Sprint Cat 29 Build

[midnightsabotage]

This will be my 2nd build thread. First was a SV27 which was my first FE boat and it turned out great. Hope this one does too & I hope you guys can get something out of it!

I purchased the Sprint Cat 29 hull from Fightercat57 here on OSE. Awesome seller, btw!
Came with a water-cooled motor mount, strut, rudder, servo mount, and some other misc small bits to help with the build.

Fightercat57 also steered me in the right direction with a Leopard 4074 1050kv motor & 80HV esc. I'll be running her on 8s.

Here's the hull before I received it:
Sprint 29 004s.jpg

I got the hull and electronics in the mail yesterday, took a picture or 2 but haven't gotten them off the camera yet. It looks exactly the same anyhow.

The Hull definitely needs a lot of work. There are plenty of low spots and paint drips or something strange going on with the paint. Also, the rudder I received is a great part, but I think it only attaches with 2 screws. I may look into a different mount for it to line up with the 4 holes in the hull properly. But that'll be a while.

The "standard" hatch's paint is badly cracked and worn, that'll all need to be sanded off. I'm not a big fan of how it's shaped and it doesn't fit on the hull flat, so I may just do some heavy modification and create something new out of it. Might do something different with the turbine hatch as well, it's not 100% my style either. I'll try to end up with 2 nice painted hatches either way though. Stay tuned!

This hull alone could take a week or 2 of my free time to get ready for paint, so don't expect a quick build. I'll try to keep it well updated however, so hopefully there will be something new to see every couple days.

So far, it just worked out that my other 2 boat's paint schemes matched the motors inside them very well. So I expect to end up with a cat that's got some red in it due to the Leopard motor.

And away we go!
-Jeff

[midnightsabotage]

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I guess that's the only good picture I got earlier. Still builds the excitement a bit.

I got a small bit of sanding done and checked over all my parts. Not much progress on the boat itself.
The PVC boat stand is all done & looks good, however.

[Rumdog]

Here is a link to my Sprintcat .21 build. Not the best thread, but you may find it a little helpful.
http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...=sprintcat+.21

[midnightsabotage]

Thanks for the link, definitely some useful info.
Hadn't even considered the troubles of taping down the turbine hatch. I don't like the looks of it though, so some major modification was going to be in the works - Now I get to add the taping issue into the thought process.

The classic hatch is also not a style that I can live with, so we'll be reversing it and doing some modification as well. Already started on that one last night, actually. Still trying to get my 28" mono painted up, so I haven't put much time into the sprintcat yet. But she is atleast started!
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[midnightsabotage]

Got some time in on the build over the weekend.

Removed a lot of old paint on the top/sides of the hull. Then I filled and straightened/leveled the top of the sponsons (if they're called sponsons on a catamaran?)

Also did some rough blueprinting of the steps on the bottom of the hull for now. My autobody metal filing tool works great for cutting straight and level, now I just need to find a nice level surface to help when finishing.

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[midnightsabotage]

You can see in the previous post the direction I'm going with the hatch. Running it backwards and rounding out the "front" of the canopy part.

Here's one last picture - took it last night before spraying a guide coat of primer on the top of those sponsons. I think I'll need to apply a light coat of glaze to get it perfectly even, still felt a little low in one spot on the left side.

2011-09-05_21-33-53_517.jpg

I told you the progress would be slow! But with my 2nd boat's refinishing almost complete, I should be able to invest more time into the sprintcat pretty soon :)

Oh, and if anyone has a rudder or even just a rudder bracket that mounts with 4 bolts, please send me a pm if you'd be willing to let it go for a reasonable price. The rudder I got with this cat bolts to the hull with only 2. I'd much prefer a 4-bolt mount, especially if it might fit the existing holes in the hull. So yeah, let me know if you got one. Thanks!

[millzee]

I like the work you've done to the hatch, looks like it'll work well and look great at the finished stage. Well done!!!

[murphy3428]

Looking good so far as for the hatch on mine I did a sub hatch which was a easy fix and works great the only isue with a sub hatch on this hull is the motor height what I did is moded the piece of lexan to fix that problem

[midnightsabotage]

Thanks for the kind words, glad you guys like the direction i'm going with it!

Here's a quick update, taking the body lines out of the center portion where it meets the hatch. Should be smooth and sleek when done.

2011-09-08_18-49-26_436.jpg

[midnightsabotage]

Oh, also spent a little bit of time today building that pvc rig underneath it in the picture. Awesome work stand for the sprintcat, and should work with deep v hulls too!

[midnightsabotage]

Finally got out in the garage again for a little while. Removed lots more old original paint down to the gelcoat (time consuming and tedious work!) and then filled some low spots, finished evening out that front tunnel part, and the hatch modification is nearly complete. All paint is just primer to fill and seal for now:

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[Brushless55]

Starting to look good man!

[midnightsabotage]

Thanks :)

It's getting cold already here in MN, so I haven't been out in the garage much this week. Hopefully I can invest in a decent sized electric heater soon so I can keep going with this. This weekend is supposed to warm up again, but I fear it'll be the last warm weather we get this year, lol.

So, slow progress still. Glueing and painting in the cold isn't my favorite thing in the world. Need that heater!

Been chopping up the turbine hatch most recently, seeing what kind of hatch I can make out of it that looks sleek and not nearly as obnoxious. Pictures to follow soon.

[midnightsabotage]

Haven't given up on the project!
I did get the bottom of the sponsons done, removed all paint down to the gelcoat* and then filled a few spots on edges where there were actually tiny air pockets between the gelcoat and fiberglass (not terribly uncommon the way most fiberglass work is done with the gelcoat and fiberglass mat production methods. It's tough to get that fiberglass pushed in real tight in those molds. Same thing happened with some of my autobody panels on a project back in school.)

Anyhow, got the ride pads as straight and sharp as I think I could. Still removing the last of the paint off the bottom of the tunnel. Tough to get in there. I also did some more sanding and filling on that standard hatch. It's getting there. Haven't touched it in atleast a week, but wanted to get an update in here. I think it helps me get motivated to "talk" about it. I think feedback helps even more

Oh! And I finally got that pesky rudder problem sorted out. Had to get some plane parts from hobbyking and so I went ahead and got one of their rudders:
http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store...75MM_BOAT.html
Was about $15 with my platinum membership :p
Might be a bit long, but I can always cut her down after seeing how the boat runs with it. I just hope it works well enough sitting back 75mm. Seems that Cat rudders are usually a little closer to the transom. There was another one that I liked better too, but it just ran out of stock before I was going to put my order in.
I'll need to plug the water pickup since I'll be doing in-hull pickups, worked good when I did on my SV27 rudder. It just looks so much cleaner to me when there's no cooling line coming out of the hull!

[midnightsabotage]

Finished paint removal & sanding the bottom of the hull & did some test fitment of my hardware & electronics.

Picture 1 I'm almost done with paint removal. This really was a pain in the butt, but I'll be much happier applying all new paint to the gelcoat rather than hoping all the old paint sticks. Little bits here and there flaked off pretty easy, so who knows what would have happened. Glad I did it right. Just REALLY delayed the progression of this build so far.
2011-10-16_01-20-23_279.jpg

Here's the hardware on the back. I'm going to have to drill a new hole in the supports for that strut to get it to mount in the right place. You'll see that the bolt going through the supports is way behind where the strut needs to be attached. I hope that the rudder is okay that far back too. Cats usually have it closer to the hull from what I've seen. Guess we'll find out!
2011-10-16_01-16-53_409.jpg

And here's the power setup. The motor sticks up quite a bit for the required angle of the stuffing tube, but luckily the way I've got my hatch setup, it fits under there with plenty of room. Whoohoo!
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