Fightercar Rivercat 32" carbon Bud Select

I traded my Mini Zonda back to kfxguy and struck a deal on his Fightercat Rivercat single motor 4S boat. Hoping to take it to the Flint Michigan speed trials this year and try to break a record. A boat this fast needs a proper paint job, not to mention it was just to hard to see on the water in raw carbon. A few shots as I was tearing it down:

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I packed it up and shipped it out to my friend Nick Battiato at Vivid Image at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. Nick painted one of his personal boats in the Bud Select Mystic race boat paint scheme and I fell in love with it the first time I saw it in person. Bright red seemed like a good choice for this boat. Nick only sent me one teaser pic during the process. It was a long wait, but well worth it in the end. I asked that the raw carbon show through instead of painting the front half black like the original boat. That added a lot of prep, clear, and buffing work, but it was going to make it unique for sure.

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A good friend of mine from Saint Louis picked the boat up from the Ozarks and drove it to Michigan on a snowmobile trip. He handed it off to another college friend of mine who drove it back to Indianapolis. I met him a week later while I was down there for the Indy Admirals pool race and then drove it back to Chicago. Wasn't going to risk shipping damage on this boat!

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I'm just now putting it back together again. Running all of the hidden cooling lines and wiring is no easy task. Travis builds a clean boat and it shows. It was a little nerve wrecking to take a tap to fresh paint, but I took my time and it's coming along nicely.

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fweasel, that is one sweet boat and paint job!!!!!! Looks stunning!!!

Awesome Ryan one of my favorite paint schemes!

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Originally Posted by bikepilot

fweasel, that is one sweet boat and paint job!!!!!! Looks stunning!!!

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Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Mike W

Awesome Ryan one of my favorite paint schemes!

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Mine too. I was able to see the real boat up close at LOTO years ago and it's fun to have a mini version in my fleet.

Everything is put back together. All new cooling lines too. Love those Fightercat water outlets, hard to find them these days. Just needs a receiver, setup the steering, and ready for spring. I'm switching my SAW boats over to Futaba FASST this season and still have a lot of reading to do.
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Just started to get this boat dialed in over the last few weeks before the Flint IMPBA record event next weekend. I missed last weekend because of a busy schedule and had only today to get some last test runs in. I should have stayed home. It was too windy and the water was too choppy. Had a pretty nasty roll and a smack that blew out the right seam. Looks like I won't be going to Flint this year. Pretty bummed.

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Originally Posted by fweasel

Just started to get this boat dialed in over the last few weeks before the Flint IMPBA record event next weekend. I missed last weekend because of a busy schedule and had only today to get some last test runs in. I should have stayed home. It was too windy and the water was too choppy. Had a pretty nasty roll and a smack that blew out the right seam. Looks like I won't be going to Flint this year. Pretty bummed.

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Ryan, sorry to see that, that's a bummer. How fast were you going? With that CF inlay I would think that's a pretty stout hull. . . .man, that's really too bad.

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Originally Posted by fweasel

Just started to get this boat dialed in over the last few weeks before the Flint IMPBA record event next weekend. I missed last weekend because of a busy schedule and had only today to get some last test runs in. I should have stayed home. It was too windy and the water was too choppy. Had a pretty nasty roll and a smack that blew out the right seam. Looks like I won't be going to Flint this year. Pretty bummed.

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That sucks. Is the hull scrap? If that would have been a Geico 36 your pic would have went viral by now...

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Originally Posted by Bp9145

Ryan, sorry to see that, that's a bummer. How fast were you going? With that CF inlay I would think that's a pretty stout hull. . . .man, that's really too bad.

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I've been testing with a smaller prop because I haven't had the right conditions for it to run flat out at 100+. Last trip out it was doing well on a breezy day at 87. This trip I idled out to the starting point, turned around, and came back for one pass when it crashed, partial throttle at best. GPS had a peak of 65, which is pretty mild, but the angle of impact is definitely what caused the damage. The forward portion of the deck has two part foam, which I believe stopped/slowed the crack propagation in that direction. The inlay stops about an inch forward of the canopy opening. Hard to say what happened first, maybe the top crack near the deck, which allowed the side of the hull to collapse and flex at the seam.

Holy sh$$! Sorry to see. Going to fix it? My FighterCat did the same thing. I beefed up the inside with CF cloth and all I have now is a line is the clear to show the accident. But it’s back to solid. This was of course a number of years ago

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Originally Posted by fweasel

Just started to get this boat dialed in over the last few weeks before the Flint IMPBA record event next weekend. I missed last weekend because of a busy schedule and had only today to get some last test runs in. I should have stayed home. It was too windy and the water was too choppy. Had a pretty nasty roll and a smack that blew out the right seam. Looks like I won't be going to Flint this year. Pretty bummed.

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What a bummer bud. So sorry to hear that. U definitely got me beat. I was mad that i smoked a dasboata prop in 5 minutes on my mhz last weekend. Off the subject a little, what is that carbon tab on the left of the transom? Is that a trim tab for low speed torque?