Black Pearl II Hydro - 2020

[Shooter]

I love cf. It looks awesome......but I've just seen too many radio issues. Not something I want to contend with.

[longballlumber]

Why do you use aluminum for the motor plate rather than cf?

Aluminum also provides additional heat dissipation from the motors (heatsink). CF doesn't have very good thermal conductive properties.

[T.S.Davis]

Another version. Can't remember which version this was. Pete will know. Finally slapped some graphics on it.

P Pearl 4-21-22.jpg

[Shooter]

Good point Mike. That's a huge deal for some clubs that require you to bake in the center when the race is over. I was always a big believer in heat sinks which is why I made that endbell sink.

Terry - That boat is beautiful.

[T.S.Davis]

Aluminum also provides additional heat dissipation from the motors (heatsink).

Who runs their stuff that hot though? Come on now from me?..........that's just funny right there. I don't care who ya are.

[eric113]

Hey Pete, a thought I had the other day.. have you considered using styrene for sheeting? Instead of wood. Since it easy to work with bendable,heatable, make few scores and snap off pieces for clean lines. Won’t have seal it.

[Shooter]

Who runs their stuff that hot though? Come on now from me?..........that's just funny right there. I don't care who ya are.

I let Tyler use my motor once. His boat went about 6 trillion times faster than mine, but came back with the motor literally in flames with melted solder connections. Those are good times there!!!

Hey, and where's Larry in this conversation??? He's the only one I know capable of nearly clearing that bridge back in turn two at the Elks club. I was hoping that he would hit 88mph in flight and warp back into 1985 before it landed!! Man, that was a fast cat!!

[Shooter]

Hey Pete, a thought I had the other day.. have you considered using styrene for sheeting? Instead of wood. Since it easy to work with bendable,heatable, make few scores and snap off pieces for clean lines. Won’t have seal it.

Funny, I thought I was the only nut case that thought of that. To answer your question, YES. The Vacu-pickle is one of my favorite boats BTW.

[TRUCKPULL]

I let Tyler use my motor once. His boat went about 6 trillion times faster than mine, but came back with the motor literally in flames with melted solder connections. Those are good times there!!!

Hey, and where's Larry in this conversation??? He's the only one I know capable of nearly clearing that bridge back in turn two at the Elks club. I was hoping that he would hit 88mph in flight and warp back into 1985 before it landed!! Man, that was a fast cat!!

I am working on a new one right now, 42" twin 8S Cat. ( https://forums.offshoreelectrics.com...ld-8S-Twin-Cat )
I will still have my 6S Cat for "Q" class

Larry

[T.S.Davis]

Hey Pete, a thought I had the other day.. have you considered using styrene for sheeting? Instead of wood. Since it easy to work with bendable,heatable, make few scores and snap off pieces for clean lines. Won’t have seal it.

We've seen the belly pans rip right off of these when they are 1/16" ply. Styrene? I think I would have the diver on hand every time I ran it.

[T.S.Davis]

That'll do Pig. That'll do.

P Pearl 4-24-22.jpg

[Shooter]

So Terry, what do you feed it?

[T.S.Davis]

What ever it wants.

[Shooter]

[eric113]

We've seen the belly pans rip right off of these when they are 1/16" ply. Styrene? I think I would have the diver on hand every time I ran it.

Anything can break. Even wood sheet. Styrene is pretty durable. I watched guys make custom bodies out of styrene for rc crawlers and then go flog them, they held up to abuse they put them through. Quit being scared to try out some plastic sheeting.

[T.S.Davis]

Quit being scared to try out some plastic sheeting.

Not quite a fear exactly. Is it?......I guess I am skeerd.

I scratch built a vacuum forming machine coined by my wife as "Terry's Easy Bake Oven". I used to make hulls from ABS and polystyrene. Sold a few. Nothing crazy. Even pulled one out of clear PETG. Crazy looking thing. You could see all the innards. Ran fer crap. The toughest of the bunch is ABS but it's a pain in butt to form. You have to dehydrate that to heat it or it blisters. Ugh. Hated it. Might work as a skin. ABS is pretty solid until you heat it up. Works well for injection mold too.

Once we all went brushless, lipo, and crested 50mph I stopped making them. If they stuff at speed they tended to come apart. Sometimes the plastic ripped but usually the seems gave out. There's just no way to make rock solid seem up in the front of the hulls. It could well have been that the flexibility of the styrene made the joints eventually fail. Couple that uncertainty to the sheer dollars involved in the internals now......I just gave up on them. Still have the machine though....cuz I'm hoarder....apparently.

I'll snap a pic of the bottoms on these latest builds later tonight. I skinned the bottoms with G10. That's plastic.....sorta. Fiber reinforced plastic but still plastic. It's much heavier than simple ply with resin but it's also a ton stronger. Worth it? Meh. Probably not but I feel good so screw it. I also worried that the bond between the wood frames and the G10 is purely mechanical in that the resin doesn't actually soak across the joint and make the frame and the skin a single matrix. That really is a thing and adds strength to the joint. The first one I did with the G10 this way was my sons and he's hit everything but the neighbors cat with it. He's also difficult to beat with it. Not sure if its the boat or his skill. So far so good though. Boat hasn't exploded.

[Shooter]

For me it's always been the seams, as Terry said. The only guy that figured it out was Phil Pace. The vacu-pickle was indestructible. Great boat.

[T.S.Davis]

Plastic belly. Wire management is solid on this one.

P Pearl 4-28-22.jpg .

[eric113]

Plastic belly. Wire management is solid on this one.

P Pearl 4-28-22.jpg .

P limited I assume? Since your using mamba X. I really want try one for my p limited.

[Shooter]

What wires? Man, that's tight! Nice!

[T.S.Davis]

P limited I assume? Since your using mamba X. I really want try one for my p limited.

Yep. Limited. I run the tiny Castle for spite. Some like to imply that I use amps to go fast. Impossible that I might have figured something out after 20 some years. I think the next size up from this is a better option. The 8s would fit in there and be nearly bullet proof.

My son got me started trying to keep everything out of site. He reworks the leads on the servos in his cars so that they're just an inch or two. ESC with maybe a 1" lead looks weird but no crazy coil of wire to hide.

[RandyatBBY]

Hi Guys
I read most of the thread and could not find the Spruce info, Got a link?
I found bigger but not 1/8 and how many lengths will I need?

[longballlumber]

Silver can P-limited motor?

[ezhitz]

I thought the same maybe he shaved off the blue save more weight.

[jaike5]

Nooooo , its platinum!!
J.

[Shooter]

Hi Guys
I read most of the thread and could not find the Spruce info, Got a link?
I found bigger but not 1/8 and how many lengths will I need?

Hi Randy. I sent you an email. Let me know if you are still having trouble finding spruce sticks. Thanks.

[Shooter]

Finally getting another coat of primer on this thing. Amazing how much goes into prepping for one coat of paint. All the taping, cleaning, mixing, and of course acclimating everything to the ambient temp for a few hours prior to shooting paint. (we are in the middle of a heat wave here in Michigan). Did klasskote prices go up? I can't remember paying this much for paint! Eeeeek!

[TRUCKPULL]

Pete
I sent you an E-Mail

Larry

[RandyatBBY]

Hi Randy. I sent you an email. Let me know if you are still having trouble finding spruce sticks. Thanks.

I found them on ebay, thanks

[T.S.Davis]

You guys keep spelling mahogany sticks wrong.