The Pacific northwest has years of
experimenting with electric boats. The various groups have different goals for their style of racing.
Scale guys want to concentrate on imitating full size boats with little emphasis on power plant development. This shows in the nitro, gas, and electric racing rules. Others want to limit powerplant experimentation but allow development in propellers and hulls. They run P spec and similar rules. All out electric racers run the full NAMBA rules where only the battery is limited.
The ultimate case of this is in full sized boats where, at present, only the motor type (brushed) and battery voltage is limited. Developing a fast boat within these limitations was a serious engineering and development job. There was a very large input from model racers since at that time (2007) lithium polymer batteries were very new. The fact that
this record, set in 2008, still stands shows the caliber of the effort.
Some of the same electric model boat racers are quitely upping
model records through their continued development. Those results will trickle down to the limited classes and give hobby racers a fun, but much less expensive experience. Continued rule revisions will be needed and the advance in technology makes better performance available from low cost components. Great,
moderate cost large motors are starting to become available. It was already pointed out that the Turnigy Marine 120 is a good, low cost speed control. The 20C Enerland batteries we ran in 2008 were state of the art at that time. Now
45 (actual) C batteries with much less internal resistance are moderate cost. Even
premium batteries are reasonably priced, and, in my opinion, worth it.
Let's spend time thinking about what the minimum restrictions need to be to achieve the goals of the majority of people racing particular boats. I promise this will change as time passes, but cost will still be proportional to the current draw.
Lohring Miller
