Pete's Shooter P-Sport Hydro

[Brushless55]

Sweet !

Paul...your right on that!!!....lol

Some of the top rail at the rear didn't get the clear coverage I wanted either, but live and learn on this one. Nobody will probably tell the difference, but I know it there.

Definitly not my one of my best jobs, but did try some different finishing techniques that I have learned from for future builds.!
ITS STILL REALLY PRETTY THOUGH!!.:.LOL.

Great job man !
I bet that will look killer in the sun

[Shooter]

Where do I begin....

Awesome! Clear coating the nose really turned out nice. I'm taking notes as to what clear you used. The paint booth you built out of PVC and plastic is beautiful! Great idea.

When are you planning on running this thing? I probably won't be out at the pond until the Saturday before the race (perhaps one of the Wednesdays, but I'm absolutely swamped right now).

[Speed810]

Hey Pete....

I'm hoping to run it sometime next weekend to get some testing done and have some fun of course....lol Completing the rigging right now. Just have the electrical to finish up.

Been working on the GSX380 Q-boat too....Lot more to do on that boat since I really screwed up the clear coat on that one. Should have used the clear that I used on the Pearl, but had some HOK clear that I wanted to use up. My gun was all out of wack....thought it looked good on the testing paper, but it did not come out that way on the boat. So its going to take some sanding and re-shot it again. Definitely will be doing a better job of the gun set up.

The paint booth sure has been nice. Takes a few hours to set up....but it was cheap....like $50 [PVC, Plastic, Tape, Fan and Filters.]

Not sure if I can make the Sat. prior to race day.....Its our anniversary that weekend. I'll definitely be in the dog house if I miss that....LOL

Talk to ya Soon!

[TRUCKPULL]

Michael

Looks great, I hope my paint turns out 1/2 as good.

Did you fill the nose piece with anything??

Larry

[Speed810]

Michael

Looks great, I hope my paint turns out 1/2 as good.

Did you fill the nose piece with anything??

Larry

Evening Larry....

The nose was welded together with plastic weld and then filled and faired in the seam with GFLEX 655 by West System. The nose will have some cut pieces of foam from a floaty tube glued in so if it does blow off it will float...LOL The canopy will also have some foam glued in for flotation..

[Speed810]

Finally got out this afternoon to try and test the Pearl. Not very good luck on this venture. Had the boat strut adjusted to the specs given and the CG set right at about the center of the turn fin. The boat kept wanting to dive on me, so went to move the batteries back a little and made a small adjustment on the strut (Down and a little positive) to help the nose pop up a bit quicker. I had to do this with my 1/8 scale and it worked perfectly.

Well never was able to see if it worked as the shaft spun out in the motor collet. So went back and reset the shaft back into the collet, figuring I had it in as far as it would go. Still was slipping in the collet and ended up shaving the end of the flex shaft off after the 3rd try. So it looks like a new shaft is needed which I have and at least a new brass inner collet for the areo-marine coupler.

Then back to the lake and try again.

[Shooter]

Mike,

Sounds like a typical day at the pond! Seriously though, all hydros will nose dive without the right amount of thrust to get them up on plane. I wonder if the slip was the root cause of the nose dive issue. This boat in particular was designed to 'stay down' at speed which in turn has a little more difficulty planning. What prop are you running? I wouldn't adjust CG or strut height just yet. The settings are fairly robust. Both my original and the boat I built for Jimmy ran well with the same settings. Just my two cents.... See you out there (hopefully soon!!!!)

[Speed810]

Hey Pete....Well I emailed Tom and Terry letting them know I probably would not be at the race, but Tom wrote back and had a collet and I had an extra shaft. So he kind of talked me to going anyway. I mounted the prop last night and Tom cut the shaft for me. Got everything back together for the first race. When we put the boat in it started doing the same thing but I also noticed that the boat did try to get up and go when the power would cut out for a moment then resume....strangest thing. So after the race Tom, Jimmy and I took her apart figuring something was wrong with the ESC. I was running and external 6.6V battery and Jimmy noticed it right off the bat.....I didn't even think about it but the ESC also had a BEC which I don't usually use. Well Jimmy asked if I had cut the positive lead off the ESC, otherwise you have the two dueling each other....DUH!!!! Disconnected the external battery, taped her up and off she went like a bullet!

The TP 4060 1950kv with a X448 is what I used the rest of the day. Next I'll need to de-tongue, sharpen and balance up an X450 and see how it performs and see what my temps will be. The temps all day were great, all between 100 to 115 degrees on the ESC and motor. Hopefully they don't climb to much higher with the X450. But the boat is just a dream to drive....very, very stable in traffic and never saw a tendency to blow over. Ended up taking my first 1st place in heat 2 although didn't fair quite as well in the 3rd heat. In the 3rd lap clipped the apex buoy in turns 1&2, but still was upright. The steering went haywire and sent me up into the weeds, but I think it was because it was dragging the front cowl. Powered up out of the weeds and finished the race, didn't notice I was missing my cowl til we got it back.....lol. They found the foam from the cowl floating near the turn, but no cowl....

So Pete do you have any extra front cowl halves...? Just PM me or send me a paypal statement......:)

Still a great day of racing and had a lot of fun. A HUGE THANK YOU to all the club members for all their help and guidance. See you in May!

[Shooter]

Mike,

Congrats on the 1st place! There's some tough competition in that class! I'll send out a replacement nose ASAP. Thanks.

[T.S.Davis]

Pete, it's a bullet. Ran really well once Mike was getting full throttle. There's more left in it too.

All of us had a some sketchy runs in that class yesterday. Working out the bugs. I have to get my Pearl going now. The deck is falling off the whip.

[785boats]

Well done Mike.
It's always a good feeling when a new boat takes a heat win on its debut race day.

My first race day with the 'Sharpshooter' will be in a few weeks. I hope I'm as successful as you were.

[Speed810]

Thanks guys!!
It's was quite satisfying to have the boat preform so well the first time out. Again thanks to all my fello MMEU members for all the help at the pond last Sunday! Couldn't have done it with out their help.
Now comes the interesting part to balance the power and prop combination to see what I can get out of it during race set up.

Talked to Mark Shouland in Traverse City on Wed. night and will be looking at some of the new ABC props once they are sent out for stock. The way I understand it they should be out by June. These are supposed to be props that combine a smaller diameter, more pitch and a longer rake that will keep the thrust cone very tight, increasing efficiency. Might be the ticket we have been looking for in our electrics. Being able to maintain propeller diameter and just change to different pitches that would be optimum for the motor.

Well need to get ready for race 2. Back to the bench when I get home from my business trip next week.

[b0atnutz3]

Guys there a special primer required for the cowl and nose piece? Or will the basic krylon or rustoleum primer work?

[Speed810]

Boatnutz...

Not sure actually if those will work being this is an ABS type plastic. The issues I was concerned about was of course how some primers / paints would react with this type plastic. The other was how the primer and paint would hold up under the tape we use for taping down the canopy. Would it pull up the paint work??? After talking with others I decided to just clear coat it. It is holding up fine under the taping.

If you have the time you may want to test out the primer and paint on some of the larger pieces that you cut away from the canopy. Be interesting to see how it works out. But testing out different products is the only thing I can think of at this time.

[785boats]

Here's a few examples of flexible automotive plastic primer spray. For use on plastic bumpers on cars etc.
Something similar should be available over there in the States at most Auto spares shops.

https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Plastic+bumper+primer&tbm=shop