Yes, another Catamaran Build!

[ace028]

I have to thank Darin Jordan for his instructions on how to nicely lay down carbon fiber in the hulls, so I applied that to laying down some fiberglass cloth I had. I would have used carbon, but I don't have any, so I used fiberglass cloth, which should work just fine for what I am doing.

I cut out the small bulkheads that ran across the tub floor, and cut and layed down some fiberglass, then coated with epoxy, and squeeged the excess out.

I am pleased with how it turned out, the pics without epoxy look good, once the epoxy soaks through, it made some spots clear and others not, probably where the spray adhesive is, but it did turn out really nice, I suppose I can lay one more layer on top to make it more "white" but I think it looks pretty good, what do you guys think? I am going to again let this cure over night before I start mounting my servo mount that I need to design.


I think the next time I lay some fiberglass, I will use 2 layers and lay them diag to eachother.

[peells]

That looks nice, Darin J is all over making these kind of mods, I did wonder if the spray adhesive would prevent the resin from soaking all the way through though, but it does keep the edges nice and clean, you would be surprised how strong the single layer is.

[peells]

one final note about sanding DO NOT SAND THROUGH TO THE WOOD!!!!! JUST SAND OFF THE NIBS (THE LITTLE BUMPS IN THE SURFACE AND MAKE SURE TO SAND EVENLY WITH # 150) you will get a nice glassy surface if you wipe all the dust off thoroughly when you apply the second coat of resin to the hull.

[ace028]

Here is my general lay out for now, of course the wires will get shortened and routed nicely. The 4000mah 2 cell battery will be my temp battery untill I get 2 smaller 2000mah packs to run in parallel and make more room. This battery should be more then plenty to power this boat. Nothing is mounted, everything is just laying there to get the general idea of what is going on in the boat. I have not done any work on it tonight, but plan on doing some tomorrow night, its not looking like it will hit the water this weekend, but I have until about the 6th till I ship out, so that gives me a little bit of time to hopefully see this scalded cat scream!!!

[peells]

You are getting closer!! I still need to get a servo for my single and one for my double, and I also need a couple of those 30 amp esc's and 3 of those blue struts
Any comments on the stiffness of your battery/equipment area after epoxy and glass?

[ace028]

You are getting closer!! I still need to get a servo for my single and one for my double, and I also need a couple of those 30 amp esc's and 3 of those blue struts
Any comments on the stiffness of your battery/equipment area after epoxy and glass?

Large improvement of the stiffness of the battery area.

[ace028]

I carefully machined down a octura 3/16 strut bearings out side dia. to fit the struts. Then I made a little parallel esc to battery adapter to use with my 4000 mah battery. Then some pics of more test fitting. I also made a attenta tube. This thing is lots of work!!!

The grain of the wood makes the boat look funny, I can't wait till its one color so it stops playing tricks on my eyes with the grain going every which way.

[Avanti]

nice work as always.
I like the battery idea, instead of using two small packs, but will the boat float with a 4000 in it and all the other gear? I dry fit my boat with all the gear and a pair of 1400s, she was pretty heavy.

[peells]

I bet it will sit low in the water (but we might all be surprised) until you get it up on plane then look out it might put your rigger to shame!! and if it sinks it will look great on the Mantel for a conversation piece, but it will fly.

[Avanti]

flying is what concerns me about both of our boats. if there stay on the water they will no doubt be rocket ships.

[peells]

Start out easy and proceed to check out after that!!! you may have to shift your weight around to get the C/G just right but it will be worth the effort.

[ace028]

I put all the gear in it, and it indeed is heavy. The only reason I am using the single large capacity is because I don't have two smaller ones to run in parallel. I don't know if it will float, I guess we will see. The smaller packs will be more space efficient then this big one. I hope it will float, I put some foam in the front hope that will keep it from sinking.

[peells]

as long as you tape the hatch it should float with the air and all trapped inside, do a float test in the tub and take a picture or 2 for all to see!! and don't forget to brush on more epoxy on the sponsons.

[ace028]

Well, off to dads house, maybe some more work will get done, and maybe a float test, does that count as getting wet?! LOL

[peells]

a float test counts