Thanks JB food for thought, I have lots of brushed motors, it's just that people keep saying how much better it would be with brushless. My "Caroline" launch runs for up to 6 hours depending on throttle use with a 7ah 12v sla, plus its over feet long.
And can get up on the plane.
Cheers Colin.
PS, sorry for delay, have been to hospital with my wife since Friday evening, so no progress at present.

I find jbkiwi's reviews and advice very intelligent, technical but also very useful for their strong practical focus.

Thank you JB!!!!! I will come back at you when I start my 48" Chris Craft Corvette! These notes are a goldmine.

I shelved the Bluebird K-7 for a bit as further EDF research is becoming a blind alley. More on that later.

Hi Colin,

glad you are starting to get back to modelling after everything that's happened 😊

With a model of 48", it might be an expensive exercise to use a brushless motor, if your finances are limited at the moment. You would probably need something like a 34/48 (diam and length) x 1000 KV (revs/min/V) brushless outrunner (or water cooled in runner), with a 50-60A max load capability,- at least a 60A brushless ESC (fan cooled or water cooled) and a 3 or 4 cell LiPo (depending on the motor and ESC max input/cell count rating) You would also need a LiPo charger. Gets expensive and still requires a lot of experimenting to get the best performance.

SLA or lead acid batteries might not have the current rating to match a brushless motor, as brushless motors of 35 diam can pull anything upwards of 30A (maybe 80A depending on the motor) and would drain them in minutes, and might overheat them.

You could put a smaller brushless setup in the boat, and run it as a cruiser if your grandson is not a speed freak. For a reasonable performance, I would go for either a 550 brushed motor, (for cruising) or twin 550s which would be better suited for your batteries. You can get very good performance from brushed motors if set up properly (especially using LiPos or Li-ion). Here are a couple of my boats running twin brushed motors. The ST has twin 550 45T motors, twin Hobbywing 30A ESCs and uses 2x 2200mah LiPos, - the runabout uses twin 550 high speed 12-18v internal fan cooled motors and twin high voltage (12v) ESCs, and uses 2x 3S 3000mah LiPos.

The ST is 40" and the runabout is 33" and both around 5.5Lbs to give you an idea. Stiletto has a 37/56 x1600kv heli motor and 60A fan cooled Hobbywing crawler ESC. Uses a 3s 3000mah LiPo. has a cable drive setup.

All these motors, shafts and ESCs etc can be bought from Ali Express at reasonable prices.
Another suggestion is, (if you are not keen on LiPos) if you can find a Li-ion battery pack (say 2.4Ah) and charger combo cheap enough, this would be an ideal, safe means of powering your model for brushed or brushless setups. Simple and safe to use and charge. You just need to make an adaptor to plug into the pos and neg battery terminals, ( they will usually have 3 terminals,- one is for balancing the cells) I've recently built a portable field charger/12v battery drill power etc using this idea.

Hope this gives you some idea. There are so many variables that it's impossible to be specific, mainly down to a 'suck it and see' trial and error process. Let me know if you need info on any of the gear I've used.

JB

Hi.
I also have just picked up this model for completion, I have a set of drawings/plans with it that I can try and have copied if they would be of any use to anyone - just cover cost of copying & postage??
Nick.

Please note that I am not “nit picking” but I have seen a couple of references to working monitors on the Fireboat. This would be almost impossible at this scale as they are not water monitors but foam monitors. They would project a smelly yellow white foam. However artistic licence would allow you to use water.

Chrisfo, good looking model but totally different boat which didn't have the water/foam monitors.
Enjoy your refurb and show us what you can do.
Cheers Colin.

Got my one out the loft at mum's
House today
My dad started to rebuild but he passed. Before he could finish it
I am looking for parts for the boat
Mainly air vents into boat
And fire fighting equipment
Yours looks like the same model i have
Should have been twin screw but my Dad
Had converted to single screw
See photo

Great job Doug.

Thanks for the reply ColinH.