It was pure luck that we had not yet final cut the shafts, so still had enough shaft to accomodate the cooling blocks. The shafts in the pictures are not the ones fitted into the boat, incase you think they keep getting removed!
On fitting into the boat, one motor is slightly tighter than the other, just cant get both to be the same, never mind!
Water cooling pick ups where turned on a lathe, they were made small, thinking they might cause drag if too big. in hindsight, they are a bit too small, you will see what problems lied ahead!
The esc's are turnigy water cooled, and in experience, if they are to be water cooled, its always advisable to do it, as that usually means they do not have a cooling heatsink behind the shrinkwrap. I wanted the inside of the boat to look neat and pretty, so used alluminium tubing, looks better than long runs of silicon tube, and also helps with the cooling

On to something that I REALLY wanted from the beginning, working exhausts, well, at least the Impression they work. The water from the cooling pickups goes up the tube, along the ally tube, into motor mount, into esc, then back down the boat, to the exhausts. The idea is the water now exits, and creates the effect of working exhausts. The exhaust outlets clevery designed by HS93, the water enters from the side, creating a "splatter" effect when exiting, in theory. They are real nice, and are actually attached with tiny brass rivets, and there are two seperate systems, one for each motor/esc/exhaust, but we have a problem! 😭
When the boat is running, the run up the boat, and then back down is too far, at too low a pressure, so the water exit effect, whilst working perfectly, does not create the spectacular effect I was hoping for. I also think the pick ups are too small, but as they are now securley epoxied in, Im giving up on that idea and carrying on!

well it was all going too good, everything fitted, ready for a bench test, and we have problems 😟

Firstly, for anybody buying brushless esc's with muliple set ups, get a programming card! I have always found them fiddly at best to set up, but when there is two of them, nightmare!

This took ages, although they are factory preset, I needed to change a number of settings. I am using turnigy 60amp esc's, with reverse function, on 4 lipo cells per esc/motor combo. I also wanted to set the esc low voltage shut off to be higher than the default, to protect the batteries (if you over discharge a lipo they are generally regarded as finished), I wanted the reverse function but with a lower speed so I cant accidentally jam it in reverse at top speed.

Now I encountered a problem, that took ages to work out. When using multiple esc's with built in becs, only one bec can remain connected. When using higher voltage apllications, its advisable to have a seperate power source, I use a 4 aa battery pack, and also plug into the rx a battery voltage monitor, fitted so I can see it in a cabin window, The boat has a digital rudder servo which is also an additional power drop, so I want to be able to visually see what my receiver power source is like, last thing I want is the receiver power goes, and the boat loses control.
So, plug everything in, with the esc's set, all good so far, but every now and again, eg every 3rd time its all connected, the esc's where going back to factory presets, I know this as reversing function is not a preset, so no reverse every 3rd time. I could not work this out, until the genius HS93 spotted it, the esc's where arming faster than the receiver was setting, so getting a false signal, and therefore reverting to factory settings. Simple fix, an inline switch so now I wait for esc to set (solid light on the esc) then flick the switch so the esc's then arm. Sounds complicated, but it isnt, its just observing the correct sequence, like turning you tx on first!

ignore the wiring mess, this was just a set up to see if it worked. The wires on the left are from the "y" connector from the two esc's, to the switch. The switch on the left arms the speed controllers, switch on right is receiver power. For the eagle eyed, that small thing on the right low down , is a switch for the searchlight, but you will have to wait for that info!
Black box in centre is the 4 aa pack to power the rx, I think! 😶

ok time to fit all the runing gear back into the boat, this is now becoming second nature, I can do it with my eyes closed!

Batts charged, time for a bench test, horror!! at half stick, there is a bad resonate vibration, flippin heck!!!> 😟

we decide to fit centre bearings in the prop tubes, maybe the shafts are "whipping" as they are quite long, so everything out again, bearing fitted, all back in, still the same!

By pure fluke, I put my hand on the top of the shafts, with motors running, and the vibration goes away, so we need extra support, the bulkhead is not enough. HS93 knocks up a pair of mount/motor supports, that go between motor and mount, fits two locating plates in the hull using captive nuts, hey presto, its perfect, silky smooth, at last we can get wet!

Its a nervouis visit to the local boating lake, we could have gont to Gautby Road in Birkenhead, but thats a BIG lake, it it goes bang I will have to wait ages for it to float in, so, off to New Brighton, small lake, I can wade out, and it wont take long to float in if all goes wrong.

At this stage, its unknown what size props will work, so I will try 40mm, 45mm, 50mm, 52.5mm, and 55mm, all "x" props. I wanted to end up with counter rotaing nice propshop ones, but for testing these cheap plastic things will do.

Its a successful sail, no water entry, goes well, although I dont get past 2/3 throttle as I keep running out of room, the rudder throw needs serious attention, it wont turn!

well we now know it runs, needs adjustments with rudders, and a final test with data logging onboard to satisfy what props, but other than that, all ok, water cooling works, everything nice and cool, no water entry, and looks like it will have a nice turn of speed.
One thing I forgot to mention, after problems getting my 3 footer to turn without massive rolling, I decided to over size the spray rails on this boat, using 3mm square plastic strip. Cyno glued on, it works really well, the boat does not have that horrible roll some of these hulls suffer with, and gets on the plane nicely, so back home, and yet again all the running gear is removed for inspection asnd storage. its now time to make it look pretty!

I fancy doing something interesting ...... my opinion is there are a couple of things about this boat that makes it unique

mast, searchlight, towhook, salvage hoses, so I want to give particular attention to these.

I decided to buy a set of white metal parts, but on receipt I didnt really like them, so decided to attempt to make my own. I used the white metal ones for measurements, then resold them. Nothing wrong with them (except the dreadful mast!!) they just didnt "float my boat!"

First task, the searchlight. its made from brass, the main part is brass rod bored out on a lathe, I fitted a 5mm bright led bulb, as I want it to operate.

The body is brass rod turned on a lathe, with a m5 bolt that will hold it on to the roof, there is no way I am glueing this, I dont want it to fall off. This was tricky, as it had to be hollow, so I could feed the light wires through the body of the searchlight.The body to lens bracket is brass strip, and 10ba bolts, so I can adjust the angle.

I used a plastic tube I was given ages ago to make the lens, and the lens cover is very thin brass strips soft soldered on.
Painted in humbrol steel for as more weathered look. I enjoyed making this, but it took approx 2 hrs a night, for 5 nights!

Am I going too fast, if so, please tell me to slow down, I dont want to be overpowering the forum! 😯

Anyway, after a brief interlude doing something nice, its back to the boring building and painting. The wheelhouse is damaged, so I have to rebuild. Didnt look forward too this, the roof is a particularly difficult shape.

I replaced the damaged areas with plasticard again, so easy to work with!. Rebuilt the sides, and constructed the roof from 3 sections, carefully trying to keep that sweeping down shape at the front corners, by heating the plasticard and gently teasing to shape.

The window frames where difficult. I made them by making cardboard templates, and used a milling machine to cut out the centres, making it easy to get the round corners on the inside. I am very fortunate to have tools like this to help, it would have been very difficult to cut and shape by hand. I cut the outside of the frame by hand, it took ages to sand to shape.
the glazing is 3mm lexan. I didnt want to use thin plastic perspex, I wanted it to resemble proper glazing. Using again cardboard templates, I cut and sanded the lexan to fit snug in the window openings, then used the frames, which were slightly smaller, to locate the lexan. Using cyno, the lexan was to be glued from the inside to the frames, which were then cynoed to the wheelhouse front. Very tedious, and a lot of finger skin was lost with the cyno! I had to use a none fogging variey, bought from star loc, as it was inevitable some cyno would end up on the lexan. Glazing cannot be final fitted until the painting is done, dont want to get overspray on them after all this effort!

I'm itching for soem more, so here we go, 😀

Wheelhouse is completed, everything went together quite well, however I suddenly realised that I could not get in to fit the dashboard, and the glazing. I was also worried that if I had a front end water leak, I would never see it until possibly too late, when the ply was rotting 😊 , so decided to cut out a big thick chunk of wood that was extra weight, and not needed, so out came the dremel, no going back from this, but it worked, so now I have access to all the wheelhouse from the inside