New AquaCat

[Doby]

I met Mike Ball this past weekend at a Nitro/ Gas / FE event in London Ontario, Canada.

He had with him one of the new prototype Cats so I snapped some pics to share.

[Doby]

And some more....

[Doby]

I raced against it in LSO class. Unfortunately, conditions were not "cat friendly" and it DNF'd in two of the races shortly after the start. On the third race, the cat blew its lid (canopy) off and its now at the bottom of the pond in London. The hull continued racing though and did finish.

[johnf]

Cool, so how did it run when it wasn't blowing over? haha

[Doby]

Fast.

[forescott]

Awesome! Whats the little black thingamajingie on the tip of the sponson?

[alvinsmith75]

Looks like he is using a futaba radio and not the tactic.

[forescott]

Looks like all of these new model boats may hit hobbyshop shelves all at the same time!

[alvinsmith75]

Awesome! Whats the little black thingamajingie on the tip of the sponson?

Something to catch your fishing line when retriving it.

[forescott]

For real?? Thats what it looks like!

[Eodman]

Yeah next year!

[Doby]

Mike (the guy who brought the boat) is a "stick" guy and prefers a stick radio to a wheeled radio so he had a FM radio in there (hence the antenna). The hook on the front of the boat is for snagging a retrevial line (like on the new SV-27)

[Jeff Wohlt]

Sponsons look pretty flat. This means fast in clean water but not very good in rough. Looks good. Nice and clean and I like the inner tub. How can it sink with the inner tub trapping air? Just not enough to hold her up after the tub fills, I guess.

[eboat]

Sponsons look pretty flat. This means fast in clean water but not very good in rough. Looks good. Nice and clean and I like the inner tub. How can it sink with the inner tub trapping air? Just not enough to hold her up after the tub fills, I guess.

I think John said it was just the hatch that sunk

[Doby]

It was the Hatch that sank.

[longballlumber]

Hey John (Doby), it was great meeting and finally putting a face to a screen name! Thanks for putting up the pictures and your interest in the new boat.

Up to this point I have been running this hull in our P-Limited Offshore club class and this cat hull is consistent and always a top contender. We run a 4 minute heat format, much like some of you do, and this boat will run 41-43 mph the entire heat and turning 13 laps on our course. Our course hasn’t been surveyed, but I can tell you it’s not much shorter than a typical 1/6 mile course. That is a pretty good click for, 4 minutes. This boat handles awesome! It doesn’t have the driving characteristics that typically follow catamaran style hulls, such as being darty and unpredictable. The key with this boat is managing your rudder throw. You don’t need much to get this baby to turn. It is an absolute blast to drive.

At the Northern Lights Open event the boat only actually blew over once, and that was in the first heat. We had winds in excess of 20mph all day on Saturday. I have no doubts that if I were allowed to run a 2P battery configuration, the boat wouldn’t have flipped at all. I was asked to run 1P in the boat by the other racers. On the second heat (still running 1P as requested at the beginning of the event) I added some weight in front of the motor to help mitigate the windy conditions. The boat was screaming down the straight, but when I got down onto the rough end of the course (turn one), I happened to find a “hole” in the water and swallowed the boat up. The rest of the heats the boat was fast and it handled the rough water just fine.

Losing the hatch was a bit of a mistake on my part. I brought my boats down to the pit area to “stage” each of them since the FE boats were running back to back to back… I had some nitro exhaust on the boat, so I cleaned with Windex. Well it seems that the Windex left a film that kept my hockey tape from sticking very well and the hatch blew off in the middle of the 3rd heat. From now on, I will be cleaning the area that gets taped with some motor cleaner or denatured alcohol. No worries I still finished the heat in on top with everything exposed. LOL

I still have a lot of prop testing to do and I am looking forward to it. I can’t even tell you how much fun this thing is to drive!!!!!

Later,
Mike Ball

[Steven Vaccaro]

OH BOY. Late 2010 into 2011 looks like an exciting year for racing!

[Grimracer]

Sponsons look pretty flat. This means fast in clean water but not very good in rough. Looks good. Nice and clean and I like the inner tub. How can it sink with the inner tub trapping air? Just not enough to hold her up after the tub fills, I guess.

Jeff

I have HOURS of testing.. it just might suprise ya... Flat...er.. and how wide? You are missing a TON of info in the photos..

Thanks Mike for wheeling the boat for me and John for popping a few pics...

ROCK ON!

Grim

[ray schrauwen]

IMO, it looks a bit cheap, doesn't look at all scale and is shown SO FAR that its not so rough water friendly....

I'm with the the Green Lizard Cat.... After running a 1st gen UL-1 not impressed a bit, sad quality and then they revamp the hull, what about the POS I have??? where's my solace.

I say Merge ProBoat and Aquacraft for a stronger company. The Giecko is much prettier so use that hull. Aquacraft has nice electronics so use that in their hull and you have a WINNER!!!

[Grimracer]

Ray,

Tell me how you came to the conclusion its not rough water friendly and please define rough water?

Have you drove the boat and seen it close up. Maybe video? Do you live close to Michael?

Truth is I have found the opposite to be true.. This backed by hours of testing in all conditions.

To me rough water is driven by 15mph (or more winds) and or 8 boat heats on a ¾ acre lake... And.. in that will run quite well... to a point.. past 20mph winds and its a crap shoot as it would be with any air suspended hull..

I also find the mud (flat water) a tad more challenging to setup or run in.. this boat also does that well.. wake crossing and the like.. Im sure you know what Im talking about.. I guess I have not heard of you all that much.. if you are experienced in cats please tell me more about what you see in this hull.. I am totally open to learning… and thanks!

Also. At this time there is ONE boat exposed to the public.. Michaels.. but its been driven by quite a few different people.. People that really RACE RC boats. They also support my findings in the handing of the boat….

Thanks

Lets play boats!

Grim

[ray schrauwen]

Kinda sorry I posted that about rough water. I was going off of what I read on another forum about this boat running at London. Should have read Milke Ball's post above for better info.

My bad buuut, I still think the 1st gen UL-1 glass hulls were terrible. I can throw my H&M Lifter all over the place and neither the transom nor the turn fin area will crack up due to weakness, just sayin' ... and it's at leat 7 years old now.

If there was ever a recall of the 1st gen hulls I've never heard about it??

[Doby]

Ray, the races in London had gust in excess of 20-30 Mph at times and at the far end of the pond, we had to be carefull with our V hulls as well.

[Jeff Wohlt]

True, Mike...way to early for us to tell and I know you have hours of running it so I think you would know. Just looks flat but with minimal pics (hint, hint) it is hard to tell. I love the clean layout and the inner tub.

Looks to be hardware transfered over from the UL...IS this one going to be with the 2030 kv motor and ESC? Good combo that seems strong.

Always room for another cat in the cradle!

[Diesel6401]

True, Mike...way to early for us to tell and I know you have hours of running it so I think you would know. Just looks flat but with minimal pics (hint, hint) it is hard to tell. I love the clean layout and the inner tub.

Looks to be hardware transfered over from the UL...IS this one going to be with the 2030 kv motor and ESC? Good combo that seems strong.

Always room for another cat in the cradle!

I have been held down by strippers but FE racers.. ewwwww…

I really had a lot of fun racing in LSO. The new boat we are working on is a ground up design. It features drop tub glass work like our UL-1 and uses most of the same hardware.

As a side note, Jerry Dunlap, Jay Turner and Brian Buaas were all involved in helping with the first stages of the design.

The boat had/s an updated ESC with a 35V 1500uf cap and brand new 36mm 1800kv motor. We are still testing all systems at this time.

The boat has been very solid in testing and the performance at the race was more then I could have asked for.. IT WAS WINDY..

NO DELIVERY DATE IS SET.


Lots have asked for it and we are going to darn well deliver. This cat is no PUSSY!

Grim

Looks like the updated UL-1 60amp esc and the new 1800kv motor which is in the SV27R

[Doby]

Its the 1800 Kv motor in it.

[Rumdog]

Aaaaaaaand when is it going to be available?

[Doby]

Looking into the crystal ball,,, I would have to say sometime in...........................

[Rumdog]

i'm assuming after the new proboat miss geico.

[Eodman]

For the guys in the colder climates -- I think we will get to enjoy them in the Spring of 2011! Maybe

[Brushless55]

Thank you for the Pictures!
lets see, how many new boats do I want now?