Darin's 26" Darkhorse Mono - Ver. 2.0 Build

[Darin Jordan]

It's a slow day at work today, and I made some fun progress on my projects this weekend, so I thought I'd share another build I'm doing.

Years ago I was one of the first to receive and race one of Brian Buaas' 26" DarkHorse Monos. Was a little "flighty" at first, and cornering seemed to "bog" it down quite a bit, but after some racing, observing, thinking, and tinkering, I figured out what needed to be adjusted/modified to make it work.

After I re-worked it, it turned into the best handling Mono I've ever driven. Was an excellent P-LTD Mono for awhile, especially on the Offshore course.

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I ended up selling that one, but have had this second hull sitting on the shelf for some time, so I figured I'd see if I could take it a step further.

This hull is a pretty rare (well, VERY rare) bagged epoxy glass version. Not quite as rigid as carbon, but very thin and really light weight, and STRONG.

It was also laid up SANS STRAKES... with allowed me to install my own. A ton of work, but hopefully worth the effort.

Here we go...

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Going to set this up initially as an N2 setup, but will be easily converted to a P-LTD. Not sure yet where, if at all, I'm going to race it...

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[Darin Jordan]

The hull seems to handle well with a stinger, and I'm trying to use up extra hardware I have laying around, so that's what I'll go with...

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Milled up a servo mounting base for one of OSE's aluminum servo-mount assemblies. I've had good luck with these, so it makes sense for this build.

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And, as usual... installed a flooded, though VERY short, stuffing tube assembly. Motor is WAY to the rear... as far back as practical.

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[Darin Jordan]

Prior to doing most of this... I added my own version of strakes. I'm concerned I may have gone too far, but the idea was to have more, but much smaller (more to the hull's scale) sized strakes. I'm concerned I still have them too big/wide, but we'll see. Overall, they turned out well, after a LOT of sanding, filling, sanding, filling... you know the drill by now...

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[Darin Jordan]

And, with most of the hardware pre-mounted and ready to assemble, I used the time this past week to primer, paint, and clear, several hulls, including this one. Loving how it turned out. White Polyester primer, Autoair Pearlized White base-coat, then Pearlized Lime Green color, all finished off with PPG 2042 Automotive Clear... POP!!

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[Flying Scotsman]

Love that lime green Darin. I have painted a few hulls in a similar colour. Your work as usual is stellar. An interesting project and nice to see a 26" hull being reborn with mods to original design. I trust that the baby will live up to expectations.

Douggie

[kfxguy]

Awesome looking little boat. For some reason I seem to like smaller boats vs large ones

[Darin Jordan]

Awesome looking little boat. For some reason I seem to like smaller boats vs large ones

Much easier to fit into the car...

Making a smaller boat go relatively fast is much more challenging that a larger one, especially in the very limited power classes.

People have made fun of me for years for spending so much time and $$$ doing N1 SAW boats... Think 45mph is "easy"... try doing it with a ROAR Stock 17.5T on 2S in a Mono...

[Darin Jordan]

Alright! Update.

Ran her for her maiden voyage using a standard P-LTD AQ2030 system on 4S 5000mAh. PLENTY of power to highlight all the setup flaws.

By the end of the day, however, I actually finished a P-LTD Offshore heat with it, so I'm happy about that!

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[Darin Jordan]

And, so with the initial testing and setup done... time to convert over for N2-Mono.

Power: Neu 1515
ESC: CC ICE200
RX: Spektrum MR4000
Bat: Thunder Power Magna 70C 2S 5000mAh (x2)

All setup and ready to go racing!

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[kfxguy]

Drool!

[Darin Jordan]

UPDATE: 2016 NAMBA Nationals N2-Mono National Champion! :)

Hey guys. Just a quick follow-up. Learned a couple of things about how I setup monos that may have been hampering my oval racing for some time now. Not definitive, but just a hunch...

First, the turn fins were NOT nearly large enough. I added some HUGE ones and the boat really came into it's own. HOWEVER....


This may be an issue with me offsetting the driveline. Especially in this hull, which has the driveline offset a bit more than others.

The boat was having issues with lifting the transom out of the water when leaning hard into a right-hand turn. I tried all kinds of adjustments (rudder, tabs, fins, etc.) but nothing seemed to help.

While staring at the transom, it occurred to me that the offset prop may be lifting the KEEL out of the water when turning in. That would make sense, since the keel needs to be in the water for the boat to turn effectively. It got much better when I added a HUGE turn fin, but still was never quite right.

I observed that other boats, which didn't have any offset, seemed to corner smoother, especially on turn-in entry.

I'm going to remount the motor/driveline in this boat to center it and that'll give me a direct comparison to see if my theory is correct.

Otherwise, the boat was a rocket, and held off a strong field of Delta Force 26's to win the 2016 National Championship in N2-Mono, which is pretty cool.

I think it could be much faster, if I could get it more solid in the turns. We'll find out!

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