whats the future of FE boating

[ozzie-crawl]

this comes up now and then in threads, so i decided to see what people thought on the future of FE boating
i have seen people mention it and i have had conversations with people over this,mainly that a lot of our hulls were made for nitro or gas power
i see a lot of people say XXX hull wont handle over a given speed
i take this as it was probably designed for a abc motor so there design and lift characteristics are made for the limited power available
now that brushless and lipo is the norm and battry c ratings keep going up and more powerful motors made will the hull designs change or if they design hulls that are happy to run at high speeds going to be real dogs at lower speeds
any thoughts

[Steven Vaccaro]

Big and bigger. The trend is towards larger hulls. Personally I'm tickled pink that I can run small boats with small cheap motors, cheap packs, and run them really fast.

[ozzie-crawl]

yes they do seem to be getting a lot bigger, they wouldnt fit in my car
seems to me that even they average build now runs in the high 40s low 50s and rtrs in the mid 40s
what would it have taken 10 years ago to get that speed
my first FE (if you could call it fe) was a f1 supremacy tunnel hull running a graupner motor on 12-14 cells, i thought it was fast as hell,looking back it wouldnt have kept up with a stock sv27 in a straight line

[ozzie-crawl]

oops

[ED66677]

To me the future of electric RC (of any kind, boat, car, plane heli) will be in different power source for several reason, run time is quiet limited, batteries requires a minimum of attention and descent charger and big/bigger hulls require a lot of/more power. On top of this the world is going Green and I don't think the BS we hear about hybrid cars is really planet friendly... neither are our Lipo's!
Fuel Cell!... as it start to show up http://www.gizmag.com/go/7122/

[ozzie-crawl]

i was thinking along the lines of methanol fuel cells,like the ones designed for lap tops

[ED66677]

yep methanol (DirectMethanolFuelCell) is certainly safer and seems more efficient than hydrogen!
Go gassers... keep the tank and fill it, the new engine is coming

[rockwerks]

As LiFe technology progresses and hybrid cars become more prevalent we will see battery cost drop and run times rise

Now back on track. Simon said that the esc's look alike but has not tried any but the mystery. Even if the esc's are made in the same factory they are usually made to certain specs for each buyer, so even if made in the same place the quality could be much different.

90% of all chinese made vehicle mounted winches are made in the same factory but the quality of parts used varies greatly depending on the brand.

[properchopper]

Good thread ! Rather than try to predict what's coming, here's my wish list :

#1] Hulls designed specifically for FE. How many times have we heard " that hull was designed for lower speeds, it gets squirelly at anything higher than __ mph."
Like many of us, I'd like to see a dedicated 30-33 inch FE hydro.

#2] Speed controls with more internal protection and self-diagnostics.

#3] More runtime - a fairly open subject for sure

Unfortunately, one thing that handicaps us is the small market share that FE represents. The R&D costs to develop FE-specific products may not be amortised by projected sales penetration. Specialty manufacturers must look at the return-on-the-dollar cost ratios before investing R&D time and money if they want to stay solvent. That's why FE often gets placed last in line behind r/c cars and planes/helis. Just ask Castle, although it seems we FE's are now getting more support from them.

[Flying Scotsman]

Good thread ! Rather than try to predict what's coming, here's my wish list :

#1] Hulls designed specifically for FE. How many times have we heard " that hull was designed for lower speeds, it gets squirelly at anything higher than __ mph."
Like many of us, I'd like to see a dedicated 30-33 inch FE hydro.

#2] Speed controls with more internal protection and self-diagnostics.

#3] More runtime - a fairly open subject for sure

Unfortunately, one thing that handicaps us is the small market share that FE represents. The R&D costs to develop FE-specific products may not be amortised by projected sales penetration. Specialty manufacturers must look at the return-on-the-dollar cost ratios before investing R&D time and money if they want to stay solvent. That's why FE often gets placed last in line behind r/c cars and planes/helis. Just ask Castle, although it seems we FE's are now getting more support from them.

A great response, may I add

Batteries, ESC's and motors that claim specifications they can not meet under real FE boating or other RC/hobby conditions.

Douggie

[Ub Hauled]

Now back on track. Simon said that the esc's look alike but has not tried any but the mystery. Even if the esc's are made in the same factory they are usually made to certain specs for each buyer, so even if made in the same place the quality could be much diff......

Brian, this is not the ESC thread... this is the new thread that Scott started.

Unfortunately, one thing that handicaps us is the small market share that FE represents. The R&D costs to develop FE-specific products may not be amortised by projected sales penetration. Specialty manufacturers must look at the return-on-the-dollar cost ratios before investing R&D time and money if they want to stay solvent. That's why FE often gets placed last in line behind r/c cars and planes/helis. Just ask Castle, although it seems we FE's are now getting more support from them.

Tony, valid points, it has been the case that FE is the dirty word even in our own boating community. FE boaters I believe have gotten respect from many and some even converted to electricity as power source... I think ESC companies consider us a development guideline... if the ESC can take an FE boat application it can take anything.
In the Future I would like to see better FE hulls, although that would mean a redesign on all types of structural and ground effects of a hull. The speeds that FE boats are achieving these days are ludicrous and expect that todays hulls will be able to support this kinda power, is even more so. FE boating is at the edge of performance and we should be looking into developing real world applications from it.
With that said, we also need to figure out how to get the nostalgia series we have and love, to cope with all that power that it is carrying, after all, those are the classes most of us run... so in fact we need two things, brand new R&D for the future hulls and adaptation of our current hulls.

[NitroVal]

I wanna see on-the-fly adjustability, like on the big 1:1 boats..... Trim tab and driveline angles you can can adjust with your transmitter. Maybe even some ballast tanks that fill automatically at a given speed to help keep your boat on the water.

[sailr]

I'm with Steven. Good hulls, running cheap motors and esc's at close to the same speeds as people spending 5 times as much! In other words, SPEC classes. 4S lipos with supervee, UL-1, proboat motors and esc's. Or non-spec, just for fun with Feigao, etc. motors. Just as much thrill running them as my bigger, badder, faster 4P mono with NEU motor and CC esc.

We need MORE hulls designed for this power setup. We DON'T need any more 24" hydro hulls please! 27" and bigger!

[sailr]

Not that hard to set up adjustable trim tabs. I remember back in the 80's somebody made them that worked from a servo. As far as water ballast? NO THANKS! I have enough trouble keeping water OUT of my boats as it is!

I wanna see on-the-fly adjustability, like on the big 1:1 boats..... Trim tab and driveline angles you can can adjust with your transmitter. Maybe even some ballast tanks that fill automatically at a given speed to help keep your boat on the water.

[properchopper]

Please understand that I'm not trying to be negative here, but consider the plight of the hull builders who've put time and effort into a good design only to have it splashed. H&M, MHZ, and even Randy and Brian have danced with this. Knowing that this is a real possibility may often inhibit the best of intentions from such designer/builders. The DF and HOR boats are a good example of this. Just a thought.