Excited new BJ26 Owner

[Brushless55]

I'd modify that to "cats should not need turn fins", the truth is that some do. The BJ26 suffers from a narrow, shallow tunnel which hurts turning, and very dull sponson edges. The bottom design isn't the best either. The best turning racing cat I've had is the AC Boats 'Lightning' cat. It will turn inside any MeanMachine anywhere, and the MM turns great. But for racing you don't need to turn on a dime, in fact that can be a problem. With 70-foot diameter turns, or even 35-foot turns, the BJ should work fine. Just turn down the steering rate....

If you haven't read this yet, go for it: http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...ead.php?t=3044




.

I would love to take on your cat with my MM on the turning thing! just for fun..
My MM turns on its self!
I've never sean a cat turn like this thing

[Boogie]

I've read through that thread pretty extensively. Obviously, everyone sets theirs up a hair different and everyone is trying to find that sweet spot between handling and performance. As far as dialing out the steering, I have the steering rate turned way down and when mine flipped the other day, it was making a pretty wide turn. MOST cats shouldn't have turn fins, the BJ26 should have a better hull design on the bottom.

I'm not entirely sure why proboat designed the bottom the way they did, it's like they attempted to reinvent the wheel with an already proven hull design by softening the edges on the wrong sides of the sponsons, then add turn fins to correct its handicap. The simple truth about it is, yes you can turn your steering way down and not have to worry about it....but, personally I'd rather work on it and get it turning like it should and not have to swing way out to turn just to keep it from spinning out.

Banging a wheel back and forth has nothing to do with it either (at least not in my case and I suspect a large amount of others), it's flipping or spinning out while making a wide or narrow turn and hitting a ripple and the rear of the hull breaking loose, only to catch the outside sponson and/or turn fin and causing it to flip or spin out. It probably won't ever turn on a dime and it doesn't need to really, but it should be able to turn better than it is right now. I'm not going to give up on this hull just yet, I love the design and straight line performance, especially after moving the batteries back and inch or two from the stock location. It really loosened up and came alive with that simple mod, I can just imagine how well it will do with a new prop and lipos.

I'm going to angle my turn fins in slightly more to see if it makes a difference or helps the turning, if not then I'm going to remove them and fill in the rear step and put some hard right angles on the inside of the sponsons. While I'm at it I'll probably order a set of running hardware for a BJ 26 SS, remove the red ano and bolt it up to the BJ26 and see how it does. It should be the proper size or dimensions it needs, and for less than $35, it's a lot cheaper than the Fullers.

[v-spec]

Every hull might be a little different but with the new hardware dialed in I can turn 100% throttle in either direction now with no problems. I was even able to do it through the wake of one of the 1/8th scale gas hydro's yesterday with no problem. I'm not going to bother making any hull mods like I had planned as I am very happy with how it runs now.

If you want to save some trouble removing the red anodizing on the .18SS hardware just order it for a formula fastech instead and it comes silver already.

[Boogie]

Yeah, I'm wanting mine to be able run to run like that, through various wake sizes like in a racing situation. I looked at the Formula Fastech hardware, but the bracket that mounts the rudder seems to be a bit shorter. Will the length or distance of the rudder from the transom make much of a difference? I know the Fuller's sits out there a pretty good distance.