TFL Hobbies "Popeye" Hydro: P-Sport Hydro

[tlandauer]

No it looks like its a piece of epoxied wood in there. I couldn't get shim right so just put turn fin right to hull. I did silicone holes like you said. Going to try it like this tommo. If the boat seemed to be riding down in the water shud I adjust the rigger slightly?

Yes, that was what I meant. You should not have any water in there if you sealed it with silicone. I am sure your second try would correct that.
Forgot to tell you the boat looks great!

[Jlov]

Thx been workin hard on it. So if that first run had rigger flush with top of bracket is my adjustment up so it's higher and not flush with bracket any more?

[Jlov]

Oops just saw your post above....

[tlandauer]

Thx been workin hard on it. So if that first run had rigger flush with top of bracket is my adjustment up so it's higher and not flush with bracket any more?

Yes, the top of the blade will stick out by 1/16" or so, don't remember.

[Jlov]

I got a few runs in this morning and was pleased with how it ran this time. The speed was much better......
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The rigger adjustment def helped as boat was riding much more on top of water this time. Still getting a little moisture inside so gotta figure that out but have another issue now. Boat is pulling hard right constantly. I'm having to adjust rudder position with Tx to keep it going straight which I'm sure is costing me speed. I do not have the shim on turn fin as I never could get in configured correctly. Is this my issue? Going back in thread I read that the rear of sponson is not 90* on these hulls and shim was to correct that. So is that why boat is pulling hard right? Thx Jeff

Also my little flush tube works great....

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[ray schrauwen]

Man I miss Florida... Just got back from there last Wed. 84F and a nice breeze, amazing. Short but, sweet vacation.

Yes the sponsons are not 90* to the center line, so shimming can help. Careful of your Starboard water line, it could get chopped by the prop in bouncy water.

[785boats]

Jlov.
I didn't bother with a shim on mine. I just bent the bracket to make it run parallel with the centre line of the hull. Add some silicone sealer to the face of the bracket & in the holes before you bolt the bracket on. that will stop the water problem.

My hull also started to split along the sponson seams. All I did was carefully wick some medium CA glue along them a couple of times. They're still holding up.

Tried a different motor in mine the other weekend. A SSS 4074 2200kv. Still spinning the Y547 but comes in cooler than the TFL 4082 2200kv motor did, & is a bit faster I think. No numbers. Just sight & feel only.

The secret with these motors is that although they are a 4 pole winding motor the rotor is a 6 pole magnet set up. Most other motors on the market are a 4 pole rotor I think. They claim a 20% increase in torque. Seems about right to me.

Here's a clip with it. A bit erratic, but after I adjusted the strut & turn fin, the subsequent runs were a bit better.

[Brushless55]

Looks great!!

[ron1950]

thanks paul... not famular with sss motors but I do know tp motors are inexpensive and run cooler etc....

[Jlov]

Yes thought about bending bracket but I have the upgraded Kintec bracket and it is thicker and does not look like it would bend that easily. I just can't tolerate how hard boat is pulling to right. I'm having to keep rudder well off of center just to get boat running straight..

[Brushless55]

thanks paul... not famular with sss motors but I do know tp motors are inexpensive and run cooler etc....

I have 3 of them and love em!

[Jlov]

Sad news....we'll for me anyways. Took the Popeye out for a few runs today in a lake behind hotel where I'm staying this week. Was running good but then hit a chop and boat flipped. It's a big lake and wind was blowing towards opposite side so I decided to jump in and try and swim to it. I got about half way and my girlfriend started screaming from shore that a alligator was swimming towards me. So I swam to shore as fast as I could. She ran and got camcorder before she could turn it on gator nosed up to boat and flipped at it with his nose. I got camcorder turned on and got about 10 mins of him stalking around boat. I could see boat was taking on water somehow cause transom was under water at this point. After five mins boat went under and just about 4 inches of both sponsons were bobbing out of water last time I saw it. It had gotten dark then. I'll post the video when I get home on Friday as I'm on my IPad this week. If boat was floating with just sponsons out of water I'm praying in morning I can find the boat on other side of lake... Can't believe this happened. Just hope I don't lose the boat. Adding insult to injury is I had placed my new iPhone in hull to record speed. Been a bad day!!!!!!!

[ray schrauwen]

Thank God you're alive!! No boat is worth your life.

[ron1950]

every square inch of my boat has pool noodle floatation....I akso tape the hatch witch stops all the water.....don't relay on hatch locks and foam etc to stop water...bummer about the boat///with any luck it may be still floating tomorrow....where are you anyway? I hate gators and if I had my way we would all be wearing gator skin shoes and all the women gator skin hand bags.... its gotton to the point that its unsafe to swim in any freash water lake in fla ala la amd ms for sure

[Jlov]

Yea agreed Ray. But this was first boat I built and I really can't afford to replace it right now. I'm assuming if air is in pockets in Sponsons that it hopefully won't sink to bottom and will float to one side of lake. I'll be out there at first light trying to find it that's for sure. No idea what this alligators interest was in boat. In looking at video on camcorder just now the boat and him look very similar in water. So maybe he thought it was another alligator. Not sure but he swam circles around it for over 30 mins. Almost like he was stalking it before the kill. Just hoping he left it alone once it got dark. I just couldn't see it anymore. I'm just in disbelief this happened. Hope I can simply walk out there in morning and find it!