V-Cat - new version

[TheShaddix]

Hi all,

This is our latest v-cat boat. It's a catamaran with a mono nose, essentially. We also added a center fin. I was hesitant to post the build on this because I was not sure it would perform. The last 2 vcats were total failures on water which was very disappointing for my dad and I. But we went back to the drawing board and kept improving it. After a few launches that I've done so far I can say this is the first properly working hull we have made yet. Most testing was done at a lake nearby which is always choppy. Powered by 2x240A swordfish, 2x sss 2200kv motors (4082), 6S turnigy graphene lipos, abc 1915 props (tuned by dasboata). Video link below.

These are all the images I have of this build as my focus was not to post my work but to finish this boat and get it on the water asap, but now I really want to share this creation as it is working flawlessly. I am most impressed with how easy it is to control at any speed and how quickly it accelerates. The wooden hull was very light to begin with, but it is quite heavy when fully loaded. To see it go 80+ mph is a lot of fun and we are proud of what we have accomplished. All the work on it was done by my father and myself, including paint.


VIDEO: https://youtu.be/RDIi-BTkJcA


https://cdna2.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/878/large/dennis-logashov-20160825-235527.jpg?1475405359
https://cdna2.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/842/large/dennis-logashov-v3-01.jpg?1475404666
https://cdna2.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/854/large/dennis-logashov-bluedrilled.jpg?1475404860
https://cdnb3.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/847/large/dennis-logashov-v3-02.jpg?1475404738
https://cdnb1.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/773/large/dennis-logashov-dsc03288.jpg?1475403151
https://cdna0.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/772/large/dennis-logashov-dsc03287.jpg?1475403148

[TheShaddix]

https://cdna2.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/550/large/dennis-logashov-dsc03347.jpg?1475399248
https://cdna2.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/546/large/dennis-logashov-dsc03384.jpg?1475399175
https://cdnb1.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/549/large/dennis-logashov-dsc03372.jpg?1475399246
https://cdnb1.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/557/large/dennis-logashov-dsc03364.jpg?1475399262
https://cdnb3.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/559/large/dennis-logashov-dsc03369.jpg?1475399266
https://cdnb1.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/553/large/dennis-logashov-dsc03377.jpg?1475399254

[Psycho1]

Congradulations on your success. The boat looks great!!!

[Fluid]

Absolutely gorgeous! A much better hull design and great performance. Congratulations, I know both of you have done a huge amount of work on these hulls, they are all beautiful.



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[properchopper]

Very very nice :thumbup1: Bring it to the Lake Nov. 11-13:wink: - love to see it in person.

[dmitry100]

Man, that hull looks slick! Good work!

Is this gonna be a SAW V-cat?

[785boats]

Such style, grace & elegance. Damn fine woodworking skills too.
It's that spoiler at the rear end that does it for me.

[TheShaddix]

I appreciate all the positive feedback! These boats aren't really for SAW. There are other better suited hulls for going fast. I am sure in the right hands this one could go over 100, but I don't have any interest in going that fast. To me it's about the look and how it feels on water. To see our own creation take shape just from some generic planks of pine or poplar that my dad buys at home depot, it feels very special! I am starting a new v-cat build and will post in this thread.

[dmitry100]

Ahh gotcha. You going to (or preparing anything else for) Legg Lake in Nov ?

[iridebikes247]

Damn that boat looks amazing. Thats a rough lake looks really good at high and low speeds :rockon2:

Congrats on the build/design.

[grsboats]

Building,design,finishing and performance awesome...congrats!

[Ralf]

Very cool :thumbup:

[Mxkid261]

Man that is beautiful, a work of art. I wouldnt even want to get that thing wet it would just sit up on my shelves and look good lol

[TheShaddix]

Hi guys,

thanks for all the positive feedback! Still tuning it to get it to run perfect.

[TheShaddix]

Started a new one. Very minor differences in the design, mainly on the tail. So far I have done the stripes and clearcoat, plus did a CF inlay and some epoxy work here and there.


https://photos.smugmug.com/Builds/i-rpCLfJK/0/X2/DSC03505-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Builds/i-RHTzT5x/0/X2/DSC03509-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Builds/i-bn2sTTL/0/X2/DSC03515-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Builds/i-jqdvMMH/0/X2/DSC03507-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Builds/i-wXD8Lxn/0/X2/DSC03517-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Builds/i-pwQ63sB/0/X2/DSC03516-X2.jpg

[Tamelesstgr]

Saw you painting a white hatch with rally stripes, anything new in the works?

[TheShaddix]

Been working on a few boats, I'll post something later on. The white hatch was for one of the older boats. Once I paint the hull and do a CF inlay, I'll post that one up for sale.

[kfxguy]

How did I miss this thread? Those are absolutely stunning! Nice work!

[Newboater]

Holy Cow that should never be put in the water. That should be on display only, way to nice to take a chance on damaging. Beautiful.

[TheShaddix]

Thanks guys! I will post some pics of the new one my dad just sent me, it's a bit different from all the other boats. I am just finishing up on the hatch stripes. Don't want to mess with it before it's fully dried

[JohnZ]

Reminds me of the work by VanDam boats up in Boyne City, Mi. They have built some very fine custom boats for people. Modern lines combined with wood craftsmanship.
Excellent work on those hulls.
What wood are you using?

[TheShaddix]

Thanks for your comment! We started off with pine, so 99% of the hulls my dad has built are made of that. We recently tried poplar as it's denser, but we had to optimize the construction to reduce the weight as much as possible by using thinner material where it's overlaid with a carbon inlay. The new hulls are very light now compared to the piggies they used to be. Since this is all custom work, any type of wood could be used. I guess it just depends on the demand.

[JohnZ]

Have you ever thought of using Mahogany? Mot the lightest of woods but very strong and would make for a very beautiful boat.

[T.S.Davis]

Boats made of wood are so satisfying. Just looking at one done this well is almost therapeutic.

[TheShaddix]

Actually never thought of using mahogany, but I will talk to my dad about that. Sounds interesting.

[Tamelesstgr]

Mahogany takes stain beautifully, probably little harder to shape than poplar and pine, much darker wood as well from the pieces I have seen.

[TheShaddix]

Oh, I didn't realize what mahogany wood was called in russian. The previous vcat versions had the back plate (mounting plate for hardware) made of mahogany. We wanted something stronger than pine for that particular part, so it fit the bill for the time being. Frankly, I really didn't find it any better than poplar. As far as the look of it, I guess it does have a special appeal due to being red. What we try to do now is stack poplar planks in different shades randomly along the sides of the hull for a more interesting look.

[TheShaddix]

Here is the latest hull. I am building the one right before this one and will show some progress soon.


https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-Gr88vKv/0/X2/DSC03578-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-KMsb3p7/0/X2/DSC03582-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-nd6WJjM/0/X2/DSC03589-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-Ft7m8Zf/0/X2/DSC03593-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-5dSGH2v/0/X2/DSC03596-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-ZPZRHnk/0/X2/DSC03594-X2.jpg

[Beaux]

Very nice, love the wood.

[TheShaddix]

Hey guys, just wanted to update this thread with the latest vcat. Just got this from my father. The wood is poplar. The different colored planks are just for styling purposes, selected in such matter, not stained. He buys all wood at home depot. I am working on multiple boats currently, focused more on surfacing and painting them, hence not really posting any builds. Our goal from the start has been to get everything perfect. I started learning about painting in depth, realized that wood is very tricky to get perfect paint on, so I started using epoxy primer to get my base down 100%. It's very effective stuff. I used my paint gun at first, but it's a mess to clean, so I am just going to foam roll it on, sand to smooth, then paint and clear it. I have a few boats fully painted, one of which will soon be for sale as a shell with carbon.



https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-T7nhJr4/0/X2/DSC03642-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-bPVwXfM/0/X2/DSC03646-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-p62R2Lb/0/X2/DSC03647-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-c6FK2B3/0/X2/DSC03651-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-NBtMj4J/0/X2/DSC03652-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-ppzWFSg/0/X2/DSC03654-X2.jpg

[TheShaddix]

https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-84tn6qv/0/X2/DSC03643-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-H5rkQB9/0/X2/DSC03644-X2.jpg

[fweasel]

It's almost a shame to cover that wood work in paint. Beautiful looking piece of craftsmanship.

[TheShaddix]

Only painting the older boats that were redone. We had a lot of these vcats with barely any tunnels on the bottom, so my dad rebuilt all of them, but the wood work doesn't look as elegant as the new boats. I am painting those fully. The new ones I usually just add some stripes and then clearcoat it.

[TheShaddix]

Just finished painting this hatch. The whole boat will be this color with some additional stripes. This was intended to be metallic black, but I was experimenting with some white pearl powder and mixed a bit too much into my clear, so it brightened the base coat by a few shades. I still like the look, just need to make sure to match the boat accordingly.


https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-tknzdsX/0/X2/DSC03659-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-rkHtfRW/0/X2/DSC03655-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-fBzhwRH/0/X2/DSC03656-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-KWBvNqV/0/X2/DSC03657-X2.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Miscellaneous/i-RfbxwQX/0/X2/DSC03658-X2.jpg

[stratus]

Looks awesome!!

[Tamelesstgr]

[IMG]https://cdnb1.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/593/557/large/dennis-logashov-dsc03364.jpg?1475399262

Love these stripes so I am copying something similar for my mono build. Hope you don't mind, immitation is the greatest form of flattery they say.