Graupner Atlantic Challenger

[MoparB]

This is my Graupner Atlantic Challenger. It's just over 50 inches long, and powered by twin 700 turbo motors pushing twin Graupner jet drives. This boat was picked up off of ebay and it is decent shape, but clearly in need of work and detail, but I'll be telling you more about the power in the future than the detailing.

The plans right now are to remove the belt transmissions and drop in a pair of Feigao 8XL motors, and back it up with twin Barracuda 125's, and lipos. I am also going to repaint the whole thing int he proper white, because something caused this thing to yellow BADLY.

This thing is surprisingly quick for the power package that it has now. It really moves even with the basic 700 motors and running on 12 volts. Turns on a damn dime with the jet thrust vectoring. Got reverse too, since it has reverse buckets.

For those not familiar with this kit, it is a scale replica of the Azimut Atlantic Challenger, which was a boat commissioned by Richard Branson to beat the record for world's fastest Atlantic crossing by boat. The real thing must have been a very good design, because the hull, despite being scale, really works well. The real boat also had twin jet drives, just like this model. Out of all of my boats, I am really becoming quite fond of this one.

Right now, I haven't started anything, so these are just the pics of it as it is now. Enjoy.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Classicchrome/grau5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Classicchrome/grau3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Classicchrome/grau2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Classicchrome/grau1.jpg

[Eyekandyboats]

wow. thats cool
nice scale boats. i love it

[SJFE]

Excellent score!!. It yellowed because of its age. They are old kits. Awesome rig man...I will be glued to this refit:D

[MoparB]

OK, got all of my stuff ordered. My next post will be the beginning of the stripping and paint. :)

[hammertime]

that thing is sweeeet.... rig up some kind of motor on the back with an ultralight rod and go fishin lol

[Doozie870]

Man that boat is a find!! if your interested in selling, I would purchase the two belt drives.

[avengersteve]

where can i find a jet drive setup?

[MoparB]

Here you go:

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/jetdrives.htm

[saleens7]

thats a nice build...you made another thread about it....now that i know how many cells your running, using the 8xl's with the gear drive will just be able to get you in the desired 15K-20Krpm range where most jet drive that size perform their best

just looked at hobby lobby....now their jet drives are in stock...i ordered one a few months ago, and cancelled my order last week becasue i though it would never come back in stock and i basically just gave up on the jet drive build because of that, and now it does:rolleyes: ....seems there never there till you dont need em...

[saleens7]

graupners arent exactly the best jet drives...they dont use a true impeller as well

this place is better

http://www.jet-drive.de/vg_server/custom/frameset.php?generateID=1&pageTitle=Kehrer-Modellbau&language=0

[MoparB]

If this were going to be anything more than a fun project, I would definitely consider changing the drives, but this is no racing boat, so what its got will be good enough.

Yeah, what I am aiming for is about 40,000 motor rpm. Since a Feigao 8L can easily replace a 700BB Turbo and can easily turn those rpms, I am considering just going with the 8L instead of the 8XL.

For whatever the 8L lacks in torque, the transmissions should easily compensate for at a 2:1 ratio.

Edit: I was just looking at the website there, and the impellers that the K-series drives use look exactly like the impellers in my drives. Further than that, their P series drive not only looks exactly like the Graupner drive for fuel applications, but it has the same dimensions and power requirements, and has the same description verbatim. The K-series is clearly different from the Graupner drives, as they seem to have more housing over the suction part, but the impellers look the same.

And if you want to see the ultimate RC jet drive, check this baby out. Now THAT is what I call a TRUE impeller!

http://206.206.85.209/xtdoc/Details.aspx?ProductCode=m-1723&store=mhzusa

[spuggy]

I was given the Graupner Atlantic Challenger hull. What internal electronics (motors, speed control etc) do I need to purchase to make it operational?
Regards
Grant

[SJFE]

Grant have you rigged a hull yet? If not this one is probably not a good first build option. If you go brushed motors you will need the folowing. A set of 7 or 800 motors along with a set of RcHydros or jeti esc's along with your radio system. If you go brushless double your costs. You are looking at 2 to 300 to get it going. If you don't wind up building it I'd be happy to buy it off you for a fair price. My email is tommyg216@msn.com.
Good Luck with it.
Tom G

[LJH]

Becarefull of using to many RPM's I found in my little Graupner Sprint boat that a really high KV motor did nothing for performance and just caused things to run hot.

Cheers,
Jim