Boat upgrade help!

Thank you once again for all your advice (:

I will take your advice and work out a list of what is required and pricing of both options. Either to replace both motors or just use the current motors with a esc.

Sorry for all my questions I am new to model boats.

Would you recommend one rudder in the centre or 2 rudders linked together?

Many thanks!

If you do decide to replace the motors that will be the biggest challenge, getting ones of a size that will fit and be low enough to align with the existing shafts.

As for the rudder, with a fast boat one is enough and it has a small blade. Usually with this type of boat the rudder is mounted on the rear and so it comes down to practicalities - one in the middle is probably the best bet? Can you post a photo of the rear.

As I said before have a peruse of TFL Hobby rudders on Noahs Ark RC.

Here's a photo of the rudder on one of my boats. It sticks out a long way because it's carrying the prop as well. Yours doesn't need to so the rudder can be closer to the stern.

You could mount a rudder inside but that brings it's own problems; space, mounting, water ingress etc. Also, dependent on the position of the props the rudder might end up in front of them. It will steer but will probably be very twitchy and spin out a lot at higher speeds.

Ask as many questions as you like!

Chris

Edited By Chris Fellows on 26/09/2023 11:58:53

And another of my boats where the prop shaft isn't supported by the rudder. It still sticks out quite a long way because of the prop position. There are rudders with shorter brackets where props are further forward like yours.

Thank you for your response and advice and providing some very useful photos!

From everybody's advice so far I have decided to keep the original motors and just fit a new speed controller to run both motors. I will then fit a servo to control a rudder or 2.

Hopefully the photos attachment works of the rear of the boat. From that would you recommend one or 2 rudders?

Thank you all so much once again

Sort of, if you go for two rudders, they really need to be behind the props and that may be an issue unless you go for extensions to put the rudders on.

This is not tricky, as a bit of brass tube to hold the rudder shaft soldered to a brass strip does for the extension, and the tillers can be on top, and using aircraft style snakes offers not only a waterproof entry point into the hull, but enables one servo to be conveniently mounted forward as the snakes are very flexible..

Having both tillers pointing onwards allows the use of a single ”double” arm on the servo to operate both rudders.

A single central rudder will work of course but not very well at low speeds....but that’s hardly an issue!

Ashley

Hi Chris,

Just a further thought : Winter is usually my "electronics hobby" time. Before you scrap the 'Blue Box' controller, it may be worth having a look inside to see if it's salvageable....

Assumptions here are that the PCB isn't totally wrecked, the radio bit (if fitted) is 27 MHz, and it just needs a service perhaps with some new transistors, capacitors, resistors etc.

It would be worth upgrading the receiver to 2.4 GHz (what most modellers use these days)....

Costs : Postage, replacement electronic bits plus radio gear. If you would like to send it to me, I could give you an assessment before spending any money. Just PM me first.

Cheers,

Dave