Rio Roses Fountain

[G Doggett]

At least a year ago I bought a 30 inch Aeromarine Rio Roses hull from OSE but it has sat on the shelf getting dusty as I decided it's skinny beam ruled it out as a race boat.
However I have decided that it would make a good scale/sport boat project.
I also decided to set it up as cheaply as possible to prove that you can have fun and performance without spending big bucks.
Here are a couple of shots of the boat to give you an idea of the scale looks and shape.

[G Doggett]

The first challenge, that has probably scared off a few modellers, was how to attach hardware to the sloping transom.
I made my own strut from scrap pieces of stainless tubing and plate and attached it with angle alloy, - simple so far.
I wanted a sort of scale look so needed twin rudders to kind of look like twin Mercruiser stern drives.
I ended up ordering a pair of Aquacraft rudders from OSE and modified the mounting brackets to suit the transom, but found they were not very strong and simply looked wrong.
I replaced the plastic rudders with a pair of stainless Pro Boat rudders from my LHS and cut them down to size.
The plastic mounting brackets were still too flexible so I tied them together with a tie bar made from scrap stainless tubing, a threaded rod, and washers and nuts.
The trim tabs are just bits of alloy bent to shape.
Sorted !

[G Doggett]

Steering duties were taken care of by a mini GWS servo that I found in my junk draw mounted on a homemade alloy bracket above the stuffing tube.
The pushrods are bike spokes sliding through bits of antenna tube with plenty of grease to act as a seal.
In the picture you can also see the Assan 2.4 Ghz mini receiver sitting on top of a piece of foam and the antenna extending up the short tube.
The antenna tube mount is an RCA jack plug.

[ozzie-crawl]

i dont mind the long thin scale look, is it a stepped hull ?. will be interesting to see straight line speeds. whats your motor/esc setup ?

[G Doggett]

The motor mount is just a piece of angle alloy cut and drilled to suit and epoxied to the hull. It's a bit heavy duty but its what I had lying around !
The real bargan is the HobbyKing SS (Super Simple) 90 - 100 amp ESC for only $29.95.
It wasn't water cooled but I took care of that with the cooling plate from my dead X- Power ESC. The plate sits on top of the cooling fins with a layer of thermal grease between and is just held in place with cable ties.

[G Doggett]

Motor was going to be a Feigao 9XL but I have decided that would be a bit of overkill, so in keeping with the cheap as possible theme I have ordered a KD36-60-11L from HobbyKing for $29.99.
This motor looks exactly like a Feigao 11L which makes me wonder if in true Chinese fashion the Feigaos go out the front door and the KDs go out the back.
Yes the hull has steps and is a pretty accurate scale model.

[Simon.O.]

Graham, I can see 4 exhausts in that aft deck, please tell me you will make at least two of them into your very cool vertical water exhausts.
Note. For those who have not seen Grahams Jolly-cat run for real I can tell you that the vertical spray exhaust is very cool and scale looking.

[G Doggett]

I had plenty of pop rivets so epoxied a couple in place to secure the front of the hatch, and used a couple of countersunk screws to secure the rear. I will still use tape to seal the hatch, but I suspect this hull will barrel-roll if pushed into a turn too fast so the rivets and screws are extra insurance.
The exhaust stacks are also pop rivets epoxied in place.

[G Doggett]

The rudders don't have water pick ups, and there wasn't room on the skinny transom, so I epoxied a short piece of brass tube through the left rear of the hull with the end cut on an angle.
The slight drag from this pick up on the l/h side should help to counter the prop torque pulling the hull to the right. Well thats my theory anyway!
Thats all for now until the motor turns up next week.
If it goes half as good as it looks I'll have to treat it to some scale Rio Roses decals.
Regards
Graham.

[Simon.O.]

Graham, you know as well as I do that there is more drag on K rd than there is with that water pickup.
I am very keen to see that bottom with those steps and strakes and bits. You will have to come over to the Quarry at the weekend. Remember we have to be off the water by 10 for the flappy boats. Chelsea is not the best at the weekend as there are lots of folk who want to see the ducks and not fast boats.

Let me know if you are comeing over and I'll be there, in fact I'll be there anyway

[Brushless55]

Motor was going to be a Feigao 9XL but I have decided that would be a bit of overkill, so in keeping with the cheap as possible theme I have ordered a KD36-60-11L from HobbyKing for $29.99.
This motor looks exactly like a Feigao 11L which makes me wonder if in true Chinese fashion the Feigaos go out the front door and the KDs go out the back.
Yes the hull has steps and is a pretty accurate scale model.

The KD motors are coppies of Feigao..
they are built different

[crabstick]

The KD motors are coppies of Feigao..
they are built different

Whats different about them ?

[j.m.]

They get hot even with no load. :P

[Brushless55]

Whats different about them ?

the quality and they don't use bearings in the kd motors

[j.m.]

Yeah they do bud.