TERRIBLE Sank my boat:(

[JMSCARD]

About three hours ago I capsized my new raptor pickle fork hydro with a ul-1 motor, hydra 120 with extra caps installed,(2) 30c polyquest 2s batts, lipo reciever pack, and a 2.4ghz futaba reciever aboard... Within 20 seconds it was gone....I kayaked out but it wad long gone It went under about 100 yards of the front porch of my familys camp that sits directly on the water here in vermont... It is way to cold to go swimming as the ice just left the lake last week... I am going to get a wetsuit and go looking next week... I beleive the water is about 25 feet deep where she went down my question is what of this boat do you think may be salvageable? I know the $85 a piece lipos will be gone... This was mike martins pickle fork... This was my first run with the boat...It wad a "sick" boat It had flotation... I guess not enough... This was my biggest rc loss to date... Paid good money for what went down....

Do boats usually stay close to where they went under in a lake? Do the esc's ever live through this? The motor? The boat will be under for a week before I can get back to look for it as it's a 2 hr ride from home... I looked fir it forever... Just too deep? And other methods of retrieval that you gents have used?

[RIPFENCE]

sorry about your boat..a week is a long time to be underwater..the problem you will be facing is rust and corrosion taking place inside your motor..it does not take long for it to happen..i sank one of my boats in 8 feet of water it was under for 1/2 hour..i dried everything out for over a week and the boat still ran after..the battery finally junked out 4 runs after..your esc may live if you dry it out to the extreme and do not put any power to it for at least a week..get some corrosion x for your esc and wash out your motor with wd40 really well..i would not even attempt to do anything with the batteries..25 feet down is pretty deep. the boat could travel twenty feet in any direction before it hit the bottom

[BHChieftain]

Did you have any flotation aids in the hull (foam or pool noodle?)?
-Chief

[JMSCARD]

Had foam in it that mike Martin had put in.... Must have been not enough foam? Went under quick.... Taped off hatch and didn't go over hard but maybe it ripped open hatch?

[Fluid]

Actually the boat can cover a hundred yards if it was running, or got wet and decided to run...they will run under the surface quite well - even if filled with water. Even if it didn't run, if it had close to neutral buoyancy it can drift quite aways on underwater currents. Chances are it is close to the sinking point and it is worth looking for it, but no guarantees.

Damage will depend on the water quality. Highly alkaline, acidic or saline water can corrode electrical components in a matter of hours. One SAW rigger which sank in LA a few years ago was salvaged 18 hours later and the Schulze 40-160 was very badly corroded and junked. I wouldn't count on getting anything usable back other than the hardware and the hull. Then if you are lucky and can salvage the motor or receiver, more's the better.

The most important thing for you will be to find out why it sank. Did the packs come loose and knock the hatch off? Hull breach? Find this out and make changes so that it doesn't happen again.

If you dive for the boat, be careful and don't dive alone! More than one FE boater has drowned trying to retrieve his model - remember it's just a toy boat.



.

[Diegoboy]

If I were you, I'd get my "cast net" out of the shed and throw it out to catch the boat. a cast net will snatch just about anything that is in it's reach, even things on the bottom.
If you throw the net on top of the boat, you'll get it back, just let it sink, then pull it back slowly

[ray schrauwen]

Now thats fishing!!!!

[Jeff Wohlt]

If you can find someone with a good fish finder portable graph you might be able to see it on the bottom and then go after it. Like Jay said, it can travel under water. Even if dead when it goes down it can go down like a piece of paper drops out of the sky...back and forth.

That sucks, James! Don't take any chances.

I hear my bro bought the truck.

[ozzie-crawl]

i lost my first FE in about 20 feet of water,was a week before i found it,luckily it was fresh water only thing i lost was the servo.

[JMSCARD]

Thanks for the info gents... It was fresh water... as thats all we have here in vermont, and the lake it went down in is one of the cleanest lakes anywhere.... its known to be, I am dying to get back and look for it again...... I am most interested in saving the hull, esc..... hopefully the canopy didn't get dragged off a ways if it did fall off the boat.... and thanks for the info and tip to not dive alone, and I won't.... you're right it is only a boat.... but I am a rather good swimmer and need to try.... the water just cleared of ice too so there are not many boats in the water yet..., my father in law was feeling terrible for me.... I told him its a hobby, and like my r/c planes if you have never crashed one, you haven't flown hard or long enough.... I guess that saying can go with boats now too... Thanks for everyones help, and wish me luck, The water was rougher then I should have been playing in, I just couldn't help myself..... and the raptor was eating up the chop for the most part, I just hope I can find whats left to it!

JMSCARD

[JMSCARD]

lost...

Thanks for the info gents... It was fresh water... as thats all we have here in vermont, and the lake it went down in is one of the cleanest lakes anywhere.... its known to be, I am dying to get back and look for it again...... I am most interested in saving the hull, esc..... hopefully the canopy didn't get dragged off a ways if it did fall off the boat.... and thanks for the info and tip to not dive alone, and I won't.... you're right it is only a boat.... but I am a rather good swimmer and need to try.... the water just cleared of ice too so there are not many boats in the water yet..., my father in law was feeling terrible for me.... I told him its a hobby, and like my r/c planes if you have never crashed one, you haven't flown hard or long enough.... I guess that saying can go with boats now too... Thanks for everyones help, and wish me luck, The water was rougher then I should have been playing in, I just couldn't help myself..... and the raptor was eating up the chop for the most part, I just hope I can find whats left to it!

JMSCARD

[JMSCARD]

Scuba team

OK you guys are gonna laugh... I have OCD...

I just hired a scuba team to go retrieve my boat.... I couldn't take the thought of it down at the bottom of the lake any longer!! They are going today too... so maybe they will be able to salvage it.... Ill let you know how it turns out....

[Gerwin Brommer]

keep my fingers crossed.

[JMSCARD]

Great news the divers found it!

Took an hour of searching and the boat was 100yds downwind from the place it went under..... I was and still am at work but my girls parents were there... they said the reciever light was blinking and they unhooked that battery... Im sure the lipos are still hooked to the esc because he doesn't know how to unhook them .... and he coaches basketball and he had a game so he isn't at home still so I cant walk him though unhooking the lipos otherwise I would.... hopefully the esc can still be saved??? is it bad that its drying now with the lipos still connected?

[JMSCARD]

Great news the divers found it!

Took an hour of searching and the boat was 100yds downwind from the place it went under..... I was and still am at work but my girls parents were there... they said the reciever light was blinking and they unhooked that battery... Im sure the lipos are still hooked to the esc because he doesn't know how to unhook them .... and he coaches basketball and he had a game so he isn't at home still so I can walk him though unhooking the lipos.... hopefully the esc can still be saved??? is it bad that its drying now with the lipos still connected?