Electric Outrigger (boat)

Welcome to RCTalk

Come join other RC enthusiasts! You'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

GilBeQuick

Hardcore RCTalk User
Messages
1,647
Reaction score
0
RC Driving Style
Well guys, I haven't been posting much lately and here's why. I mentioned in another thread that I was going to build a boat, and that's what I've been up to. I ordered plans for an outrigger hull from David Frank, and ever since the plans arrived in the mail I've been pretty carried away with this project. It's actually probably been the most enjoyable r/c project I've done. Here are some pics:

Here's the start of my latest obesssion! A scratch built, electric outrigger. There are kits out there that come with all of the parts pre-cut, but I wanted to have a go at it and give it a shot and doing it all myself.
1435Rigger_001s.jpg



Here's my workbench for this, the good old kitchen table! I used an X-Acto knife to cut all of the wood. 98% of the boat is constructed out of balsa. The other 2% is thin plywood (1/32 and 1/64), and carbon fiber shafts for the sponsons. The shafts are actually arrow shafts. No hobby store around here carries carbon fiber, or fiberglass shafts....after almost giving up on those I went to Wal-Mart of all places and saw the arrows! Aside from that, the only other things are a couple of bottles of thin c/a! Balsa wood really soaks up the glue.
The plans come as a large piece of paper (the size that a set of blueprints would come on) and all the pieces needed are accurately drawn out. What you have to do is cut the pieces out of the paper and transfer that to the wood, and then cut it out.
1435Rigger_007s.jpg



Here's a part of the plans that has most of the hull on it.
1435Rigger_002s.jpg



I started out wanting to document the build, but I got pretty carried away with it all and just kept on building! Here is the assembled hull:
1435Rigger_009s.jpg



The hull from another angle. You can see from this view that this boat isn't going to be a rough water basher!
1435Rigger_011s.jpg


Here's a top view of the hull. From this angle you can get a pretty good idea of the layout.
1435Rigger_013s.jpg



Here's where you really realize that this is no deep vee! Outriggers are made to be fast, not handle lots of chop.
1435Rigger_014s.jpg



Here you can see a little bit of how the sponsons are constructed. They have very sharp edges to glide over the water with as little resistance as possible.
1435Rigger_025s.jpg


This is just about as far as I've gotten. I've got most of the hardward to start installing, but right now I'm sealing the wood with a spar varnish, and then I'm going to paint it...not sure what kind of paint scheme though. It doesn't look like it, but it's actually taken up a lot of time. Everything has to be cut and trimmed and sanded just right to fit. But like I said before, this has been really enjoyable.
I'll take more pics and post them as I move along!
 
Last edited:
Thanks! Right now I'm putting on another coat of varnish to seal the bottom of the hull up. Tomorrow I'll finish sealing the top of it (can't do both sides at once, ya know). Hopefully this weekend I'll start painting it.
 
That looks really cool.. What powers the boat, & what kind of , if any hardware do they give you?
 
Haha, you get nothing but paper! Seriously, it's a scratch build type of thing....not a kit or anything. The plans were only $15 shipped, but come with a lot of time and experience in them...it comes with building tips and suggestions, scale drawings of the pieces, and the type of wood each piece is. He even tells you how to make your own harware to save money, but I wasn't about to mess with that just yet so I picked up the already made stuff.

For the hardware, I'm going with an offset Octura setup, which is this:
http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/images/forsale/oct_offset_rudd_pkg.JPG (sorry, the pic is too big to post here)
and am using a copper beryllium Octura X435 prop which is this:
octpropbck.JPG



To power it, I'm going with a Trinity P-94 10t triple with probably a Super Rooster ESC, but I'm not sure on the ESC yet. I've got a buddy that might sell his to me, so if he doesn't I'm not sure yet. Ohh yeah, it's going to run on 7 cells.
 
:arrr: Thats cool! About how much do you think the completed boat will cost you?
 
$15 for the plans. About $40 in wood
Outdoor wood putty: $3 Spar varnish $12
Hardware: $187 Motor $60
Glue: $10 Sandpaper $2
Xacto blades: $2 Paint will be about $15
And an ESC: $90

So right now I'm at around $436. Man I wish you didn't make me do that! It's a little more than I originally thought, but I've never done much with electrics before. So from here out I can switch out electronics from ride to ride and it'd be a little cheaper. Also, I already had a cheesy 2 channel radio laying around so that saved a few bucks.
 
Last edited:
sounds like a lot of fun. I was thinkin of gettin a boat maybe next spring. Spendin all my money on my Maxx project this year. Keep postin, I wanna see the progress
 
This morning I made the motor mount. It started out as a block of 1-1/2 X 1-1/2 X 12 balsa, but had to be cut down to 1 x 1-1/2 X 3. Then sanded to match the profile of the motor. A normal 540 sized motor has a diamer of 1-3/8.

This little biotch took me about 3 hours to get right! It has to be at just the right angle, perfectly straight so the motor is square to the hull.

Here is how the motor mount is shaped:
1435Rigger_026s.jpg

1435Rigger_027s.jpg


Here is how it sits in the boat:
1435Rigger_029s.jpg


Another view from the side:
1435Rigger_030s.jpg



I covered the area inbetween the sponsons with 1/64 plywood, as reccomened by the maker of the plans, to help produce lift for the front of the boat. If it looks like one side is slightly wider than the other, well you're right it is!, but only by 1/16". It isn't supposed to be, but the glue had dried and it was stuck. Thin CA dries VERY fast!
Front view:
1435Rigger_032s.jpg


Side View:
https://www.rcnitrotalk.com/gallery/data/500/1435Rigger_034s.JPG


Here's just a quick shot at the rear of the boat:
1435Rigger_035s.jpg




Arrow, just sitting still in the water, the nose should be just slightly out. Once you give it throttle, just like a car or truck, the nose rises and the rear squats. If you notice, the hull and sponsons are angled upward to not "dig in" to the water. At speed the boat should be riding on nothing but the bottom of the rear sponsons and the prop.....or so I've been told. This is my first experience with a boat like this, so hopefully it'll run the way it should!
 
Last edited:
Crap! Well, I messed up the angle of the motor mount a little bit, so right now I'm sanding to make it right......
 
Been any developments in this project yet Gil? I'm interested to see how this goes.
 
Actually I finished the boat about a week ago. The only piece I was missing was the speed control, which was on order...and I got that on Wed of this week. I would have posted an update already, but I was waiting to get my camera back from my parents so I could post pics with it.

I took the boat out on Wednesday night to test it out. I was being pretty easy on it, and it got out about 30ft and the motor started revving up higer but the boat wasn't moving....DAMN!, I forgot to tighten down the flex shaft coupler all the way! Well, a swimming I went. I'm waiting for this weekend, probably Saturday or Sunday, to take the boat down to my in-law's lake house to test it out in their quiet, calm cove.

Next time I post on it, I'll let you know how it does, hopefully with pics!
 
Back
Top