Graupner Key West

[Dr. Jet]

Now there's a title you haven't seen here for a while.

One of the longtime members here, and a good friend offered me a 26" catamaran hull the other day. Now, there's a lot of work necessary to get this hull usable and I hit upon an ideal of how to power it. Somewhere, in some box, I have a Lehner Basic 5300 mounted on a Hughey geardrive and some old Fullers Cat hardware. I used this drive system in a Graupner Key West using a setup similar to one that Jay Turner (a.k.a. Fluid) wrote about in an RCBM article maybe 25 years ago. I built this Key West maybe 15 years ago.

So I'm digging through boxes and what do I find? That old Key West in remarkably good condition. I live on the coast, so it never really gets dry here and the hull hasn't seen sunlight since I put it away all those years ago. The plastic has not dried out or become brittle (well, at least, not much) and the boat is completely salvageable. Other than the rubber boots on the rudder linkage, it's all good. It has an old Schulze Future 88Wo ESC that should still work, I just need to solder new connectors on it. I originally ran it on 6 NiCds, so it will get a 2S2P setup.

Rather than tear the power system out of this and scrap a perfectly good hull, I think I can get it back on the water as something fun to run.

Here are some of the old build photos. After I clean it up a bit, I'll post new ones.

[photohoward1]

Memories. I won a lot of races with that boat. Had at least 6. Used to reck about o or two a year. Ran it on 8 and 12 cell NICADS. Powered it with a Plett brushed and an RC HYDRO ESC. Andy Kunz design.
3 minute races average about 20 mph.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dr. Jet]

My first one had an Astro 25 Marine and one of Bob Boucher's ESCs. I ran it on 14 NiCds. It weighed a ton. With the lighter weight LiPos and a motor almost 200 grams lighter, the ready-to-run weight should be about half that of my first KW. I think it would make a good fun-runner now.

[RaceMechaniX]

I found one of those Old Schulze Future 80's and a LMT Basic motor on eBay not too long ago.

[Dr. Jet]

I found one of those Old Schulze Future 80's and a LMT Basic motor on eBay not too long ago.

I'm not the only one with that?? I wonder what that's worth in today's world...

[RaceMechaniX]

I think I bought the ESC and LMT 4200 basic for $65. So not a whole hell of a lot.......

[Dr. Jet]

I think I bought the ESC and LMT 4200 basic for $65. So not a whole hell of a lot.......

That's a screaming deal. Remember our motto: Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. That's plenty cheap.

[T.S.Davis]

That first set of pics kills me. Couple of my turds in that group photo.

One of my fondest memories racing was chasing Howard's Keywest around the pond in offshore at the Michigan Cup. On a 1/10 mile course with a dog leg. Giggling like little girls. Maybe 2001 or 2002? Those days were so fun. You didn't need lightening fast ninja like reflexes to race back then.

Threw away a bunch of boats a couple weeks ago. A Key and Systems among them. Could not bring myself to part with the old RC Hydro speedo. It was my first real speed controller. I think I still have the plug for those Keywest canopies that Dennis Whitt fabricated somewhere.

[Dr. Jet]

That first set of pics kills me. Couple of my turds in that group photo.

In that photo is my old H&M Miss Budweiser (Big Lehner on 12 NiCds), the BBY Micro Scat Cat Twin (before paint), and a little mono I don't recall. Wayne's KW is just barely visible in the photo. I sold the hydro to SoCalBill because it was just too fast to run at our little pond with the big rock in the middle. That was a great hull.

One of my fondest memories racing was chasing Howard's Keywest around the pond in offshore at the Michigan Cup. On a 1/10 mile course with a dog leg. Giggling like little girls. Maybe 2001 or 2002? Those days were so fun. You didn't need lightening fast ninja like reflexes to race back then.

Threw away a bunch of boats a couple weeks ago. A Key and Systems among them. Could not bring myself to part with the old RC Hydro speedo. It was my first real speed controller. I think I still have the plug for those Keywest canopies that Dennis Whitt fabricated somewhere.

I could have sworn I got that canopy from Randy. Heck, I may have bought it from you a few decades ago......

I still have a Systems I may finish one day as another "Fun Runner".

[T.S.Davis]

I stand corrected. I forgot about the Mini Scat. I thought that was a Stray cat.

I could swear the canopy I was making was more bubble forward. Randy did have scoops but they were different than yours are there. Think I see an El Lobo mono in there too. It's like a flash back.

I remember racing all of those on 12 cells and 700 motors before brushless motors. Hard to believe now but it was the perfect power for the Viper.

[Dr. Jet]

Hmmm.... You're right. It is a Stray Cat. You should know.... It had an Aveox F5D motor in it as I recall that I got from Brian Buaas when he switched to Lehner motors in his pylon racers. I think I got the hull from Brian years later.

I added the scoops to the replacement canopy. I think they were cut out from the original canopy.

El Lobo! That was the name of the mono.......

[Ch.Lucas]

Hi,
nice to see that you had a lot of fun with the Key West. The Key West was designed by Peter Schmidt when we start surface propeller boats for Graupner. Have you removed the wedge at the transom of the sponson ? they worke like a trimtab with high angle of attace.
We run it with Plettenberg Ultra 800 and 900 motors on up to 20 2/3 sub-c cells with about 900 mAh kapacity. Every year we show Mr. Graupner our boats we build up for next season and toy fair at N?rberg. We go with him to a small lake close to the company and show how the boats perform. I had a dragboat with Hemi V8 from Parma but he want the Key West. Dragboats are not very knowen in Europ. My was moore hydroplane for hydro II class with 12 sub-c and 6 lap oval race.

Happy Amps Christian

[properchopper]

sold the hydro to SoCalBill

I was play running my AQ UL-1 (or was it my FE30?? I can't remember)with SoCalBill and this Hydro at Legg when he ran it into the death buoy in turn 1 . Haven't seen him since.........

[Fluid]

Great nostalgia! I had several Key West boats, we used to race them in an indoor pool during the Alaskan winter. It was the club?s top tier racing class, most ran 8 NiCds and an Astro 05 on a triangular course with top speeds in the low 30s. Absolutely crazy, those boats would make 135* turns flat out! Wouldn?t have believed it if I hadn?t seen it. I removed the wedge on the sponson bottoms. I also ran 4 Nicads with a modified 05 car motor on a Hughey gear box in mine and was competitive with the 8-cell boats due to the lower weight and larger prop. Plus a bit of 05 magic Ed told me. I miss him.

I had an H2O cat, but could never get the performance I wanted out of it. I think I gave up too soon.


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[Dr. Jet]

.......... Have you removed the wedge at the transom of the sponson ?

Yes, that was the first thing to go. I added styrene ride pads that overhung the sponsons by about 1mm or so. I later smoothed them out with epoxy/graphite mix.

[Dr. Jet]

Great nostalgia! ......... those boats would make 135* turns flat out! Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

I was hoping you would chime in. I know how much you liked those boats. And yes, I think the main reason I want to get this old one running again is those 180-degree turns at full throttle. The Systems would do that too. It was like they were defying the laws of physics AND common sense.

[Ch.Lucas]

Hi,
yes the cornering is great. It belongs to the situation we run NAVIGA race class and P. Schmidt was a Word Champion in F1 stearing class.
We run F1-1kg boats , size 20 inches long on the triangle course , doing 10 to 11 seconds for this 200 meter race. https://youtu.be/_k3p_oLkXbA . I have run a Prather 21 tunnel in F1+1kg with surface propeller . To get the tunnel in tight corner i ad tunrfins on both side ,outside, of the sponson close to c.g. . So the Prather did 12 seconds for this 200 meters.
Old pics , some days gone.

Happy Amps Christian