Superb.

Phil,

Thanks for doing the video, and spending all the time editing the clips. Much better than anything I could do with my handheld camera.

Graham93

Well done JB. This does look like a bit of hair raising fun.

Shouldn't be too much trouble Martin it if do it like the flash job. Looks like an accessory option that goes on as a unit.? I can get some thin alloy sheet at the hardware I think which might do, or even plastic sheet eg ABS or similar.
JB

I like that Airboat, as you say not cheep.

Would you be able to modify your Airboat without to much trouble ?

Martin555.

Did a few of those Martin and had the same thought😂 Might make a bow extension like the real ones to stop that (I'll bet that's one of the reasons, -along with being brush guards) something like this flash machine (bet that cost a few bob)!!
JB

Jb,
At 4:55 on the video i thought that she was about to turn into a submarine LOL!!

Martin555.

Hi Martin, it's all about having fun,😊 and I find that if I build something and don't use it, it will fade into oblivion on the shelf. It's nice just to have something which doesn't have delicate fittings to break off, every time you take it out, for a change. I like the scale boats, but having to spend 10 mins each end plugging things in, lifelines to hook up, hatches to fit etc, can be a pain if you are not in the mood😁
Got a bit close there at one stage😂.
JB

Hi Jb,
A few hart stopping moments but it looked great fun.
She certainly goes well.
Very good.

Martin555.

Your Speedline model barge looks very good in the water and looks as if she is sailing extremely well. I've always thought that this design was a bit small to carry three headsails, but looking at yours, I think I must revise my opinion. Would like to see her competing in the AMBO class for 30" barges. She would qualify despite being shorter.

Cheers, Nerys

Hi CP,
Put the video up again.
Even if the icon says 'Invalid file' we know how to view it!😉
55 mins is a very long time for an upload!?😮
How big is the file?
If it's toooo big it may have exceeded the server limit for Uploads.
In which case the way round it is to first upload it to You Tube and then post the You Tube page link (URL) here.
Cheers, Doug 😎

If you have already put it on utube then just post the link to it.
Hopefully we can see it that way.

Martin555.

Hi Martin downloaded video and after 55 minutes told me wrong format which was a pity as it was a good video, and the photo on the beginning was the beginning of the video. Strange..

Hi chiefpurser,
Unfortunately i cannot see any video posted.
However i do see one photo.

Martin555.

Two very smart, well built boats and a pleasure to see current boat club activities after all this time, Oh that the same applied in Wales.

Nerys

Very nice video, looks like there is a lot of boat activity on your pond. 👍

Hi Kevin. I haven’t seen the owner of that vessel recently but I recall he said it was running on a brushless motor as used in motorised skateboards powered by 12v SLA battery with a 60mm prop. Hope this helps

I was referring to the first one in your video clip with the white superstructure.

Regards
Kevin

Hey Rob. Swapped the ESC this morning and it all worked. Had a spare 50amp one in the spares box to test with but this can’t be used in anger. So the 90 amp one is either dead or reprogrammed itself to be lazy and not spin the motor. Might have to buy a BIGGER one as a replacement 😆

Actually 3 Vospers if we include the RAF Firefloat mk2 😉

2 Vospers Pete. 1st was electric. 12v SLA, brushless, 60mm prop. 2nd was IC with an Irvine engine.

Excellent video steve,👍 love the Vosper, please ask the owner what power setup he is using,
Ta very much😊

Cheers, Pete

Hey Rob. It’s an MZ12 TX. Telemetry says battery ok (BEC from the ESC). It’s water cooled ESC and I could see water coming out of the outlet ok. Didn’t appear hot onshore. Motor connectors all present & connected. RX output worked as I swapped connectors round. Nothing is seized. I’ll hook up a different ESC tomorrow and /or motor.
‘Filming’ for the videos - I have a Canon camera on tripod with a GoPro on top for wide shots. Plenty of footage to play with. One of the other boaters sticks a GoPro on his boat to add to the mix. We swap files via wetransfer. Neat.

There are times when I wished I lived in England instead of Wales and now is one of them. There's our lake and parking lot all securely locked and some lucky people sailing away to their hearts content.

Very unhappy, Nerys

Hi Steve.
I'm not familiar with the Graupner MZ Tx but I can't see how a Tx setting would be the problem.
Are you using any battery state telemetry with the Tx/Rx ?
Was the ESC and motor hot, is the ESC water cooled? Maybe it's a thermal protection function built into the ESC?
I hope you manage to get it sorted...now get back to your edit!!
Rob.

Kevin... there were 2 Vosper boats in the video... 1st was electric powered by a brushless motor & 12v SLA. 2nd was an IC boat with an Irvine engine. Which were you referring to?

Hi Rob. I have 2 9.6 Nimh in series. haven‘t looked at it today. Busy editing! Will investigate tomorrow to see if I have hit a lock switch on the TX somewhere. Graupner MZ Hott.

Hi Steve.
Plenty of water in the St.Albans lake, it's actually overflowing the bank on one side 😀
All the weed is at the end that we favour because it's not so silted up and a bit deeper which is a pain 😠
Are you using NiMh or LiPo batteries?
No need to set a cutoff for NiMh batts.
If using LiPo's perhaps you've programmed the ESC cutoff voltage too high ?
Rob.

Hi Kevin. It is a great boat. I’ll pass your comments on to the owner. Cheers Steve

Hi. Glad to hear you are back on your lake. Most impressed with the Vosper Fast Patrol Boat. I am currently refurbishing an old Vernon version of this model. Would the owner be able to provide any details of her for example propulsion. Aldo's any info re the build or any photos?

Would be grateful. A fantastic looking boat with great performance.

Regards
Kevin

Hi Rob. Water is very low at Stevenage. At least 1foot lower than normal. If you watched the video there are some brief glimpses of my RAF 46” which I have almost finished now. At long last! I used the same motor/ESC combination as you and on its 2nd Sunday out ran very well for 10-15 mins. Came back in to tweak TX to get the fire monitor working and boat completely stopped after that. Scratching my head as to what happened. Prob ESC???

Hi Steve.
Great news that you are able to use the lake again.
The lake at Verulamium Park in St.Albans has a very healthy water level but unfortunately the weeds have taken over so if the club go sailing there at the moment there will be a lot of fouled props ☹️
Rob.

Thx for the compliments. There’s usually something that didn’t go to plan but we don’t always catch it on video. I didn’t include the tug rescue of the tunnel hull (both mine) as I try keep the videos down to a sensible length. Check out our videos from last year.

Very good video,
I am glad you included a few bloopers at the end.
Unfortunately most edit them out, but i think it is good to show something that actually happens in real live on the pond.

Martin555.

1st class video of a superb MGB👍👍👍

A couple of the local sailors have that yacht. Seem to sail well and they get a lot of enjoyment out of them.

I'll keep an eye out for those peter, maybe the Chinese 1 dollar shops might have something.
JB

Hi JB - the ones we have are at the most 2mm - cut one on the laser last week for a stencil for beehives - was not talking about the the thick nylon type boards ,

I have seen those here Peter but they are too thick,(about 5mm) (just found out that is Polyethylene) probably only need 1mm max or it will get too heavy. Boat is 350x720 so I'll need quite a large piece. I know a plastics place where I might find some (bought a 1220x2440 sheet of 1mm PETG for moulding canopies a while back from them)

Just had a look, and they have high impact polystyrene in thin sheets (1mmx760x1360 black is only $10.80) so I might inquire as to it's abrasion resistance (used for thermo forming). Polypropylene would be best in 1mm if I can find any, (I'd guess that's what's on the airboats as it's pretty bulletproof. Also thin ABS would probably be fine.
JB

Check the kitchen stores JB - there's a type of thin clear hard plastic cutting board which might be useful as the bottom slide material - has to be tough to withstand knife cuts on a continuous basis.

Not as yet Martin but have thought about it. Not sure where I can find thin poly or Teflon sheet, might have a hunt around. Certainly would protect its' bum from gravel rash😁
JB

That is a good video and you can see the bolt on sections of Nylon/Teflon/Polypropylene? wear plates.

Have you fitted anything like that to your Airboat ?

Martin555.

Hi Martin, If you look at the left side of the drawing above, it shows roughly what most real airboats have, -sort of a big non trip chine (I should have done it like this really) but it doesn't stop them sliding, - just digging in/ I read that real airboats are pretty much the same, and require co-ordinated throttle and rudder control to steer well (looks easy in vids, but must take practice.) You see a number of 'offs' with fullsized ones in various vids. Just watched one the other day where some guys were running up a narrow canal and ended up in some trees on the side and had to be towed out😁 I think they are just inherently linearly unstable 😁 Found a good vid showing the common shape.
JB

I did not explain that very well, what i meant was a flat bottom but with "V" sides.

Martin555.

Jb,
What would happen if you had a "V" shaped hull ?

Martin555.

Re - Hi JB - look`in good ! - you seem to have mastered the slide compensation at speed

Getting the hang of it slowly Phil, seems to need very gentle fingers and just the right amount of throttle!😁. Those rudder extensions look interesting, and I had thought along those lines, but I was worried if you spun at speed and they gripped, or you hit something going sideways it might damage the servo or rudder linkage? Those chine extensions should be sufficient to stop any slide. I would imagine it would be more like a normal boat with those? Airboats have a number of possible uses (ie stable camera boat platform as with yours) rescue boats etc, not to mention FUN.😊
JB

It might make it dig in too much Peter as they are designed to skid in a turn, as having a bit of weight up high it dissapates the centrifigal force. (just saw a US vid on YT showing the bottom plate replacement on an old airboat -whole bottom surface has a bolted on (dozens of bolts) Nylon/Teflon/Polypropylene? wear plate about 10mm thick and the bottom appeared dead flat.

I've made a slight V at the back of mine to try and get it to lean slightly and not trip. We built 8ft skimmers with a 10hp motor when I was about 12, and they slid like crazy, only problem was if they tripped at 20mph while sliding, it would almost throw you out!, slightly dangerous😁 but fun!😊 On the left of the pic is what most airboats have at the chine, - on the right is what I was thinking of. You only want the inside chine gripping slightly as you turn, as both would set you back to square 1. It would be cool to have auto tabs which worked with the rudders (ie 1 up 1 down in a turn) Thinking how I might work that, (twin steering rods off the servo with bellcranks maybe?)
JB

Hi JB - look`in good ! - you seem to have mastered the slide compensation at speed !
On my swamp dog I extended the (air) rudders for slow speed turns, but not tried it at speed ?.
Keep up the good work !

Thanks for the offer Red,
But the tide is out in Big Blue at the moment, as the wife keeps using the water for her plants.

Martin555.

An airboat might be a bit fast on big blue Martin - i have a toy one you could modify however ............

Seems to be picking up speed JB - perhaps triangle shaped rails underneath might help with the skidding as on a Faiey Huntsman etc or would that increase the risk of flipping ?

Hi Jb,
I must draw the line somewhere or i will never get back to working on U552.

I must admit i did give it some thought LOL!!

Martin555.

Re- "Certainly needs loads of concentration".

It's not too bad at half throttle Martin, it's only when you get to silly speed that the brain starts getting behind it instead of ahead of it😂. Maybe you should build a small one to try, a small one to try, a small one to try (is that and echo I hear ?)😁 you know you want to😉
JB

RE -Looks like lots of fun JB

Really is fun Graham! ( and only about 30 secs to set up) I put the GPS on it to check the speed and distance but pushed the wrong button and it didn't record, -DUH! Hopefully next time. It will be super handy as a rescue boat with a sponge bumper fitted (can't get stuck in weed). Should really make a small ply surf ski as a rescue boat (about 8ft ) and get some roof racks for the car. I've only ever had 1 stoppage due to weed with the HSL, and managed to rescue it with the MTB, but a sit on rescue craft would be handy. Used to use my 13ft glass kayak years ago but sold that when I moved to Fiji.

Might try an endurance run at planing speed at some stage with the GPS on board and see how many KMs to the battery it will get.
JB

re Wow, now that looks like fun!

Heaps of fun Joe, it's like drifting (but on water) for seniors😂. Just discovered this lake about a week ago,- about 5 mins from my place. Had been doing a 30km round trip to a pond at the end of the peninsula and was stoked to find this. I'd been driving past the end of the new subdivision road dozens of times, and never been in to have a look! I think I'll have it all to myself for a while till others discover it.😊
JB

Hi nasraf, Ali Express (Ailbaba) is one I use all the time now, have virtually given up on HK as most things to NZ come from the Australian branch and the postage is just stupid (around $35 NZ for anything)! Ali express in normal times takes around a month to get here (just plan ahead as you are building) and you get used to it.

I also use Banggood and RC ECHO (a Hong Kong Co like HK which has been very reliable over a number of years) - not a huge selection but works out around the same $ as HK. Banggood has quite a good selection and some good prices and are also around a month delivery (most Chinese sellers are the same).

You need to do a bit of searching for the best price on Ali Express and Banggood sites, and check the sellers ratings before making a purchase (bit of a balancing act)

Re stopping in the lake - I've never had anything stop electrically (planes or boats) except for weed, and luckily there's none in this pond, -won't affect the airboat anyhow😁- (storm water retention for a new subdivision which was recently a beautiful golf course). I actually found a similar access on the other side which has fewer reeds so I might try that next time, (I'll be taking some of the other boats there) You can get down all around,- just a bit tricky tromping over the reeds😀.
JB

Hi JB

Very impressed but what happens if it stops working in middle of lake, it does not look like there are many recovery options around site ?

Ref HSL motor/esc problems thanks to your message, I did not know about Ali Express until you let me have the info, it does not seem to be well advertised in UK. I have now joined and ordered a couple of ESC's from there at a very good price and buying through Paypal makes deal easy and safe. I am not sure how long it will take for them to come.

JB,
Wow, now that looks like fun! 👍👍
The lake looks nice too, wish I had one like that here.
Joe

Looks like lots of fun JB.👍

Jb,
Ref:- "Certainly needs loads of concentration".

If that's the case it will be no good me building one as concentration is not one of my strong points just lately LOL!!

Martin555.

Just a panic turn Martin, thought I was headed for the weeds😂,- ended up there anyway in the end in pretty much the same area, -very dark over there despite a bit of sun today. Does a bit of a skip and digs the chine in and stops dead😁 I put a new APC 8x6 prop on as well which is stiffer and quieter than the rubbish HK prop it had on the last run. Really needs something like cupped chine rails to hook in on corners as it needs the inside chine to grip on turns, (maybe next mod) Certainly needs loads of concentration going fast😁!
JB

Hi Jb,
There was a splash at 1:56 on the video, I assume it was just a sharp turn or did something fall off.

She dose seem very responsive.
Nice.

Martin555.

Coming along nicely.

Martin555.

Thank you Jb.
Martin555.