C1 Flowmaster 920EP

[TheShaddix]

Building another flowmaster. This one came as a twin already, but I took everything out to do it my own way.

The quality of the boat out of the box is pretty bad to say the least. There are visible seam lines under the paint, the fiberglass layup is mediocre, and just the weakness of this thing makes me regret this purchase, but it's too late to turn back. The paint colors are great. The paint quality, however, is not. But from afar it's definitely awesome looking. Definitely the last hull of this kind that I will ever build, especially for myself. I'm working on a c5009 in the meantime as well as some other projects.

The power setup will be:

2x leopard 3674 3270kv
2x swordfish 220A esc
4S lipos

[lt130th]

I have one of these that I'm leaving in stock trim, except for upgrading the ESC's ad props, for my niece to run at the lake. What do make of that raised cavity blocking off the transom?? I can see what look like holes for mounting a rudder...like that used to be a transom. It's as if this hull was modified/lengthened from some existing design, and they just made some sloppy fix. It doesn't really make sense, otherwise. I thought about cutting it out, and throwing a layer of carbon fiber over the square hole on the inside, and gel-coating the outer side, flush...

[lt130th]

Are you ditching the magnets in the canopy? I notice you removed two from the hull already. One of the magnets in my canopy already came out. Found it stuck to the hull magnet, so they'll need some better epoxy if you're keeping the other four.

[lt130th]

One more thing, haha...your builds are typically thorough, but if it's not already in your plans, the stingers need more support where they mount. My starboard stinger shakes when I blip the throttle, and that's with carbon prop's. The other stinger remains rigid under throttle, so I think the fiberglass wall is too weak there. I've got to pull mine off and bond a carbon fiber plate to the inside, then drill out the screw holes and put the stingers back in with longer screws. Are you into wire drives? I ran a Jeff H. .078" wire with 4mm, stepped up to 3/16" stub shaft in a King of Shaves P1 which uses this same stinger. Would probably work out pretty nicely with all the extra Teflon liner they put in those stuffing tubes. Good Luck!

[Tamelesstgr]

Subscribing to this one

[TheShaddix]

My plan is to reinforce everything in this boat - all the mounting areas and such. i don't like that box piece that sticks inwards, no idea what it's for, but now that you said it could've started out as another hull style, it makes sense. I noticed after I tore everything out that the hull was originally meant to be a single drive as they actually filled the stuffing tube hole in the center with epoxy and painted it over on the outside, then covered up by wooden plates so no one would ever know. I am very disappointed in this hull overall, as I said. I was told about it by a friend who was super excited about its release. I hated to tell him that it was junk. I really feel bad for those people who will buy this boat and run it as is. It's so fragile I could barely keep the hatch from cracking when I was pulling the wood off of it, it's pathetically weak. When I did the usual in-tip epoxy pour I stuck the hull vertically into a bucket of water to cool it, then I noticed the epoxy was a bit too liquid... Turns out the hull had tiny holes in the front section and got flooded with water. Luckily the epoxy had cured regardless, so then I just poured in some more after getting the water out and drying it. But that is really crappy work by any standard because the ordinary buyer would get leaks and not even know the source.

Well, I have finally finished tearing out all the original epoxy and will begin sanding and do an inlay and reinforce the stinger mounting areas and the transom. I also want to do my own steering system with pull cables instead of a push rod as I find that much more precise and reliable.

Not into wire drives, had them on my hpr when I bought it, I don't think they are good as you're bending the wire constantly and it will eventually become weaker due to fatigue. It also puts more pressure on the motor bearings since the wire pushes it downwards. And another main reason is wires have no give in them, so you get full torque from motor to prop. A flex cable does not have any of those issues as it's designed to flex, absorbs that initial jerk, and bends and spins freely, and also has the screw effect which pushes water out from the stuffing tube. With a piano wire all you get to grease is the stinger, so it's much more prone to water leaks.

For the hatch I'll use slide-in bolts/bullets on one side and hatch bolts on the other. The magnets were a joke, not sure what they were thinking. I've had hatches fly off in mild crashes that had bolts holding them down. But it's just not worth all that work that I'm doing to it as the quality is poor and I wish I knew that before. Although it's not totally wasted. Should be decent once I'm done with it.

[boilo56]

What do make of that raised cavity blocking off the transom?? I can see what look like holes for mounting a rudder...like that used to be a transom. It's as if this hull was modified/lengthened from some existing design, and they just made some sloppy fix. It doesn't really make sense, otherwise. I thought about cutting it out, and throwing a layer of carbon fiber over the square hole on the inside, and gel-coating the outer side, flush...

Have you done something about it? I think it may cause a lot of drag when water hit the back part of that square cavity. I'm going to put a piece of clear tape over it and get some gps runs to compare speeds.

[lt130th]

Have you done something about it?

Not yet. That area should be out of the water once the boat gets on plane, but it still kind of irks me being there. It would be easy to cut it out, cover the hole and sand & polish some white gelcoat, flush. I have a handful of other boats I'm trying to make progress on right now.

[boilo56]

Ok, thanks! I'm working on mine at the moment. I've put some FG layers on the sides and bottom of the sponsons, I'm making a support for the back of the motors, because the aluminium they used for the brackets of the mount is too weak, and bend easely. I also ordered new motors and .130 flex shaft to replace the stock ones. After all this, we'll see!

[boilo56]

Any updates about your build, TheShaddix?

[TheShaddix]

I've been working on other boats, but here is what I got so far on this flowmaster... The inlay is done. Also converted the drives to use 3/16 flex cables. And ran out of water outlets so I just modified some inlets that I had, came out better than the actual outlets I was using!

Next is the motor mounts and rudder which I still need to figure out due to the awful rear section design. I can't remove the original rudder and install the one I want, so I'm forced to use what's there.


Note: I ended up using some floating bushings instead of the smaller ones pictured. Figured it would hold the cables better since they are longer. Also nevermind the crappy hatch cutout work, I'm still working on that to open up more hatch space.

[TheShaddix]

Some more progress...

[boilo56]

Looking good! Only a suggestion, i would double the thickness of the motor mounts. Great job on the boat!

[TheShaddix]

They are stronger than you'd think from their size. Plus it's too late now anyway.

[TheShaddix]

Finally finished the boat, did some water testing, will post some videos asap.