I have commenced the build on this boat. Started with a new bare hull. First task was to blank off all the holes in the hatch originally intended for the gasser model. Next task was to fit a 30 cm long carbon fibre plate longitudinal bulkhead under the foredeck. Initially I intended to bond a lateral bulkhead under the forward edge of the hatch cutout after I had fitted pool noodles under the foredeck. My thoughts now are to screw the lateral bulkhead to the aft edge of the longitudinal bulkhead and then using a sealant bond the lateral bulkhead lower edge to the hull inner vee. This should minimise any fretting that may occur between the CF plate bulkhead and the hull fibreglass inner surface. The bulkhead should then be able to be removed should the forward part of the hull suffer any damage.
The basic hull is very nose heavy so I am wary of too much weight up forward, so considering the thickness of the hull, I will be doing a single layer CF cloth outboard of the rails up to the hatch opening forward edge and then a double layer for 0.5 metres forward from the transom in the centre section of the hull. The transom inner face will then receive two layers of CF cloth and then a final layer of 1.5 mm CF plate. After the cutouts have been made to accommodate the Arneson drive I will then insert two dual cooling water inlet plates each side of the vee as close to the transom as possible. By having a total of four inlets I intend having independent pickups each side for each of the motor and ESC.
The intended drive is a T20 Turnigy motor running 730kv on either 8s or 10s. 10s is the maximum voltage for the motor. The T20 is an interim motor for testing/installation purposes as a more powerful TP Motor is a possibility as I have doubts as to the overall performance of the Turnigy motor. I have sourced a 5 inch rail mount for the motor and have test fitted this to the hull. The original cutouts in the stock fibreglass rails matched the motor mount perfectly, just requiring a quick wipe with a rat tail round file to allow the 5 mm mount bolts to fit through the rails. The ESC most likely will be a waterproof Hifei 300 amp model. A 2200 mah LiFe battery will supply the receiver as there will be two interconnected servos to operate the cable steering TFL Arneson drive unit. Most likely a 60 mm 3-bladed prop will be used for initial testing. I intend four batteries (two each side of the motor) with a bias towards the rear of the hull due the stock nose heavy hull. Hopefully, CoG will be able to be reached in the 26 - 28% range.
The build will take sometime as it seems that every little bonding task takes hours for the epoxy resin to cure before the next step can occur. The stock hatch will be reinforced with several layers of CF cloth and retained to the hull with six mount bolts fitted to underdeck 4 mm nut plates bonded to the underside of the lip on the hull. The two centre nut plate mounts will require an extension to be bonded to the underside of the lip as the stock lip is not wide enough in the mid location. Images will be provided as the build continues.
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