New guy with a new boat

[sft2]

Great, something broke and threw away the long post I typed out, and now I'm too frustrated to attempt to recreate it. So now y'all get the summary:

Boat was recovered shortly after it sank by the guy that attempted to hook it while it was bow up.
Ran into guy with boat yesterday. He dumped it out, unplugged the battery, and tried to dry it out.
Threw RX and ESC in oatmeal overnight, both work.
Charged packs at low current in a lipo bag, neither blew up, both charged to 4.20/cell.
Most of the wood had broken away from the hull, so I glassed it all back together with 2 oz tape and West epoxy. Rock solid now.
Straightened rudder bracket, can't tell it was bent now.
RX is now in a Traxxas box so it doesn't get wet again.
Working on a hatch hold down screw setup that will make sure the hatch can't pop off in the future. Pics when I get it done, hopefully tonight. Lots of lathe work involved in this one.
All that's left is patching the gelcoat on the aft end of the right sponson. It's chipped down to glass, so I'm going to patch it with pigmented epoxy. I may blueprint the ride pads while I'm at it.

So that's the short version. I love this boat, she handles extremely well, looks good on the water, and really doesn't have that many issues. Pro Boat really needs to improve their bonding techniques, though. The wood pops off the glass if you look at it funny. Tying the wood into the glass with glass tape would go very far in keeping it together. Even better, lose the wood entirely and build them like a "normal" FE boat with the motor mount glassed to the tunnel, ESC and RX sitting on plates glassed to the hull somewhere (or just stuck down with good trim tape, and so on. Oh, and a breakaway rudder would be a very, very good thing.

Here's some pics from shortly before the incident. Don't think I'm having any issues with the hull running wet

airborne.jpgmystic3.jpg

[Make-a-Wake]

Great news on the recovery! I made hatch locks myself out of screws i had layin around..........

[sft2]

That's basically the plan, but since I have a lathe I went a little overboard. The parts are made, but I'm thinking about changing the nut a bit so I don't have to cut a half inch hole through the hatch.

Everything is repaired now, just need to get some 400 grit paper to match the finish on the bottom of the sponsons, range test, finish the hatch screw, and get her wet.

[gsbuickman]

Heya bro, nice to see you with us finally.

not a bad thread you got going here. As far as the Mistic goes, i don't know anything about them. I have heard good and bad things about them though. Mainly about the abs hull they have. I know "Make A Wake" will agree, we've put our villain IV'S abs hulls through their paces, and we love them.

I would listen to wake'. he's a major boat junkie, and the force is strong with him. The dark side I sense in him !!! he he he he he he.

I am glad you didn't use a balloon on your receiver, that's a mistake waiting to happen. here's what I recommend. Go to your local Lowes, Home depot or hardware store, and get a spray can of Plasti-Dip. Open your rx case and take the rx outta the case. lay it on some newspaper, and spray it down, Coat each side and let it dry till you have 4-6 even coats on it.

Don't forget to cover the servo plugs you going to use ( i use old servo wire plugs). When it's dry, just reassemble and your good to go. This works fantastic for me. I had a boat partially sink on me last December, when it got stuck in a nasty bed o' reeds thanks to a banshee wind blowing, when the battery died. My tactic receiver was in submerged in 34 degree water for about 15 hours before I got back with a kayak and rescued it.

My Hitech HS-645MG servo was junk, but my astroflight esc and plasti dipped rx was unharmed. The plasti dip was a lil' gooey, but it kept the rx dry.

Sorry about your AQ that turned into a submarine. I would pay the local teeny boppers to find it for you. If you got your futaba and rx's figured out, my Ski Tiger is still boxed up and ready to ship to you. It would be a sweet replacement for the AQ. lemme know what you wanna do. If you don't want it any more I'll hang on to it, and get a river raft for a backup. That way i don't have to borrow my pastors kayak any more he he he he he he he he.

Before you know it, you'll have a whole fleet, let us know when you get more !!!!

[sft2]

I remember, years ago when I was doing computer work for a living and before marriage, when weekends were the time I got to relax and do fun stuff. Yeah, not so much anymore.

The Mystic is back together. All I need to get her wet is a 2s 1000 mAH or so pack for the radio and build a harness that disables the BEC and feeds the RX from it's pack (servo y-harness with red pulled out of one side and white out of the other). The Seaking 120A is rewrapped and back in, the gelcoat chips are patched, the receiver is now in a Traxxas box from a Slash, which will do until I can get one for a Stampede that takes up less room, and the servo is replaced with a Hitec 5665MH, which is all programmed and ready to go. On a side note, I don't really like Hitec's software. The center and end points aren't done in milliseconds, but the testing is, so you have to go back and forth testing things to get it right. Hitec's center point is 1500 ms, Futaba's is 1520 ms. That doesn't sound like much, but it's enough to take up over half of the subtrim in the radio, which throws things off in strange ways. By programming the servo to suit the rudder geometry you can center the trim and subtrim in the transmitter and go with 100% ATL instead of the 120% I had before. In a simple setup like this one it's not so critical, but if you, for example, had a twin cat with differential throttle mixed to steering it could start messing with things. Besides, I'm a perfectionist.

GS, I seriously considered doing that with the RX, but Futaba won't touch one that's been coated, and with $100 receivers repair is definitely an option when they go tango uniform. The Traxxas boxes are reasonably compact (the Slash box is the biggest) and do a very good job of keeping water out. I have an idea that might vastly cheapen my life, though. Tactic has a gizmo out now that plugs into pretty much any transmitter and talks to Tactic receivers. They call it an adapter, I suspect it's just an external TX module that plugs into the trainer port. The 4PKS doesn't have a trainer port, but it does have a DSC port that, I suspect, is the same thing. I'm going to see if I can talk one of my hobby shop guys into letting me plug the thing into my transmitter, turn it half on (computer is on, but not broadcasting, which is how the DSC is used), and see if it talks. If so I can use $30 receivers that don't have to come from China. I'm still trying to figure out what's up with the 3PKS's module. It's still not making any sense.

Oh, and the Mystic's hull is very strong glass. I fully expected for the transom to be ripped out and a huge gash in the bottom of the sponson. Nope, just a small chip and a scrape. ABS would have shattered.

Oh yeah, forgot something. I got more Got a pair of Zig Zag Racers for myself and the guy that helps me out so often (and took the pics of the airborne Mystic). Those things are an insane amount of fun in the pool. We need to haul them out to the notoriously choppy lake.

[Boatlover]

Any suggestions on how to get this boat from bouncing at high speeds?

[jasoncyclone]

Any suggestions on how to get this boat from bouncing at high speeds?

MORE POWER!!!! Helps helps alot!

[Boatlover]

I have the stock setup. Whats the key to getting the CG correct?

[sft2]

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Ok, I feel better, except for the constant, brain crushing headache. Spent the last couple of weeks fighting with the insurance company, talking to lawyers, occasionally working on the Mystic, and unwound by shopping for a boat (1:1 scale, this time). Results are as follows:

-Won fight, check inbound.
-Found lawyer, paperwork outbound.
-Finished Mystic. Receiver is in a Traxxas box, built a y-harness that goes between the Rx and ESC, disconnects the BEC, and adds in an 800 mAH 2s lipo in the stern. I have a 1300 mAH pack, too, but it was harder to do the wiring due to 16ga wires on the pack, so I went with the 800 for now. Needed the 2s pack to run the Hitec 5665 servo that's in there, programmed for reverse, set up for a Futaba centerpoint, and EPAs suitable for the Mystic. No subtrim, reversing, or EPA needed in the transmitter. Everything is charged and with any luck I'll be able to get to the pond tomorrow.
-Found some possible boats, nothing for sure. All I want is 16-18 feet, a solid deck, and an I/O. I'm not asking much here! After that lawyer thing... yeah, that'll be as simple as calling Eliminator and having a 36' Daytona ICC build with a pair of Mercruiser 1350s.

Oh yeah, and there's another Mystic hull here now (Fightercat Daytona). This time it's a bit narrower, a lot longer (37"), and is getting substantially more power (dual 1300 kv outrunners on 6 cells each).

[sft2]

I have the stock setup. Whats the key to getting the CG correct?

Mine runs great with the batteries thrown in there wherever they land, but I usually aim for flush with the front of the racks. If you're having trouble with bouncing and the CG is around 9" from the rear of the ride pads, your strut needs adjusting. I can't be much help there until I get mine wet and see what she does. I had the strut off entirely during the repairs and I don't know for sure that it's back in exactly the same place.