Boat weight effect.

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Intlwaters

Help Support Intlwaters:

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

Samuel Hagan JR

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2010
Messages
4,661
I’m pretty sure I built a boat to heavy but does weight of a boat effect FE the same as it does Nitro.
 
I have to agree with Dave's post. To take it one step further, the more weight you end up with, the more it's going to cost you. When it comes to boats, more weight means:
  • more power is needed to get the boat up on plane
  • top end will be lower since the boat will probably have more contact area with the water
  • the boat won't want to turn as easily due to inertia
  • shorter run times due to needing more power to get the boat up and keep it up
If you're only talking an ounce or three, it's probably not going to be a big deal. If your talking half a pound or more.........
 
While as an engineer I agree the basic assumptions are correct less weight is generally better however I would say only generally. If you can make it lighter (assuming no other trade off like strength) you should.

However the benefit in actual practice is not so obvious. For example in LSG Thunderboat fiberglass boats compete very well against wood boats. This is despite that fiberglass boats tend to be 1-3 lbs heavier than wood boats.

So my opinion
Lighter is better. However things like hull design, aerodynamics, prop selection, overall tuning are probably more important as a whole.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Kris Flynn said:
It will have the same effect as the nitros as far as acceleration...it just wont be the same unless you look at GS course logs or data logs as other have said already.

Ultimately, electric boats are generally 'too fast' for their size for most current designs so weight is your friend!
Click to expand...

This is the answer I was looking for. It feels heavy to me. I had another person look at it and it seems fine to them. Thanks.
 
Weight dictates how much energy it takes to accelerate AND then deaccelerate the model. We boaters to not care so much about deacceleration so the lighter the better when it comes to acceleration. Gee forces are effected as you have less force on the acting surfaces on and in the water (i.e. turn fin)

Lighter is better.. but.. all other performance aspects of the boat can become hyper irregular. (meaning you better have your ^^^ together.. LOL)

Grim

P.S.
in altitude rocketry BOTH are important.. (A very sticky balance).. a fun game!
 
Electric motors have lots of low end torque that really helps. On the other hand, my Leecraft XT-460 with P limited electric power weighs around the same as it did with an 11 cc K&B. The electric power plant has lots more power making the boat seriously faster. That gives problems I haven't completely solved.

Lohring Miller
 

Similar threads

J
COG on Zipp Missile
2
Replies
29
Views
2K
Jeffrey Hammond
J
Jerry Dunlap
Converting JD WOF to EP
Replies
3
Views
251
Jerry Dunlap
Jerry Dunlap
Stephan Peterson
FE Scale weights
Replies
2
Views
1K
Stephan Peterson
Stephan Peterson
G
ML Boatworks 1/8th Scale Newton 172 Extreme Prop Walk
2 3
Replies
41
Views
3K
Greg Stamatis
G
J
Returning to the water after 20ish years
Replies
8
Views
623
Justin "BeaVe" BeVier
J

Latest posts

Back
Top