The best way for boat retreival

[Bduncan]

Keith, i hear your boats do not flip or malfunction.

[Bduncan]

Not near as cool as our ACME lake drain plug

[Bduncan]

If fishing rods are your method of retrieval,
Run a piece of monofilament from the nose to the back on top of the boat. More surface area
For the hook to grab.

[Bduncan]

Or should i say top side from the bow to the stern.

[Johnnysplits]

Ready for the crew to take her out. 001.jpg This works for me

[Southwest]

Johnnysplits, beautiful tug. Where did you get the tug?

[Johnnysplits]

Johnnysplits, beautiful tug. Where did you get the tug?

It's the Southampton from Arctic Hobby. Cost me $170 shipped as a RTR. However, I swapped out the stock electronics(except for the motors), added 1 1/2lbs. of lead ballast, repositioned the steering linkage to get max throw on the rudders, assembled and painted a couple of crew figures then weathered it. It has twin 280 brushed motors that pull good on a 2s lipo. I was playing with the idea of changing out the stock props for a pair of kort props from the prop shop...but $100 for the pair plus shipping. I still have to build a scale crane barge for it. I have the crane that needs to be weathered and detailed as well.

[skeeler]

Johnny,

That Southampton tug looks like fun in its own right. How was the performance on the stock electronics? Does it have one ESC for the two motors? Did you upgrade to two? What did you use for the ESC(s)?

[Johnnysplits]

I've only tested this in the tub...haven't had it in open water yet. I scrapped the stock electronics because quite a few people were having problems with range, glitching, and some burned esc's. I ripped the stuff out soon as I got everything out of the box. I bought an esc off ebay for like $35. It works great. A lot of people have installed dual esc's but i'm gonna see for myself how the handling is with just using the rudders. I certainly don't plan on doing any kind of competitions with this thing. There is a scale model boat club not too far from me that I would bring this to just for some relaxing boat operation. If you're interested, there's a pretty large thread on this boat at RCG in the scale boats section. Quite a few vids on youtube as well. One guy has his pulling a 120lb. barge around his pool. I was only going to weigh my barge down to 50lbs so it's easier to transport in my car.

[tlandauer]

Costa Concordia Retrieval.jpg

[Mike Caruso]

I only run boats with large motors (high metal content), and I use a large ACME magnet from the shore to pull it in when in need of rescue.

Keith do you all the fish hooks like I do?

[Southwest]

No fish hooks. I use a fairly long stiff rod and a closed face reel. The end of line are 4 sliding weights wrapped in duck tape and are in a straight line which help in accurate aiming toward the boat. I put a brace like hook just in front of cover. Reason is incase something goes wrong and bow extends out of water, I can toss line out and still be able to hook on to the boat. Also the rod being stiff seems to be able to toss out further and more accurate. Tennis ball works if you let ball stay in water and you walk around to get lined up to hook it. Hope this helps just one boater which makes my typing worth every letter.

[Cooper]

With summer coming to an end my retrieval system is coming apart. Since beginning of boating season down at the river lot campground I have been employing a small staff of young kids. They have been under the impression they will get to drive the boats if they go get them when I flip them. I'm not sure but I think they are paying attention in school because they have now gone on strike. They are demanding to drive the boats. But the negotiations fell apart when their council reviewed the fine print stating," you can drive the boat someday-but not today" and statement " you can drive the boat tomorrow" with sub note stating "tomorrow " is defined as always being a day away. So I'm not sure what to do now as they are picketing at waters edge.

[Southwest]

Cooper, idea is to build 3 monos called Electrafieds. Easy to build and 22" long. Use car motors like 14t and make hardware. You could have the kids conduct a fund raiser for materials like wood, glue and see if someone can donate car motors they want to get rid of in decent condition. Make a concession to kids, if they break boats, they repair which will happen but also make kids think about response ability of driving. Just a suggestion only!!

[Cooper]

I was kidding about employing small children to be used for retrieval gaff. My lawyer advised against this as in this country there are child labor laws!!?!!!!?? As the famous words of P.T. Barnium," a sucker is born every minuet ".