Question for Electric Guys

[RichardB]

I noticed nothing is protected from the water. many of these boats all the electronice are exposed. why is that ?

 

[PropNut]

Fully sealed, tape down hatches. The whole boat is treated as a radio box.

All the best,

Ray

 

[Darin Jordan]

I noticed nothing is protected from the water. many of these boats all the electronice are exposed. why is that ?

The 1/10th scale guys simply think that tape is unacceptable... They want the scale look, period... So a lot of them just try to waterproof the components and take their chances...

NAMBA or IMPBA class FE boats, however, generally use full tape-down hatches and do everything they can to keep water OUT...

With an FE boat... usually if you are tipping the boat upside down at the end of a heat to rid it of water, you are about to have some bigger issues...

 

[Raydee]

Darin do the 10th scale guys prohibit the use of tape?? If that is the case I would be very upset, I can't imagine a FE boat without a fully taped down hatch.

 

[Darin Jordan]

Darin do the 10th scale guys prohibit the use of tape?? If that is the case I would be very upset, I can't imagine a FE boat without a fully taped down hatch.

I'm not sure if it's explicitly called out with either club (Classic Thunder or E-RCU), but since the boat has to be "scale" to race, and the real boats don't use tape to hold down the cowl, well... I've never seen one sealed up that way...

If I were building one from scratch, I'd build a rigger tub down the middle and house all the electronics in that, then make a sealable sub-hatch. Boats are 36+" long... there ought to be plenty of room to do that and still have things look "right"...

Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of "scale"... Too nit-picky for my tastes... Sport Scale, where one get's REALLY close, is good enough for me... But they aren't my rules so I'll follow what they have...

 

[lohring]

We run a full size outboard hydroplane where the aluminum hatches are held on with screws, but sealed with tape. It works very well.

Lohring Miller

 

[Ron D]

In E-RCU, some use clear tape to hold down the cowling and that is perfectly acceptable. Most guys run with an exposed rudder servo and speed control but the receiver in a water tight box. Myself, I'm old school and have my receiver, switch, receiver battery and servo in a sealed radio box. The Castle Barracuda speed control is water resistant but I seal up the ends with Blackburn Duct Seal. The same stuff we seal up wireways on ships with. It is the consistancy of modeling clay and sticks like crazy bit does not harden like silicone so you can get it off without destroying anything. The motor is exposed but fresh water is not a problem, just blow down with air. I do like to keep my ESC up out of the bilge.