Aquacraft UL-1 Superior

[jmsteward16]

Aquacraft UL-1 For Sale. I have put about 40 runs on this boat all on 4S. Selling my boats as I live in New Mexico and there just aren't many places to run them and I have a newborn daughter so she now gets my hobby time :). Boat is in great condition and completely stock except for the grim racer prop. Has a MR200 receiver in it. When I bought the boat new, the speed control went out which is why the white canopy is brown on the inside (See Picture). Aquacraft sent me a brand new ESC which was installed and has been working great for several years. I noticed they changed the main capacitor (it is much bigger) on the new design. The boat hit a stick on its 2nd run in the pond and it cracked hull near the rudder mount. I sanded and repaired the hull with epoxy and remounted the rudder. The Fiberglass just cracked in the accident, it did not pull the inserts out of the hull. It runs perfect after the fix and is much stronger than stock (See Picture). I am an Engineer and meticulous about care and upkeep. I have always kept flex cable greased and checked all fasteners. Boat has never been raced. I am asking $225 plus shipping. I can let you know shipping cost if you provide a zip code. I will include tracking and delivery confirmation. Please ask me any questions you might have. Does not come with batteries, radio, or stand.

-Michael

[CraigP]

I can offer $240, all in, shipped to OK.

[jmsteward16]

Hey Craig,

You got a deal, $240 Shipped. I will PM you PayPal info.

[jmsteward16]

Sold to CraigP. Payment received. Boat is packaged up and will be shipped tomorrow.

Thanks Craig!

[CraigP]

UL-1 Update: I bought this boat from Michael with the noble intent of rigging it out and selling it to a friend of mine here in Tulsa. It would be his first boat, and since I was so close to making this my first FE boat, thought it would be a good place to begin. Well, I got it out on the water today, the weather is beautiful for today, so I took advantage of it. I have to tell you, this boat is a kick in the ass and seriously rocks! It’s gusty today, up to 12-15mph, so the water had a chop on it. That boat just tore over the water! It and some difficulty with the wind coming across it sideways, but I think that’s a challenge all hydros face.

I did some minor work to it. Adjusted the turn fin (it didn’t have enough lean to it) and sharpened the leading edge. Put all metal screws in all 3 positions to hold it as good as its going to get. Put all metal on the rudder too. I would rather have those pieces hold their true position, my water is very safe to run on, no floaties at all. I checked the strut depth and it was set correctly going off the bottom as a reference. I mean, the last 40% of the bottom was parallel to the water. But that left a whopping 5-1/2 to 6 degrees of AOA on the sponsons! I’m just not comfortable with that... So I dropped the strut to get the angle to 4 degrees. I also added 56g of weight just forward of the back of the sponsons. The CG was a bit behind, that moved it forward by about 3/4”.

I put in a Tactic 325 Receiver, UBEC and my own custom Opto Board. I’ve heard some bad stories about the Aquamarine 60A ESC just letting loose for no reason, I really think it’s the ground loop glitching the uP in the ESC. That board breaks the loop, ran clean as a whistle! You can see it in the pic between the water lines, just aft of the ESC. The UBEC is velcro’d to the side of the tub. I use these micro waterproof connectors on all my boats. Nothing was hot except the batteries, they were about 120 degrees, acceptable. The stock motor and ESC were quite cool.

The boat handles full throttle turns great! Just have to watch that testy Oklahoma wind direction. I had a Grimm 42X55 prop on it. Michael, that prop looked like it had never been sharpened. So I did that and balanced it. Pops on plane like a dream, one full throttle squeeze and she’s up and running! I had 2, 2s batts, 7200ma in series for 4s. Ran about 10 minutes to 3.7v/cell.

Now the difficult part, selling this boat to my buddy.... I really like it!!!

Here’s a pic of the electronics.

[Bp9145]

Craig, simple solution. . . .buy another one and give him the new one. LOL

[CraigP]

Yeah Brian, you have a point... maybe I talk him into buying a another one and I keep this one. You know, once you work on it and see it go, then it really feels like a keeper! What a nice day after so many cold days. BTW, so sorry to get the news on the shooting when I got home... What a sorry situation!

[jmsteward16]

Awesome Craig! You made it a better boat! So glad it is getting used. Thanks again.

[Bp9145]

Yeah Brian, you have a point... maybe I talk him into buying a another one and I keep this one. You know, once you work on it and see it go, then it really feels like a keeper! What a nice day after so many cold days. BTW, so sorry to get the news on the shooting when I got home... What a sorry situation!

That's the problem when you put so much work, not to mention all the consuming time, the trial and effort into building a perfect boat, it's hard to let it go. It seems you have to get a lot of use on it to actually consider letting it go unless you're not happy with the outcome of your hard efforts in the first place. . .then it's easier but when it's a keeper then you have some thinking to do. . .I've been there and that's why I have duplicates of certain boats because I can't let the first one go and so I build another then I like that as much and I can't let that go. . .and so on.LOL I say keep that one and build another and who knows maybe the second time around is even better. . .you have some thinking to do my friend.

[CraigP]

Seems we think along similar lines! Some people just don’t understand, but when hands and mind touch something, and it’s a hobby you love, then bonds form. I got the feelers out on another hull. I think having two makes for some good match play anyway! These boats are fairly cheap in price... I’m going to run again today and try and get some vids. I’m taking the DF Vortex 34 out too. I’ve done a bunch of work to it over the winter, time to try it out. I think the UL-1 was running about 55 yesterday, was very comfortable to drive. I hit my antsy point at about 65, then I have to really concentrate! The Vortex 34 does that with ease... I should have started out last year with the UL-1 then built the Vortex... Oh well, got them both now!