esc. I like to run High voltage/High current ESCs but Im trying something different for this build. Im going to have to run a small prop on it to keep current draw to a minimum. If it works out I should get awesome runtimes out of it.
Wish me luck!

[6sHyper]

I assume you mean the black over the water hoses? It's just black braided loom with shrink tubing on the ends.

What's wrong with the esc? Have you had a bad experience with them?

ah i figured it was the braided loom, cleans things up nicely, i actually always thought putting the water outlet facing up would be cool, especially if there was enough pressure to shoot it out like a seadoo, then you wold really know if you ever lost cooling! lol

No i have never had one of those suppo esc's, i just read a few posts about them being way overrated for what they can actually handle, i swear theres a topic on here about them somewhere.

[keithbradley]

Man, that looks great. The aluminum under the ESC is a great idea. That's what I did in my Gen. That way if it smokes it wont burn the hull.

Also, the outlet facing up should provide a bit of back pressure keeping the water in contact with what it's cooling longer promoting better cooling capabilities. Cant wait to see it run

Thanks Jackblack. I appreciate the feedback.
Im not sure if the second line in your post is in jest or if you missed that thread but yeah, I mostly did the outlet that way just for something different. Not really a whole lot of function to it, but I thought it looked cleaner than on the side of the hull for some reason, and its pretty easy to get to if the hose needs removed/replaced.

[keithbradley]

I think your build looks very nice, whats the hose covering?? not sure i would trust that esc though........................ should rip on 8s i'll be checking back for a video!

I assume you mean the black over the water hoses? It's just black braided loom with shrink tubing on the ends.

What's wrong with the esc? Have you had a bad experience with them?

[JackBlack26]

Man, that looks great. The aluminum under the ESC is a great idea. That's what I did in my Gen. That way if it smokes it wont burn the hull.

Also, the outlet facing up should provide a bit of back pressure keeping the water in contact with what it's cooling longer promoting better cooling capabilities. Cant wait to see it run

[6sHyper]

I think your build looks very nice, whats the hose covering?? not sure i would trust that esc though........................ should rip on 8s i'll be checking back for a video!

[JPriami]

i see it now in a pic above

[JPriami]

looks nice Keith. Interesting with the water pipes laying in there. what rudder are you using?

[keithbradley]

I finished the water lines and outlet. I mounted the outlet where it would be out of the way and I wouldnt have any lines running across/under/over the batteries. It will spray up rather than out, but I think its far enough away from the prop that I will still be able to tell if a steady flow of water is coming out...
This is pretty much the finished product, other than I still plan on making an aluminum plate for the esc to sit on, but you wont really see that much anyway.

Im curious what everyone thinks of this and would love some feedback. I've tried to do some more original things on the boats I am building right now, but I also didnt want to add any unnecessary weight to this one since Im already running 8s in a rather small (32") boat.

[keithbradley]

Getting close...I mounted the servo, ran most of the cooling lines, and cut enough out to get the batteries in. I still need to clean up the area I cut a little (there is one spot that I cut a little much w/the cut off wheel...I'll have to poke a little glass in there and smooth it out). Also have to make a water exit line to come off of the motor (not using the mount to cool) and I still want to make a aluminum pad to mount the esc on. 80A will be the lowest current rated esc I've ran to date in aftermarket applications, and if it cant handle it I dont want it to destroy the hull and carbon fiber.
There is some fiberglass dust in the hull still. I sprayed it with the air hose but there are spots (like on the front motor mount, behind the coupler) where you can see the dust. It's just dust and will wipe off.

[keithbradley]

Looks nice, Looking forward to it finished with a video

Thanks. Vid will be a little bit. We are still covered in snow here in Michigan at the moment.

Build is coming along well though. My 1.5y/o daughter must have gotten a hold of my camera, it doesnt work right now...thats why I havent updated with pics lately. My wife has a camera I can use though when I need to post. As of now, I have the esc in, most of the cooling lines ran, and I made some cuts under the hatch so I can get my batteries in. It wasn't even close before I started cutting.

I just received my order of 2 "bling rockets" (25" Fightercat mono hull) yesterday. My son and I are doing side by side builds of these, its his first build of any kind. Naturally he is chomping at the bit every moment to get these going so Im working on those at the time. When he goes to sleep, if I get a chance, I work on the riversport and my 50" mono I am in the middle of building. Nothing like building 4 boats at once!!!

[JPriami]

Looks nice, Looking forward to it finished with a video

[FighterCat57]

FYI- the 440 & 442 are excellent high RPM props for this hull. I ran the 1512 2650 on 4s with 440 and it ripped at nearly 60mph. Had a nice fluctuating "sweet spot" and didn't have any wind up slippage from a dead stop.