Trying to get back into the hobby...

[jdewolftx]

Hi...my name is Jeff, and I ran Sport 42 in Northern California for many years in the late 80s and early 90s. After college I shifted to airplanes and now mostly focus on Giant Scale planes. I was visiting my father last fall and we attended the NAMBA nationals. It has got me thinking that I might want to get a boat and try and get back into the sport. I have reached out to my local club here in Dallas. But I have a few questions.

I am interested in getting a catamaran. Perhaps a twin (just seems like fun). What class would that be? I read through the NAMBA rulebook. Would that be T-Class? Or maybe a better way to phrase this is what class should I plan on racing in for a twin catamaran? What brand hulls do people favor in this size? Would this be like a TFL Cheetah or Genesis? I saw the Blackjacks as well. But in that case would you then need to do a bunch of mods to get it to be competitive? I remember Aeromarine as a popular brand a long time ago, but I see that they are kind of getting re-established, so I wasn't sure. Any input here is appreciated.

Finally, do most people who run a twin setup, run each drive system on 5S or 6S? I am very familiar with this side of things as I have built many 12S and 14S airplanes.

This is enough to get me going. I can use the search function afterwards to find out the rest. I look forward to getting back into it.

Thanks in advance.

[oscarel]

Hello Jeff, welcome to Dallas! Are you planning on racing with us here or somewhere else? What size cat are you looking at? We have open classes on Sunday and it would need to be comparable to a gas boat, so 40+". We are light on electrics here but there's HOTMB in Katy that run quite a few different classes. We will be out this Sunday at noon for a couple hrs if you want to stop by.

Oscar

[tbonemcniel]

The general breakdown is as follows. The letter denotes the hull length (minus hardware) and upper voltage limit. Then there are hull types. You can pretty much mix and match to get a class, but as Oscar is noting, just because you have a boat for a class, doesn't mean you'll have anyone local to race against!

So a P Catamaran would be up to 34" long, powered by up to 4S LiPo.
A Q Catamaran would be up to 40" long, powered by up to 6S LiPo.
A T Catamaran would be up to 60" long, powered by up to 10S LiPo.

Any of those can be single or twin motored. For battery voltage and capacity limits, it is what is seen by the ESC(s). So P for example, limit is 4S and 10,000 mAh. You can accomplish this with two 2S 10,000 mAh LiPo's in series, parallel'd to the two ESC's in a twin. Or with two 4S 5,000 mAh batteries, one for each ESC (or parallel'd together). Or four 2S 5,000 mAh packs, two in series to each ESC (and then parallel'd together if you want). Any way you want to do it. But the ESC(s) in total, can see no more than 4S voltage and 10,000 mAh.

The only cat class you can't run a twin in, is P-Limited. That is single motor.

Another thing to note, while the NAMBA rules don't differentiate between singles and twins, some clubs do. Here at HOTMBC, we split the P Catamaran into P Cat Single and P Cat Twin, partially because the class was filling up and we were having to split the heat anyway, and that was the logical divider.

[jdewolftx]

Thank you both for the speedy reply. I live not too far from Carrollton, so I was definitely hoping to run in Dallas as my "homebase". As for size, I tend to like bigger, that is why I fly 120cc and higher airplanes! BUT...the more important thing is to actually have others to race against, so I guess I am flexible when it comes to size. Thanks for the explanation on the voltage, I wasn't sure how multiple power plants were counted but this makes sense. Oscar - I will try and come on down this weekend. It is supposed to be a nice day, might as well take advantage of it.

[oscarel]

Thank you both for the speedy reply. I live not too far from Carrollton, so I was definitely hoping to run in Dallas as my "homebase". As for size, I tend to like bigger, that is why I fly 120cc and higher airplanes! BUT...the more important thing is to actually have others to race against, so I guess I am flexible when it comes to size. Thanks for the explanation on the voltage, I wasn't sure how multiple power plants were counted but this makes sense. Oscar - I will try and come on down this weekend. It is supposed to be a nice day, might as well take advantage of it.

Looking forward to meeting you. You can check out the signup sheet for the district races on JRCBD.com.

[paulejr]

Or take a look at the Zonda Carbon Fiber 42 twin motor ... claims out of the box at 105+ MPH

[Alfa Spirit]

MHZ Mystic 114, 2 x 6S to 2 x 8S setup





TFL Hobby GENESIS, 2 x 4S or 2 x 5S setup

[jdewolftx]

Cool. Thanks for the ideas. The MHZ looks really cool.