I gave the Remora a couple of gentle turns close to shore before sending it off towards the far end of the lake at speed.

Each time I came back towards the launch area I slowed and turned carefully as a mark of respect to other lake users (more ducks than craft by this time) before gradually gaining speed the further away it went.

I was pleasantly surprised at the Remora’s turn of speed and its stability.

Not at all bad for a design that was penned over 60 years ago and designed as a “steering boat”

I am pleased to see you finally have the correct labelling, as in ZOOMA as it was some what confusing. Good to hear we now have a degree of normality back in your life. Congratulations and regards. Gary.

Thank you for your help Gary, I can now access my account from my iPhone and my elderly iPad when away from home……and my computer when I am home!

My Remora continued to throw-up the odd problem during my latest attempt to launch it on the Southport lake yesterday - but this time it failed to stop me running it and enjoying it.

This boat has had a bit of a chequered history with me - one thing after another has cropped up to prevent it running, but this time it failed to fail and it ran beautifully.

The Remora was brought in from its first run with water in the engine bay.

On inspection, another faulty alloy water cooled motor mount was diagnosed as being the source of the leak - despite the brass inlet and outlet nipples being securely epoxied in place (I have learnt to do this every time when using these mounts !).

This problem was “sorted” by by-passing the mount and exiting the cooling water directly out from the 90amp water cooled ESC.

A slight weep from the rudder shaft was not too unexpected as the hull had need hanging around for some months waiting for the ESC problem to be resolved and must have “dried-out”

Some Vaseline around the rudder shaft was an easy fix this time - and away she went !

Looks good and performs and handles really nicely. A nice addition to the stable.

Thanks Chris,

This is the second Remora that I have made from the same plans and templates - but 50 years later !

Unwilling to get wet or want to perform has been a problem with this particular model - but it has been worth the wait and the frustration it has caused - none of which were inherent in the Vic Smeed design!

The first problem with Remora 2 was when Humbrol discontinued their French Blue aerosols….after I had almost completed painting it with a bright orange trim.

A rub down and a hand paint in the current Royal Blue and Ivory followed.

I hate painting so this was a major blow and caused a lengthy delay.

The next problem was when the chosen water cooled ESC refused to give anything other than a basic walking pace top speed !

The chosen ESC was a new water-cooled 90amp Seaking that I had bought as a spare for my Inception where the same type was performing extremely well using a pair of 2 cell 500mah LiPo cells.

The spare ESC came with two XT90 plugs to connect with the pair of LiPo cells.

I changed the connection to a single XT90 - and it never worked properly.

There was a small circuit board between the battery leads that I left in.

Subsequent inspections by those with a much greater understanding of electronics than myself concluded that they understood the components and their function but could not see that it would affect the ESC’s ability to perform with one cell rather than two.

After several weeks of frustration I just cut this circuit board out and fixed a single XT 90 plug in its place.

Now it works perfectly!

The leaking water cooled engine mount can be seen here.

The water is seeping through the two halves of the casting - both input and output nipples are secure and water tight as are the connections to them.

This is not the first one of these that has leaked, but usually applying epoxy to the threads on the nipples before screwing then back in to set firm stops any possible leaks,

A faulty casting assembly has beaten this time proven cure for leaky engine mounts by leaking from somewhere else !

This picture shows the engine mount isolated from the water cooling supply.

Having to re-route the water cooling supply has left an untidy installation.

I will either replace the faulty engine mount with a new one and reconnect the piping as intended, or wait until I get home and fit some different lengths of pipe in a more tidy way and continue to run without the water cooling supply running through the mount.

The alloy engine mount probably acts as a heat sink in any case - so maybe I can live without it being connected?

I will monitor the situation over the next few weeks and act accordingly.

The 90amp Seaking ESC fits perfectly on a shelf that was made to fit it over the prop shaft and closely under the decking where it was intended to keep it dry and safe.

I carry a small bag of “oddments” when I am away from home to (hopefully) be able to make minor repairs when I am away.

Having a look inside the bag today I found a length of orange tube, the same as I used to plumb the water cooling system, and I had enough to replumb the boat to make it tidy again.

I used the “staple/hoop” shape that was formed with tube that I used to block the motor mount cooling inlet and outlets to keep the outlet tube raised safety above the revolving out-runner motor and prop shaft coupling as it now has to cross over these moving parts.

I used a small cable tie to keep it in place and it is sturdy enough to “stay put” in use.

Remora 2 will be run this way for at least a few weeks now unless I get any unexpected overheating of the motor shaft output bearing.

The large platform/shelf that can be seen on the rear engine bay firewall was made to hold a bigger ESC for testing when I was trying to find out why the motors that I tried would not rev in Remora 2.

The 180amp ESC used for testing was too big to fit on the small shelf made to hold the 90amp speedo, so I made this bigger shelf to hold it.

It turned out that all the motors revved freely with the 180amp water cooled ESC, so this confirmed that only my 90amp ESC was at fault.

Now the problem has been found and cured, this large ugly shelf can be removed during a future refit.

Although the Remora was designed by Vic Smeed as an ic powered
“steering boat” back in 1964 (when not many proportional radio control systems were in regular use), she can still hold her own with most more modern designs.

My Remora is powered by an outrunner brushless motor and drives beautifully.

The over-large rudder shown on the plans (for use in the steering competitions of the time) was replaced by a more normal size rudder, but nothing else was changed.



Shown today Wednesday 27th August 2025.

Another fine handling model Bob. 👍

As Chris says, a fine handling vessel you have there.
She certainly takes all she's given in her stride, with no sign of anything nasty in the way of handling at speed. Definitely a nice model to have in your fleet.

Will

I agree Chris and Will, my Remora has exceeded all my expectations and is one of the nicest boats to drive that I have in my fleet.

Considering that it was “penned” in the early 1960’s and given away as a free plan in the 1964 Christmas Model Maker magazine it has certainly stood the test of time very well.

The boat has also accommodated the change of use from its original “steering design” to one that can actually compete with some of the best similar size “flatties” that can be seen bombing around the lake……but with much more style IMHO, and despite the video, I just enjoy cruising around with it most of the time, but it is nice to see it rocket away at the touch of the throttle - it is a lovely responsive little boat that is easy to build,

I feel a bit ashamed that I built this model from any old scrap that was laying around, rather than buying some new birch ply and making it completely from all new wood.

My plan at the time was to see how it went, and build a “proper one” from all new wood later if it went OK !

I reduced the size of the rudder a little from the one drawn on the plan, but this little boat still steers like a demon - even at high speed.

I also added some deck strips and a dummy air intake to the rear hatch to make it look a bit more “interesting”, but the simple windshield and combined short mast are the only things that I would want to keep when I make my “proper one” from “proper” new wood as my decorative additions don’t add much and are probably quite ugly on reflection.

Anyone building a Remora will gain a superb addition to their fleet that is light and easy to carry and launch and gives back far more that it’s simple short build time would suggest possible.

Maybe ( if there is any interest in this old boat) I could do a Remora build review as I think I remember picturing it at every stage so it would be quite a well illustrated build.

Bob.

The construction of the Remora follows the same basic technique that was employed by almost all the model boat kit makers of the time such as Aerokits, Veron, LesRo etc

First the parts are copied from the plans and transferred to the wood to be used and then the shapes are cut out.

I tend to use a combination of methods for this, such as pricking through the shape onto old cereal box cardboard or using carbon paper to print it onto the cardboard so I can cut it out to make a card template.

If the template is for a bulkhead, before drawing the shape onto plywood, I scribe a centreline onto it and fold it so I can see that both halves are identical to each other, and make any changes if necessary to make the shapes totally symmetrical.

At the same time I check the actual thickness of any wood that will be plugged in to the various notches. This is quite important as the plans may not have been drawn to accommodate the particular wood that I intend to use !

This is especially true when using any scrap wood that happens to be laying around (like I did for this build) but also when new wood is supplied to metric sizes and the drawings are made for imperial sizes wood that may no longer be available.

Once the templates are adjusted to suit the plywood and strip wood sizes being used, they are drawn around onto the wood to be used and cut out.

The keel and its doublers are fitted together and the bulkheads are plugged into the spaces left between the doublers.

The stringers are fitted into the slots and cut-outs that have been adjusted to fit them and the frame of the hull is formed.

The bottom skin shapes are worked out by laying more thin card (in my case various small boxes flattened and taped together) until they fit, and a small allowance is added to the outside edge for trimming back after it has been fitted.

I cut my bottom skins out of 1.5 mm plywood and fixed it to the underside of the bulkheads using aliphatic glue (PVA glue that can be sanded after it has dried).

Once the bottom skins have dried, scrap balsa wood pieces are glued into the bows section ready to be sanded to shape,

Once the prop shaft and motor mount has been made the side skins can be added. These shapes were also worked out using old card packets to make a template before being cut out from 1.5mm plywood.

The scrap ply that I used to make the transom from was so rough, I also covered this with a plywood skin to tidy it up !

The rudder and servo mount were also fitted at this stage.

Bob.

Some foam was fitted into the bows to give some additional buoyancy in the event of suffering any crash damage and the deck skins were fitted.

Bob.

The simple cabin was put together using plywood and more scrap balsa wood.

Once the aliphatic glue had dried the balsa roof top was sanded to shape.

Bob.

The rear hatch is simply covered with a balsa wood plug that has a 1.5mm plywood skin cover fitted slightly wider than the plug to stop in falling into the hatch opening.

I chopped out the middle of this thick balsa wood plug partly to save some weight, and partly to save some of the balsa for future use!….I did the same with the first layer of the cabin top balsa sandwich.

In both cases, the balsa wood block was made in two halves making it easy to make the cut-outs and reducing the cost of the balsa wood as it was less expensive to buy narrow planks than wide planks.

Joining the two halves was easy as the plank edges are nice and square so they were glued with PVA and held together on a flat surface with masking tape tape to hold them together until dry

The basic assembly of the Remora is now complete and only needs final finishing.

Bob.

The Remora is a very plain looking boat so I decided to add some detail to give a little individual character to mine.

I cut a narrow trough into the rear of the cabin top to sit a wind deflector screen and a small mast into.

I bend some brass wire to form a pair of grab handles on either side of the cabin rear….even though there is nowhere for a model driver to stand !

A hatch with two doors and a dummy air intake was added to the rear deck to help it look less like a sandwich box.

I am not too sure about the engine air intake, but the hatch looks OK.

Bob.

A small shelf was made to fit the Seaking ESC under the rear deck against the rear of the engine bay bulkhead and a frame was made to drop the chosen LiPo into.

A little platform was added to secure the receiver with an elastic band so like the ESC both are held above the hull floor to help keep them dry from any minor water ingress.

This more or less finished the build of my second Remora (the first one was built from the same free plans in 1964!).

The Remora is a very simple little classic model power boat that is quick and easy to build and is great fun to run.

Bob.

An inexpensive water cooled motor mount was used to allow for rapid adjustment or exchange of alternative out-runner motors, and this proved to be very handy when I had problems with the ESC .

I was able to swap motors quickly and identify the problem was not with the motor .

This particular engine mount leaked - even though I had fitted the the inlet and outlet nipples with 24 hr Araldite - it leaked out of its main casting -!!!!!

A replacement mount will be slid in between the glass fibre cheeks that are permanently mounted in the hull, but for now I have put a tube between the two nipples and bypassed the mount by exiting the cooling water from the ESC directly out though the cooling outlet in the side of the hull.

Bob.

Didn’t think this simple build warranted a full build log, so I just added some pictures to illustrate the main stages of construction in the hope that it may encourage others to build their own Remora and enjoy it as much as I enjoy owning and driving mine.👍

Bob.

Hi Bob, just read through your build log - another great Vic Smeed design I've read about, although I've never seen one in action until your very impressive video. I'm particularly interested in the fact that your chosen motor, a 3536/6 1250kv Turnigy Aerodrive is almost identical to that which I have in a David Boddington Ghostrider 50 aircraft, a design from 1974 that was also for .20 sized glow engines; mine is the 3536/8 1000kv turning a 10" x 4" prop which allows the aircraft to perform very well. My point here is that this size of brushless motor and its kv rating matched with your 3-cell lipo gives me a starting point for working out glow engine to brushless power conversions (remember our Vivacity/Beachcomber power system conversation😉)
An OSmax20 kicked out around 0.5 hp at max power (373watts), so your Turnigy (rated at around 500watts max I believe) is an excellent, slightly more powerful substitute. Your kv rating gives around the same max rpm of the glow engine (15000rpm at 12v-ish). What size boat prop do you use in Remora? Also, what kind of endurance do you get with the 5000mAH pack?
Matching the power in this way certainly seems to work for higher speed planing hull sport designs, just need a bit more of a guide with prop selection I suppose.... Vivacity could be a bit different, requiring a smaller prop than the original 3" diameter which ran off similar power output to the max of the OS20, but at around 1/5 of the rotational speed at max power because of the torque of the JAP34cc engine.
Really interesting to see the construction of your Remora at the bow - like the way the curves were carved from layered block, rather than 'forcing' the shape from the ply skins - a very practical solution.
Going to start looking around online for larger brushless options with lower kv ratings...

Nick

Hi Nick,

I have just been out to check the size of the prop that I am running on the Remora and it is a standard size 45S.

As for duration with the shown 5000 mah pack, it sips so little power I have never been able to run the LiPo down far enough for the ESC to cut in!

By way of comparison, the same motor with a 50X prop in my Rapier with a 7600mah Overlander LiPo will give 10 minutes (maximum) or less!

Bob.