Newbie - Walk me through things :)

[JeffEmbracedDC]

Hey, guys. So I've got a lot of experience in the rc car forums (like 800 posts or more) but I'm pretty new to boats and I have no idea what to look for, or what to cautious of when choosing a boat.

I have a huge (like really big) body of salt water that is typically very calm near my home. I'm looking in to what kind of options I have for an electric boat. I'm not sure what kind of attributes that are generally looked for in a boat, but I'll say I want it to be self-righting (I assume they almost all are), and I'm looking for something that can go pretty fast! I don't need it to take jumps much or handle amazingly. Just something reliable with some decent speed. My budget would be like $300 or less for a complete set up. I assume choosing your components is better than getting an "rtr" boat. I'm open to either. I have servos, a radio system, batteries and a charger, what else do I need? I assume the boat itself, ESC, and motor. Is there anything else?

I guess my desired speed would be 30+mph. Hopefully faster. I have experience with brushed and brushless systems. So what kind of options do I have? You guys have any suggestions? Just from a second or two of looking around, the SuperVee 27 looks right up my alley (price range, the brushless, 2 channel pistol grip, speed range, etc) Thanks a bunch in advance!

-Jeff

[JeffEmbracedDC]

So after a bit more looking around I saw some videos of the SuperVee 27 and noticed that I guess you can actually get them stuck upside down? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIjGUNUb4GU&mode=related&search=)

I guess that's kind of an issue for me as I don't have a boat to go rescue my little boat :) hah. How big of an issue is this? I also noticed on all of the videos that they really seem to skip along slowly until they get some momentum and then they really take off. Is that always the case, or are there some kind of tweaks you can make to make it accellerate/top out differently like bow weights?

The SuperVee is a hand laid fiberglass hull? I noticed the external parts were aluminum and stainless (instead lf plastic, or steel with crappy rubber boots). The supervee actually looks real nice. Does it accept regular 540 motors (like a Feigao 540 7XL)?

Thanks again!

[Rex R]

Re:flipping
can be considered the norm for most boats that move faster than about 20 mph. the SV as it comes out of the box is fairly stable(with in reason), tame some might say. pretty good as a 2nd boat(for those who have no experience with rc). it starts getting exciting after one starts adjusting things to get more out of it.
cavitation:
this is a propeller issue(a sharpened & balanced octura 'x440/3 blade' will provide a smidge more speed but, gets the boat moving better).
motor:
uses a '540' size motor...that is rated conservatedly at 600w! (stock measured peak draw 660w). really the motor is not the weakest link(the stock radio is imo).
misc:
there have been some quaility control problems reported...but mostly these are easily corrected. one poss. down side, metric fittings :) you would at a min need both a 10mm and a 12mm open end wrenches(as mentioned in the manual btw) prolly the closest boat yet to be Ready-to-Race out of the box(race prep takes about 15-30 minutes!). it does need a sizable pond to run on(definitly not a pool toy).

[JeffEmbracedDC]

Yeah. The radio definitely isn't my style. Right now I use a Spektrum dx2.0. Eventually I would most likely switch out the motor and ESC for like a feigao 540 7XL and a decent ESC.

It seems like a fairly decent value, although I wish they sold the hulls separetaly so I could install my own gear. Are there other decent quality fiberglass hulls available from other companies? As mentioned previously, I'm mostly interested in getting decent speed and stability. It seems that this hull design bounces a bit. Maybe a wider hull with a hollow deal underneath would be faster and more stable? What do you guys think?

-J

[Rex R]

if you don't mind buying hardware seperatly...check out www.offshoreelectrics.com steven has a fair selection of hulls to choose from.

[JeffEmbracedDC]

Thanks! Yeah, I was actually looking through their electric hulls earlier today. They only had one tunnel hull and it was pretty expensive. Anyway, I'll definitely keep that site in my bookmarks. Thanks :)

-Jeff