Mini TFL Zonda Carbon Cat build

I bought this hull from Travis ( kfxguy ) as a bare untouched hull. This would be my first ground up build. I was thinking that this build would take months to complete. However, this horrible New York weather has unfortunately allowed me more free time than I anticipated.
When I first got the boat in my hands, I have to admit, I was extremely surprised as to how thin this hull was. To me, it looked like it would splinter on the first blow over. So, out came the carbon cloth and epoxy. Travis gave me a few pointers on how to strengthen the transom. I filled the transom about 3/4" with chopped carbon and epoxy. Let it harden in a bucket of water. I poured a couple oz of the same into the tips of the sponsons. Did up a carbon inlay as far forward as I could and up past the seam, right up gunnels. Attachment 159871Attachment 159872


Next, as per advice from travis, I drilled and tapped the transom for the rudder mounting bolts. Tapped right into the epoxy and carbon mix. Then mounted the rudder. Attachment 159873Attachment 159874

Next came the stuffing tube.
Attachment 159875

I installed a flush mount dual water pickup.
Attachment 159876Attachment 159877Attachment 159878

Trying to stuff all the electronics into this little boat was not fun. Maybe this boat should not have been my first build attempt.
I decided on a Dynamite 3831 motor and a spare Dynamite 120 amp esc from my Zelos that was sitting on the shelf. A digital steering servo as well. All the mounts and hardware came from OSE. I cut out a carbon plate to fit the steering servo. Glued it in the hull with a couple of studs to hold down the steering servo. made a small carbon plate to hole the servo down.
Attachment 159879Attachment 159880

Glued in the motor mount and stuffed the esc in with some Velcro.
Attachment 159881

I got a custom set of battery trays that Travis had made up. Good thing too, don't know what else would have fit. Glued them in easily.
Attachment 159882

Started to run water lines, when I found that when I screwed the hatch down, it would pinch off the lines off the motor. I ordered a set of 90* fittings from OSE to hopefully fix that.

Attachment 159883

So, that's the basics. The new ride is pretty much done. If this horrible weather ever improves here, I can take it for its maiden run.

Attachment 159884

Nice work. It's a fun little hull that can haul some ass in the right water conditions. Did you buy the rudder/strut setup or was it recycled from another boat as well?

Looks good Vinny!

I ordered the rudder from ProMarine for use on my MTR. I thought I was ordering a dual outlet rudder. Turns out it is a dual inlet but not a dual outlet. Never used it on the MTR. I cut it down a bit as it was too big for this smaller hull. Didn't use the water pick up on this build anyway.

Thanks Mark... hope it runs well.

Have you put this little Gem in the water yet?

Nice Vinny!
A thought... if it were me I wouldn’t have my receiver and on/off switch right next to where the flex shaft will be launching lube.
Other than that, how she run?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jesse J

Nice Vinny!
A thought... if it were me I wouldn’t have my receiver and on/off switch right next to where the flex shaft will be launching lube.
Other than that, how she run?

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Thanks... I will attempt to find a better spot for the switch, however, its so damn tight in there. I only got to run it once on 4s. Didn't have a gps in it, it cavitated out of the turns, but other than that, it ran good.
https://youtu.be/mTrApZIodG0

She runs really really good. It is cavitating a lot however. I think a 1714 or 1715 would grab better and the strut is probably too high. That’s probably why you didn’t over heat things with that prop. You can tell the motor isn’t quite winding out because that prop is pretty aggressive and doesn’t have much slip once the boat is on plane.

Here’s mine on 3s with less prop. It doesn’t cavitate, I can’t send you the strut height measurements if you want.


https://youtu.be/ctj7wwNc7ko

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kfxguy

Here’s mine on 3s with less prop. It doesn’t cavitate, I can’t send you the strut height measurements if you want.


https://youtu.be/ctj7wwNc7ko

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Travis,
Looks like you need a bigger pond. No cavitation going on with yours. As you said, I need to lower the strut. I had it level with the bottom. Maybe I will go down 1mm and see what happens.

https://youtu.be/ctj7wwNc7ko


Yes that was just a small pond that was convenient to me on a camping trip. That was the first day I had ever run it and I had mainly run it on 2s so it was more controllable. I went to a bigger lake and it was choppy, on 3s and scared to run it out, I got 56mph out of it but didn’t pull the trigger the whole way.

Actually I think my strut is a mm or two above the bottom. I’ll confirm this evening.

Here’s my strut. 1.3mm gap. About .050.(inches)


https://s33.postimg.cc/nryylfkvz/A8_...B6_C463889.jpg

Thanks Travis... I will certainly have to test some more.

You run it again yet? I was thinking about running mine this weekend, although I’m on the fence about selling it. I really don’t want to but all it does is collect dust. I had a 1616 prop on it in that video. It seemed to like it but the one I sold Fweasel liked the 1715,1716 more. I haven’t tried a bigger prop on it yet. If I get to run it tomorrow I’ll let you know how it goes.