Mini Hull ?

[Steven Vaccaro]

What size boat is considered a Mini?

[blackcat26]

Good question. In my mind it's anything under 20"

[NativePaul]

The official Naviga Mini ECO class is under 450mm (17.71") hull length. Mini Mono, Mini Hydro and Mini Oval are max 450mm too and though are not yet official Naviga classes I hear they are spreading like wildfire across the world and hope they will be ratified by Naviga before long giving the rest of the world a cheap but exciting entry level class. Over here the bigger clubs run separate mini mono and mini hydro classes and the smaller clubs that don't get enough boats for each class consistently run Mini Oval instead which lumps all surface drive minis in together.

[Fluid]

Some information from www.microhydros.com is below. Trent did not believe in "length limits" for micros.

http://www.microhydros.com/manifesto.htm

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[Steven Vaccaro]

http://www.microhydros.com/manifesto.htm

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Some interesting ideas there.
I would have to say that the advent of lipo would have changed some of them a tad.

I would love to see a smaller class. NOT ECO, those things are scary ugly. Mini deep-vee's, cats and hydros are lots of fun and the cost and maintenance is so easy.

[NativePaul]

Thats a good article and one that I have surprisingly not read before, the consideration for other voltages per cell shows great forward thinking from Trent, but I'm sure he did not foresee LiPo's combination of a fourfold increase in energy density over NiCd and lack of a form factor that would currently make a total boat weight limit grossly unfair. If we take Trent's example of saving 30g from a micro hull for a 5% total weight decrease, it meant very little in Trent's day as it wasn't enough difference to step up from cp1300s to cp1700s so there was the same power available just a little less weight to push and the race would still be competitive, but these days LiPos are available in a myriad of sizes and weights, and 30g should get you at least an extra 2s 500mAh even on the weightiest of cells which is a very significant amount of extra power, and thats not to mention what he calls lead sleds at 200g, my avatar boat was my last commercial mini hull, an 18" cat, a gelcoatless epoxy glass experiment in light weight by far the lightest hull from the moulder and it weighed 205g deseamed with cut down freeboard and joined before paint, not what I would call a lead sled at all (average CSM/poly layup of that same hull from the moulder was about 400g), but it would see me with 60g less battery than Trent's average hull and 90g less than his superlight version giving me 1000-1500mAh less which would make the commercial hull hideously uncompetitive.

He also lists hardware as 50g for all surface drive boats and I can think of no commercial hardware that would even approach getting close to that weight, so the average Joe loses even more mAh and power there, meaning that not only do you need to make your own hull but hardware too to be able to compete on a maximum weight basis.

To me the only way to maintain parity and have truly competitive racing is with a set runtime and battery voltage and capacity limit. A battery weight limit like we have here comes second as it ensures everyone is on the same playing field at least even if it isn't level, but it has the advantage of being easy to tech.

[Basstronics]

What size boat is considered a Mini?

Randy @ BBY has some micro stuff. I have the Mini Patriot and its a handfull with 3000 kV and 2S...

I also have the Micro Hydro but unfortunately I think I messed it up beyond repair...

I have two Hydromites and well as a "Small Bolt" Hydro. The Small Bolt is pretty cool and handles awesome.

I would classify all of these as mini's.

[Rumdog]

I'd consider anything under 25" mini. Under 18" micro. LOL. That's just my opinion from running small boats. No math required.

[Steven Vaccaro]

"Reason: gah, spent an hour and a quarter writing a post and Steven sneaks in and says it all in 2 short sentences while im typing."

Ya but you said it far more detailed then I.

[martin]

I run a Mini / Micro or what ever it qualifies as that is 15.25" or 390mm long on a 3600kv outrunner on 3s on an Octura balanced & sharpened X435 prop, Its lively so to speak but great fun. I now only run mini / micro boats. Thanks Martin.

[ray schrauwen]

Some interesting ideas there.
I would have to say that the advent of lipo would have changed some of them a tad.

I would love to see a smaller class. NOT ECO, those things are scary ugly. Mini deep-vee's, cats and hydros are lots of fun and the cost and maintenance is so easy.

I would say the DF23 & other hulls that used to be good for N1 or N2 mono would be considered "mini".

I would say anything less than 20" is considered "micro".

At least IMO.

[ray schrauwen]

I went away for 5 days and the DF23 hull only look almost sold out.

I didn't know until today they were in stock... dang... no picture because Steve is most likely very busy from the Nats & all.

Nice Steve!

Do the scoops come joined?

[Steven Vaccaro]

I went away for 5 days and the DF23 hull only look almost sold out.

I didn't know until today they were in stock... dang... no picture because Steve is most likely very busy from the Nats & all.

Nice Steve!

Do the scoops come joined?

Only one came in so far. And I listed it today. Will take pics later. Scoops are not attached.

[sjslhill]

Trent's idea was to have everything in a suitcase.....boat, radio, batteries and charger.

[Rumdog]

Yo Steve, Will you be able to get the mini Sniper in that bright green color that DF offers?