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I've put the new Phil Thomas Stealth in the water twice now. Setup for P Spec with UL-1 motor, UL-1 esc, tried with both Turnigy 2 2s 5000 40c and single 4s 5000 40 c Turnigy, Speedmaster hardware, UL-1 fin and home made fin mount.
When mocking up the boat, I realized it would be transom heavy. Mounted everything as far forward as I could. Initial CG was at about 14", quite a bit stern heavy from Phil's recommended 15.5 - 16" mark. Maidened as such and it did not handle right, boat hopped and just flat didn't not perform well. While at the pond, added all the lead weight that I had externally to the sponson tips and brought it to about 14.5" CG from transom. Still never got it to perform well even with adjusting strut height and angle and called it a day.
Put it back on water for our last local club race and added about 8 oz of weight total to the sponson tips. First heat of the day while running behind other boats, blew it over twice, so definitely running too loose. Heat 2 addded about an ounce and unfortunately, pile drove it into a pylon on the first lap and stuck it there. One of our local guys plowed into me on his last lap and unfortunately for him, he hit my fin and it severed his sponson on his Whiplash. Fortunately for me, only bent my fin. I was able to tape up the nose to waterproof, straightened the fin and ran for heat 3. Looks good in the straights as the CG is now at 15.5" (rearmost recommendation from Phil), looks and I say only looks like it runs loose, but no issues with blowing over or anything weird and handles really nice. Top speed is looking good running a stock (balanced and sharpened ABC H5), but turns are not good as I am scrubbing off alot of speed. Initial day of running, scrubbed a tremendous amount of speed, for race day, raised the fin about 1/2" and tilted the bottom forward and that helped alot, but still the boat is losing alot of speed in the turns. Phil let me know of a place that had a Dick Tyndall fin in stock and I just ordered it (totally different fin than the UL-1 fin).
For having no time on this boat I am very encouraged at how it performs and feel confident that it will be a very good contender with the Whiplash and Insane FE30. The construction, roominess and styling of the hull is absolutely awesome and the service and communication I have received from Phil is outstanding.
Gotta get this baby dialed in for the Winter Warmup VII here in AZ which is just around the corner! Can't wait to dial it in and see how she does.
When mocking up the boat, I realized it would be transom heavy. Mounted everything as far forward as I could. Initial CG was at about 14", quite a bit stern heavy from Phil's recommended 15.5 - 16" mark. Maidened as such and it did not handle right, boat hopped and just flat didn't not perform well. While at the pond, added all the lead weight that I had externally to the sponson tips and brought it to about 14.5" CG from transom. Still never got it to perform well even with adjusting strut height and angle and called it a day.
Put it back on water for our last local club race and added about 8 oz of weight total to the sponson tips. First heat of the day while running behind other boats, blew it over twice, so definitely running too loose. Heat 2 addded about an ounce and unfortunately, pile drove it into a pylon on the first lap and stuck it there. One of our local guys plowed into me on his last lap and unfortunately for him, he hit my fin and it severed his sponson on his Whiplash. Fortunately for me, only bent my fin. I was able to tape up the nose to waterproof, straightened the fin and ran for heat 3. Looks good in the straights as the CG is now at 15.5" (rearmost recommendation from Phil), looks and I say only looks like it runs loose, but no issues with blowing over or anything weird and handles really nice. Top speed is looking good running a stock (balanced and sharpened ABC H5), but turns are not good as I am scrubbing off alot of speed. Initial day of running, scrubbed a tremendous amount of speed, for race day, raised the fin about 1/2" and tilted the bottom forward and that helped alot, but still the boat is losing alot of speed in the turns. Phil let me know of a place that had a Dick Tyndall fin in stock and I just ordered it (totally different fin than the UL-1 fin).
For having no time on this boat I am very encouraged at how it performs and feel confident that it will be a very good contender with the Whiplash and Insane FE30. The construction, roominess and styling of the hull is absolutely awesome and the service and communication I have received from Phil is outstanding.
Gotta get this baby dialed in for the Winter Warmup VII here in AZ which is just around the corner! Can't wait to dial it in and see how she does.
Nortavlag Bulc 
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