WTB Fantasm (I know don't laugh)

[flraptor07]

Looking for CF or glass (preferably CF) New or used, if used needs to be in good condition. No patched up junk!!

[kfxguy]

Am I just going to have to buy a few from tfl and resell them? Seems like no one is selling them. Why does Steve not carry tfl hulls?

[NativePaul]

Conflicting moral viewpoints on intellectual property perhaps?

[flraptor07]

Am I just going to have to buy a few from tfl and resell them? Seems like no one is selling them. Why does Steve not carry tfl hulls?

You can't even buy them from TFL right now.

[Luck as a Constant]

fightercat has 10 in stock according the the website

[flraptor07]

fightercat has 10 in stock according the the website

They must have just got them, I'm ordering one now!

[kfxguy]

LMAO! let me know how that goes!

[flraptor07]

Well I just tried to order one and it keeps saying shipping error can not ship USPS. But it gives no other options for shipping, I sent a Email..

[kfxguy]

Well I just tried to order one and it keeps saying shipping error can not ship USPS. But it gives no other options for shipping, I sent a Email..

they dont have any in stock. ive emailed back and forth several times with the owner and he told me he wasnt getting any more hulls anytime soon. his website is not up to date.

[flraptor07]

they dont have any in stock. ive emailed back and forth several times with the owner and he told me he wasnt getting any more hulls anytime soon. his website is not up to date.

Got ya, I'll see if he emails me back and let ya know what he says.

[srislash]

Sometimes it takes Kevin a few days to get back.

And can't Scott get any?

[kfxguy]

Sometimes it takes Kevin a few days to get back.

And can't Scott get any?

Well the first time I emailed him, it took him 7 months to reply to me. Lol.

Scott can, but it takes a while and the price has went up from the fightercat site. If i build one myself, that's who I'll go through. Hit him up, you have a better chance getting one from him than fightercat. Not dissing on fightercat by anymeans, he just doesn't have any and didn't seem like he was going to order any anytime soon.

[bracka69]

Not sure if you are interested but Kintecracing.com has the CF Zonda(Fantasm) available in just Hull&Hardware or ARTR and RTR.

[flraptor07]

Not sure if you are interested but Kintecracing.com has the CF Zonda(Fantasm) available in just Hull&Hardware or ARTR and RTR.

I was really wanting a bare hull (nothing mounted) so I can mount the stingers myself, they tend to mount the stingers too close to the bottom so I'd rather mount them myself..

[kfxguy]

I was really wanting a bare hull (nothing mounted) so I can mount the stingers myself, they tend to mount the stingers too close to the bottom so I'd rather mount them myself..

I'm sure you can move them a little.

[bracka69]

Ok I see. Another place that sells just the hulls is rcboatbitz.com.au but they are sold out right now but I would shoot him an email to see when he will be getting them back in. Also you might want to email Keith Bradley he may know where you can get one from.

[bracka69]

I was really wanting a bare hull (nothing mounted) so I can mount the stingers myself, they tend to mount the stingers too close to the bottom so I'd rather mount them myself..

Most of the guys that I know prefer there stingers as close to the bottom as possible but I guess everyone has their own preference. Hope you find one man. Good Luck

[flraptor07]

Ok I see. Another place that sells just the hulls is rcboatbitz.com.au but they are sold out right now but I would shoot him an email to see when he will be getting them back in. Also you might want to email Keith Bradley he may know where you can get one from.

I did Email Keith but haven't heard back from him yet, I says Sold Out on his site but he may know of a good used one..

[lt130th]

Good luck! Over the last few weeks I emailed everyplace & everyone I could find that ever offered Zondas/Fantasms, in the states & overseas, & never received a single response. A long-shot, but I even contacted the folks in Hong Kong I bought a rudder from (same one that comes on a lot of TFL RTR models) asking if they knew where I could find one. Finally gave up & bought a Shocker from Scott.

Have you looked at the cat's on http://www.viperhulls.com ? I don't anything about them, but prices seem comparable.

[keithbradley]

I did Email Keith but haven't heard back from him yet, I says Sold Out on his site but he may know of a good used one..

I apologize if I missed your email. It's possible that it went into my spam folder...I don't see it otherwise.
I haven't ordered any more of the 41" cats. They are fun cats but limited in their design and nearly paper thin, so we've moved on to something faster, better looking, stronger, better in rough water, etc. As much as I like the carbon Fantasm, it just doesn't make sense to carry a hull that's vastly inferior to a hull that really isn't that much more expensive.

I've been honest with people about the capabilities of these hulls, whether I'm carrying them or not. Some have appreciated the honesty, others have criticized me for selling something that I readily admit is "not the best" (lol at the ridiculousness).
So, I've decided not to sell them.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying the Fantasm is a BAD hull, it's actually one of my favorites when it comes to Chinese hulls.

[keithbradley]

Oh, in regards to mounting the stingers higher... without modification to the drives and/or hull, you're going to have issues if you do this.

[don ferrette]

I apologize if I missed your email. It's possible that it went into my spam folder...I don't see it otherwise.
I haven't ordered any more of the 41" cats. They are fun cats but limited in their design and nearly paper thin, so we've moved on to something faster, better looking, stronger, better in rough water, etc. As much as I like the carbon Fantasm, it just doesn't make sense to carry a hull that's vastly inferior to a hull that really isn't that much more expensive.

I've been honest with people about the capabilities of these hulls, whether I'm carrying them or not. Some have appreciated the honesty, others have criticized me for selling something that I readily admit is "not the best" (lol at the ridiculousness).
So, I've decided not to sell them.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying the Fantasm is a BAD hull, it's actually one of my favorites when it comes to Chinese hulls.

Ok so I'm confused here.........

Directly from your web site-

41″ Carbon Fiber Catamaran
KBB 41 Catamaran Carbon Fiber
$369.99
Out of stock
Category: Hulls.
Description
Named the “Fantasm” by Fighter Cat Racing, this hull is one of the best all-around hulls on the market, and now it’s available in a full carbon fiber layup. These hulls are exceptionally light, so less power is needed.

I just bought a new but unfinished 41" Fantasm on here because of previously reading what you listed in your "product description". So what is the "faster, better looking, stronger, better in rough water, etc" hull because I don't see it listed on your site.

[kfxguy]

Ok so I'm confused here.........

Directly from your web site-

41″ Carbon Fiber Catamaran
KBB 41 Catamaran Carbon Fiber
$369.99
Out of stock
Category: Hulls.
Description
Named the “Fantasm” by Fighter Cat Racing, this hull is one of the best all-around hulls on the market, and now it’s available in a full carbon fiber layup. These hulls are exceptionally light, so less power is needed.

I just bought a new but unfinished 41" Fantasm on here because of previously reading what you listed in your "product description". So what is the "faster, better looking, stronger, better in rough water, etc" hull because I don't see it listed on your site.

I'd like to know too.....

[flraptor07]

Ok so I'm confused here.........

Directly from your web site-

41″ Carbon Fiber Catamaran
KBB 41 Catamaran Carbon Fiber
$369.99
Out of stock
Category: Hulls.
Description
Named the “Fantasm” by Fighter Cat Racing, this hull is one of the best all-around hulls on the market, and now it’s available in a full carbon fiber layup. These hulls are exceptionally light, so less power is needed.

I just bought a new but unfinished 41" Fantasm on here because of previously reading what you listed in your "product description". So what is the "faster, better looking, stronger, better in rough water, etc" hull because I don't see it listed on your site.

I was going to ask the same thing?

[lt130th]

44" mhz c5000?

[flraptor07]

Oh, in regards to mounting the stingers higher... without modification to the drives and/or hull, you're going to have issues if you do this.

I'm not talking about way up, just a millimeter or a millimeter and a half. Like the proper way to mount trim tabs.

[Rocstar]

The Fantasm is "one of the best all-around hulls..." for speed, handling and ease of setup. I've built several and the flat ride pad design, wide body, and ample room for motors and electronics, makes it fairly easy to setup for beginners and seasoned boat builders. Plus it's a great looking hull. With any product we buy, price offen represents it's limitations. As technology increases our speed potential and as we learn from each other how to go faster, the design limits of every hull are tested. It is with this understanding that we choose the products we do. Also, if you have ever inquired about the Fantasm hull and it's potential to Keith or anyone who has pushed this hull, you were informed of it's weaknesses and how to help reinforce and setup the boat to reach your goal. You were also told that the potential for total loss increases as your speed does. Of course there are better quality hulls and the cost for those hulls reflect that. I'm not sure Don, how you could be disappointed buying this hull before even building and running it. These hulls have triple digit speed potential with some basic understanding, forethought and acceptance that a crash at that speed will most likely do substantial damage.

[keithbradley]

Ok so I'm confused here.........

Directly from your web site-

41″ Carbon Fiber Catamaran
KBB 41 Catamaran Carbon Fiber
$369.99
Out of stock
Category: Hulls.
Description
Named the “Fantasm” by Fighter Cat Racing, this hull is one of the best all-around hulls on the market, and now it’s available in a full carbon fiber layup. These hulls are exceptionally light, so less power is needed.

I just bought a new but unfinished 41" Fantasm on here because of previously reading what you listed in your "product description". So what is the "faster, better looking, stronger, better in rough water, etc" hull because I don't see it listed on your site.

You hit the nail on the head here Don. You're not the first person to point to that description. However, there are the qualifiers "one of" and "all-around". It doesn't say it's the best cat in the world, it says it's ONE OF the best ALL AROUND CATS. I will stand by that statement and always have. The Fantasm is fairly stable, ok in the corners, capable of reasonably high straight-line speed, and relatively affordable. As an ALL AROUND cat, I would choose it over the majority of everything out there. It's not THE BEST at anything, but it's well rounded and suitable for "sport boating". It's faster than the cheetah, it corners better than the explorer, it's better in almost every way when compared to the shocker, it's more efficient than most of the aeromarine cats, etc. However, if you compare the Fantasm to something like a HPR 115, you can clearly see that they are not in the same league. That should be expected, since the HPR is twice the price and well known to be the highest quality. However, if you could get that quality in a hull for just a little more than the Fantasm, and they were in the US, I think that would make the Fantasm almost obsolete.

To compare, if someone claimed that the Toyota Camry was the "best all around car of 2014", you would find that reasonably acceptable (I'm not saying they are, just picking a generic car). Maybe they get good gas mileage, have decent power, room inside, handle ok, etc. If someone then bought the Camry and took it to a road race to compete against new corvette ZR-1s and got their rear-end handed to them, it should not come as a surprise, since the corvette is a far superior car when it comes to racing.

This is what I ran into with the Fantasm. I loved the hull, I built many of them. They are still a Chinese manufactured hull though and should be considered as such. People asked me if they were the best hull available and I was honest with them, they're not. I can't tell you how many emails I get from people that want to go "100mph". While one would think that being honest and recommending a product that you DON'T sell would be respected, more often than not it upsets people. I would recommend a HPR tencara or HPR/MHZ mystic style hull and most times the person would move on to the next vendor that told them what they wanted to hear and bought their inferior hull. The same thing happens with motors. I would recommend Lehner motors(long before I sold them) to people who had high speed goals, only to see the same person post a week later about what good service they got from a well-known shyster who sold them cheap Chinese motors and high hopes.

I sell the things that I personally use for my builds and customer builds, in an effort to fill some voids that I have come across. I don't sell parts to make money. I originally carried the FC hulls because enough people requested that I do, and there weren't other sources for them outside of FC, which some people were unsure of at the time. Now I don't think it's necessary for me to carry them, people can typically get them elsewhere.

I'm not telling you this to stop you from buying a Fantasm, by all means build one. They're one of the funnest and easy to tune hulls you can build. I just don't think they have a place I the KBB lineup anymore.

[don ferrette]

The Fantasm is "one of the best all-around hulls..." for speed, handling and ease of setup. I've built several and the flat ride pad design, wide body, and ample room for motors and electronics, makes it fairly easy to setup for beginners and seasoned boat builders. Plus it's a great looking hull. With any product we buy, price offen represents it's limitations. As technology increases our speed potential and as we learn from each other how to go faster, the design limits of every hull are tested. It is with this understanding that we choose the products we do. Also, if you have ever inquired about the Fantasm hull and it's potential to Keith or anyone who has pushed this hull, you were informed of it's weaknesses and how to help reinforce and setup the boat to reach your goal. You were also told that the potential for total loss increases as your speed does. Of course there are better quality hulls and the cost for those hulls reflect that. I'm not sure Don, how you could be disappointed buying this hull before even building and running it. These hulls have triple digit speed potential with some basic understanding, forethought and acceptance that a crash at that speed will most likely do substantial damage.

Hey Joel, where did I say ANYTHING about being disappointed???? All I said was I was confused by Keith's post when his web site says something completely different. Everything else you said I'm well aware of being a long time record trials guy with more record passes over 100mph than I can count on fingers and toes and destroyed more boats doing so than I care to think about. So are you like Keith's PR guy or something??? LOL!!

[don ferrette]

Keith thanks for your reply, seems I wasn't the only one "confused" by your post. No regrets buying the Fantasm as it will just be for fast fun at the pond and as I start to go through it I'll probably drop you a p/m for any tips you have since you are well versed in it's set up. Have a great one.