I ordered the Small Bolt because it looked like a well-designed product made from quality materials. As a highly experienced Fast Electric model boater, I did not view this boat as “Ready to Run”, but rather as a complete “kit” that would need some refinements, modifications, and “dialing in” before putting it on the water. Upon opening the box, I was pleased to see that my expectations of quality were substantiated. This is a VERY NICE product.
Before putting it in the water, the first thing I did was add a carbon fiber doubler to the inside back of the right sponson. Hydroplanes, by their very nature are designed to turn in only one direction, so I plan to install a turn fin on the right sponson to allow it to corner at full speed in a right turn. Next, I installed some foam floatation pieces in the sponsons and along the non-trips in the hull sides. It’s like a life vest for your boat. If you hit something and knock a hole in the hull, the foam will prevent it from sinking. Don’t ask me how I know this!
The next step was to pull out the flex shaft. I removed the strut and discovered some REALLY THICK grease on the stub shaft that was ostensibly there to keep water out of the drive shaft. While this works, the thick grease is a lot of drag on the rotating parts. I cleaned the heavy grease off and replaced it with a thin layer of some light marine grease. I pulled out the flex drive shaft and put a bit of silver solder on the motor end of the shaft to keep it from unraveling. I lubricated the flex shaft and re-installed it. Next, I put some electrical shrink tube on the brass flex shaft housing tube and over the nose of the strut. This helps reduce the possibility of water getting into the hull through the driveshaft without the additional drag of the heavy grease. I adjusted the angle and height of the strut so that the bottom of the strut was even with the bottom of the sponsons, and such that the strut was about 2 degrees down. Actual water testing may require the strut depth and angle being tweaked for maximum performance. The videos I’ve seen of this boat running seem to have the stern too low in the water. I may need to mill the slot in the strut a bit to get the prop a little deeper.
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the servo, so I carefully checked the rudder linkage for signs of interference with the transom or the water-tight boot.
Finally, I installed a balanced, sharpened, polished, and de-tongued Oxtura X632 prop. This may be a bit too much prop for this motor/hull/3S lipo combination I plan to run, so I will have to keep a close eye on motor temperatures for the first few runs. If things are too hot, or I feel I’m not getting full RPM out of the motor, I have a raw X632 that I may cut town to 30mm when I prep it.
My only complaint: The bottoms of the sponsons are not flat, they do not have sharp edges, and there is no deadrise. While the boat will run just fine as-is, properly detailed ride surfaces will loosen the boat up a whole lot which will give a big improvement in speed. While I would normally use epoxy and micro balloons to re-shape the ride surfaces, I have some 1/2mm carbon fiber sheet that I will use to create glue-on ride plates. That will ensure a flat ride surface and make it easy to put in about 4 degrees of deadrise.
All in all, this is a good boat for the casual hobbyist and a great modification platform for the serious enthusiast.
A nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves
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