Set Up for a Race Ready Stock SuperVee 27R

Morning Gang,

Our club www.mmeu.com will be racing a new class this year using the AQ SV27R. This class is going to be a true STOCK/SPEC class. We will be specifying ALL components of the class.

Boat: AquaCraft SuperVee RTR boat
AQ 1800Kv 6 pole motor (included with the boat)
AQ 45amp electronic speed control (included with the boat)

Batteries: 2X AQ GrimRacer 4200mAh 2S Lipo battery packs (using 4S voltage)

Prop: AQ GrimRacer 42X55 prop that will be balanced, sharpened (by an outside source), and kept in possession of the MMEU Club for race days only.

Spirit of the class is as stated: to provide a cost effective and reliable class of racing for all skill levels by controlling the level of performance using reasonable guidelines. Our goal is to encourage equal performance among all boats within a class which will foster and encourage boat tuning and driving ability. Only a select set of well-defined modifications to encourage boat tuning and avoid premature component failure will be allowed. The boat will otherwise remain OEM stock using the OEM stock parts.

With that being said, I thought that I would provide and in-depth look at how I will be getting my boat ready for the race season. They may be RTR boats, but you still need to make sure everything is working properly and you have the proper adjustments necessary to tune that boat. Much of what you see can be applied in some way, shape, or form to any and all boats whether you build or buy a RTR.

Stay Tuned!!!

Well, here are some shots of the boat coming out of the box. Nothing surprising here, there are some minor changes compared to the original SV that I bought several years ago to get started in FE. But, all in all, its the same boat.


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The first thing I do with any new (or used for that matter) is dis-assemble the entire boat.

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I have a few SV27s that I am about to rebuild so I will be watching what you do with interest.

With any boat that has bare or naked wood. I suggest sealing all of it with a good quality marine grade epoxy resin. NO matter how hard you try, eventually you will get water inside of the hull. Coating the wood with epoxy will delay the decay of the wood.

I choose the West Systems brand it’s one of the best on the market http://www.westsystem.com/ss/

Other brand recommendations would be:

SystemThree - http://www.systemthree.com/store/pc/...urpose-c11.htm

Maus Epoxy - http://www.masepoxies.com/

Even hobby grade finishing resin would be fine. Remember though that hobby grade 5min epoxy is NOT water proof. You will be much better off using a 30min expoxy.

Also: it can be a real pain to get epoxy into tight areas and underneath parts. For this I take my acid brush and put a bend in it and try my best to get EVERYTHING coated.

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Next, I started working with the hull bottom. For those of you that don't know, “scuffing” the riding surface of any boat helps to reduce some of the friction between the water. I simply used some 3M “green” to slightly rough up the surface and remove that shinny/sticky surface.

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I am ready to start re-assembling the boat. I noticed during disassembly, the motor couldn’t be removed with taking off the motor coupler. I my opinion that could create some headaches while trying to perform maintenance at the pond or after a race day. So I chose to use a sanding drum attachment on my Dremel tool and open that hole just enough to get the motor/coupler out together.


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Before installing the motor back in, I wanted to relocate one of the water fittings on the motor cooling jacket. I want to keep the inlet as far away from the outlet. I do this to minimize the change of getting an air pocket caught inside of the jacket. I don’t think this is 100% necessary, but it’s something l like to do.


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Another thing I did before getting the motor and motor mount back in is reinstall the water cooler outlet. In an effort to seal as much water out as possible, I use a SMALL amount of Silicon RVT on the surface that mates with the hull. I will usually have some excess on the outer edges and use a Q-tip to clean them up before it cures. It only take a small amount of silicon to make it water tight. Motor mount, motor and cooling line all put back in!


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From here I move to the transom of the boat. One thing I have noticed on all of my RTR boats, the factory doesn’t usually take time to remove burrs or sharp edges after cutting the raw materials. I immediately take my Xacto knife with a #11 blade and clean up the ID edge of the stuffing tube. I also use the same 3M green scotch bright pad using on the bottom to clean up the OD of the brass stuffing tube. While doing all of this I make sure the stinger strut can be installed and removed with no issues. You don’t want any binding at all. This will also help with stinger strut adjustments later. The stuffing tube will need to move inside of the strut as you make angle adjustments.

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Once I am comfortable that everything fits back together as intended, I re-installed the mounting bracket for the stinger strut. If you notice in the pictures, I used the same procedure as the water outlet to seal the mount to the boat transom again minimizing intrusion of water.

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Now I move to the stinger strut itself. Here is where I do a slight modification to the leading edge of the strut. In some cases, it’s possible that (if left unchanged) the strut leading edge is so close to the transom once installed on the bracket, that making angle adjustments could become difficult or impossible do to interference with the boat transom. In short, this just makes sure you don’t run into the issue later at the pond when you’re trying to tune the boat. You can also find information on this in your SV27R owner’s manual on the bottom of page 12.

What I have done is taken my belt sander and sanded the short 1/16-1/8 nub off of the stinger strut leading edge. I would also put a slight round or chamfer on the lower leading edge to minimize water resistance and improve negative angle adjustments on the strut.

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Next up is one of the most important areas to getting ANY boat to perform well and that is the drive line components. The idea is to minimize friction and resistance which creates efficiency. Upon pulling the flex shaft out of the boat, I wiped it down to clean off all the grease from shipping. We all need to understand the flex shaft assemblies for these RTR boats are mass produced and the assemblers may not take a lot of time during the assembly process. These first pictures are of the shaft before I’ve done anything… although this one doesn’t look quite as bad as others I had in the past; it could still use some cleaning up on the coupler end. The coupler end has some solder “slag” if you will and the stub end also has some “slag” that sticks out.



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So, what do I do to clean up the flex shaft? I use my 1” belt sander. I start with the coupler end of the flex shaft and use the belt sander to carefully sand down the solder so that it’s flush with the rest of the outer coil strands of the flex cable. As I get the OD of the flex shaft taken care of I put a nice round or chamfer on the very end of the shaft. This will allow a much smoother assembly and dis-assembly process of inserting/removing the flex shaft to the flex coupler. No sticking, No jamming in or out…

I will also continue down the entire length of the flex shaft making sure to rotate the shaft continually minimizing flat spots on the shaft. What this does is “knocking down” any high spots on the flex and provides a smoother OD of the shaft. You should be able to see in the pictures how the finished product is a little shinier than the picture above. Finally, I make my way down to the solder joint between the stub and the flex. Again, there was excess solder on the OD. I carefully used my belt sander again sanding smoother the excess solder to the OD of the outer cable.


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On the drive dog, I quickly knock down the set screw that is sticking out of the drive dog. Again using my belt sander, I simply sand it so it’s flush with the OD of the drive dog.



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Here is the BIG one and that is working with the brass sleeve bushing the stub shaft rotates on. I see many users asking about this type of system. This system has been used for MANY MANY years by the Nitro/Gas powered boats, and they have some VERY fast boats. If it has worked for them this long it will work fine for us on our FE powered boats. In theory the bushing is supposed to “float” inbetween the brass stuffing tube and the flex stub shaft. BUT, most importantly, there needs to be a clean/slip fit between the stub shaft (it’s rotating, fast) and the brass sleeve bushing (it’s the bearing surface). It needs to support the stub with little resistance, but also not have much if any radial slop. To date, I have never “worn out” a brass sleeve bushing in any boat I have ever owned FE, Nitro, custom build, or RTR. However, with these RTR boats you NEED to take the bushing out of the stuffing tub and make sure the sleeve bushing fits correctly.

First thing I do to check this fit is pulling the sleeve bushing out of the stuffing tube. I have found on these RTR boats that the sleeve bushing likes to “stick” in the stuffing tube. What I do for this is; I carefully chuck the shoulder end of the bushing into my cordless drill and using a green 3M scotch bright pad. This process isn’t going to remove much, if any material, but it will knock down any burs or sharp edges. The Key here is making sure you don’t deform the bushing in the chuck of the drill. Sorry, no pictures on this one. If anyone needs one let me know, I can reproduce the procedure.

Now I move to the fit of the bushing on the stub shaft. Unfortunately, on this particular RTR the fit wasn’t up to my standards. First I had trouble sliding on the bushing and there was some resistance trying to rotate the stub in the bushing. This type of condition translates into increased heat and loose of performance. The thing about these RTR hulls is some of the boats may be just fine, but others may need some work. That’s why you should always check; RTR is a relative term. Well, I had some work to do. For starters I put the threaded end of the stub shaft in my cordless drill, and using the same 3M scotch bright pad I clean off the bearing surface of the stub shaft. Again, this isn’t really removing any material, but it’s cleaning up the surface. Next I put a 3/16 drill bit thru the ID of the bushing. What I found was the drill would go thru, but it seemed the bushing was out of round for some reason. It wasn’t bent at all, but I could feel the resistance in the drill bit too… However, the drill wasn’t removing any material from the bushing. Test fitting again, I still had my problem and I wasn’t happy with the fit. I knew that I needed to do something more drastic.

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Now, at this point I could have probably went out and bought a new sleeve. But, I didn’t want to take the risk of getting another bushing with a poor fit. The next best thing for me to do was go to my local Machine Tool supply store and buy a 3/16” hand ream. These are really handy items to have around. I also keep a 1/4” ream around to for the speedmaster style struts using 1/4” brass stuffing tubes. Anyhow, they are relatively inexpensive meaning they were under $20 each and you simply chuck them into a hand tap (handle) and rotate the ream into the sleeve. When I did mine it ended up removing a decent amount of material. It takes some time and patients because you need to hold the bushing in your hand (fingers) while trying to clean it out with the bushing. Once I worked the bushing using the ream for a while (from both ends) I test fit the bushing onto the stub shaft again; GREAT SUCCESS… It was MUCH better and had a slip fit that was appropriate for an FE boat. My job here is done! (on the drive line of course)


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With the flex shaft, strut, and bushing all working and fit to my approval, I need to check the alignment of the stuffing tube, flex shaft, and motor/collet. On this particular hull the alignment is pretty good. With the flex collet loose, you should be able to push the flex shaft thru the stuffing tube and right into the collet without moving anything (motor or stuffing tube). IF this is a problem on your boat you can try a couple different things to fix it. You can elongate the mounting holes in the motor mount or you can CAREFULLY bend the brass stuffing tube.


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Finishing up the hardware install is where I am at now. I started with the trim tabs. I will be replacing the stock OEM trim tabs with the OSE adjustable trim tabs. This will be the ONLY non-OEM part allowed for our Stock/Spec Club class. Reason being is, I am not a fan and do not want to promote the bending and pushing on the stock trim tabs. Trying to make small equal adjustments is almost impossible and imposes unnecessary stress on the transom using the OEM trim tabs. The OSE tabs bolt right into the stock locations and allow the ability to make fine adjustments a racer needs. Pretty simple here they bolt into the stock locations. I simply use my Silicon like the other places to attempt to minimize water intrusion. You can see I left the tab surface above the boat planning surface. This may need to be adjusted down as I do my performance and handling testing this spring.


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Trim Tabs; not really any magic here. I simply use my files to put a nice sharp leading edge on the fins. Don’t try and take too much material too fast. You can always remove material, but you can’t put it back if you’ve gone too far.


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I reinstalled as stated in previous methods. The final installed angle will depend on spring testing results.


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Water pick up is next… This is a little newer set up compared to the previous SV version (original SV27). The transom mounted cooling pickup guarantees delivery of water regardless of which direction the boat is turning. Before mounting on the boat I ran the appropriate sized drill bit thru the pickup tube to ensure, there was no blockage.

Another item will need to be adjusted as I perform testing is to make sure the pickup is as high as possible to reduce drag, but also maintaining enough water flow to cool the motor and controller efficiently.


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The rudder was prepped much like the trim tabs. The sharpen takes time, but well worth the additional performance it provides.


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Reinstalling the water proof linkage boot was a little more of a pain than I expected. When I tried dry fitting it back in the stock hole size the boot wanted to go in deformed, not seating completely around the hull opening ID. So the easy solution was to open the hull opening diameter slightly until the boot fit nicely without any gap. After that I used the Silicon (again) around the boot and then reinstalled pulling the boot from the inside out to get a nice seal to eliminate water intrusion. Also once the boot is seated correctly I rotate it ensuring the Silicon is evenly distributed.


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Do your club rules allow you to cut the the stuffing tube at the transom (on the stinger side) to allow more adjustment of the stinger?

Sorry Bullwink,

I didn't see you question until now. I am not sure I fully understand your question. I don't know that I've ever run into an issue with the length of the stuffing tube and a stinger strut the won't allow me to make necessary adjustments. Can you explain further or maybe snap a picture of your issue.

Thanks
Mike

Hi Mike,

Thank you for getting back to me. There has been a few posts here like this one (https://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/showthread.php?21806-Stuffing-tube-question} that suggest cutting the stuffing tube at the transom. I can send picutes later.

I am definitely using your build thread here to redo my Super Vees!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bullwink

Hi Mike,

Thank you for getting back to me. There has been a few posts here like this one https://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...-tube-question that suggest cutting the stuffing tube at the transom. I can send picutes later.

I am definitely using your build thread here to redo my Super Vees!

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As far as our club rules I would suspect it would be OK if the boater wanted to. Actually, I would suspect we would discuss that modification as a group and decide as a group what benefits the class more.

I think the biggest point about our rules (as a club) is maintaining control of major modifications to enhance performance is what we are trying to keep to minimum. Our objective for the Stock SVR27 Class is to provide a CLEAR avenue for sport boaters to enter the racing side of our hobby. However, I also want to use this class to show the fundamentals of proper boat set up and tuning.

Back the modification suggested in your link. I think this becomes personal preference. This is my opinion and other may not agree with me, but cutting the stuffing tube doesn’t completely solve the “perceived” problem with the adjustment. When you cut the stuffing tube at the transom you add an additional “hinge” at that point WITHOUT support of a stuffing tube. By leaving the stuffing tube and making adjustments you have the support of the stuffing tube to help “smooth” out the transition of the flex shaft.

Leaving the stuffing tube intact (NOT cutting it) does increase the difficulty of adjustments, but it doesn’t make it impossible. Also in my experience with the SV, a lot of strut adjustment isn’t necessarily needed. Set your strut to neutral (maybe a small amount of negative), and use the trim tabs for fine adjustments.

The ideal situation is to have opening in the transom to allow the entire stuffing tube to float up and down. That is easy in a nitro powered boat since they have a radio box. However, in the FE boats it’s a little tougher since the entire inside of the boat needs to be treated like a radio box. Some guys have successfully installed a small box or wet well ¾ of the stuffing tube length. This will let the stuffing tube move up and down with the angle changes of the strut. Here you go Wink. Doug Smock did a really nice build on a mono that he built in a wet well for the stuffing tub https://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...light=seaducer

Later,
Mike

cool stuff man!
have you ran your SV yet?
I may try one of these in P-Spec...