Slo-mo V race report #3

[Roger J. Newton]

This weekend we traveled to a spot in eastern Washington. The pond is in Ellensburg where the wind blows most of the time. Not this time though. The water was good all weekend. After the last race I reworked the sponsons. Went down from about 5 degrees to 3 Degrees. And made them shallower. This is what we run on most Nitro boats. First test I had an X462/ blade. This is what I thought worked best. Going down the backstretch on the second lap it hit a couple of small wakes, bounced three times and rolled over. Not a good beginning. I had moved the batteries back a couple of cells to change the CG but I didnt like that so I moved them back to the original position. Next run, same prop. rolled over in the right corner at full speed. So I started changing props. What I found worked best was an Octura X560/2 blade. My first heat on Sunday I had a good start on the inside and won the heat beating 4 other boats in the process. This was a legitimate win. Second heat it died in the mill. One of the connections on the motor came unsoldered. It took me awhile to fix it. In the process I missed the third heat. In the fourth heat I once again had a dynamite start and led thru the first turn but I noticed it didnt have the speed as before. It started slowing down and the other boats got around me. I did manage to finish the heat for a third place finish. The only thing I can figure is that I grabbed the wrong set of batts. They werent fully charged. Bummer. Charged up another set and did a demo before the final heat. I had a good lap of 17 seconds. The really fast boats were around 15 seconds. I of course didnt make the final. There were 36 boats at the race and I finished in fifteenth spot.
Sure am looking forward to going to the Nats next month. I have learned so much this past month or so and I know I will learn a whole bunch more back there.
Lets hear from some of the other 1/8 scale FE's. What is going on.
Roger

[Randy Naylor]

Hi Roger.
I enjoy your reports with much intrest each time. I had asked the Boys in District 9 if I could run my Electric 1/8 scale last year and I got a big NO! I did not have a great motor at the time and the boat was just test run at MC5 with a borrowed 2280 12T
Lehener motor. So I went on with my racing electrics in other relms. When I saw that you were going to come to the nats it renewed my intrest sence I was going any way and have a 3/4 compleated boat. Scence then I have been working on my boat. Ordered the motor, Built the cowells, waiting on mold compound to build the merlin motor and fake driver. This week end I have been working on the finish of the hull. prepairing for the paint work. that is whare I am at as of right now. with 4 weeks to go.

[Andrewg]

Roger just curious as to what you think you are taking out of your cells in a race ? or what are you putting back in when you recharge them after a race?

Also how do you manage pit and mill time? - drop it in at the end and run slow or go run quick?

[Roger J. Newton]

Randy- Good to hear that you will have an 1/8 scale. I have been writing these reports hoping to get more interest in them. There are a couple of guys here that have shown a definite interest for next year. Not sure what the future with RCU will be. Have to wait til the season is over. Did your District give you any reason why you couldnt run with. I know for a fact they dont have an overabundance of scales there. Or maybe they didnt want to get embarassed by an electric.

[Roger J. Newton]

Andrew- Not sure what I am getting out of the batts. I should be timing each run. I am able to run 8 or 9 good hot laps. Takes about 35-40 minutes to recharge at 4 Amps.
At the first race I would start at 1 minute. Mill around then make a start. At the second race I would go in th water at 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Run a couple of hot laps then park it way out of the way and start up again at 1 minute. That worked good but someone complained so they told me at this last race I couldnt stop out there. All I can say is "Boneheads". For the race yesterday I went in th water at 1 1/2 minutes. Worked fine. I just wish I could put together 4 heats in a race without any problems. Maybe it is a good thing that I havent. They might ban me if I started winning.
I am going to save the Mo for the Nats. I am redoing my 2004 Bud to run in the next couple of races. I have taken the Mo as far as I can for now. As soon as I run the Bud I will give another report.

[Randy Naylor]

Originally posted by Roger J. Newton
Randy- Good to hear that you will have an 1/8 scale. I have been writing these reports hoping to get more interest in them. There are a couple of guys here that have shown a definite interest for next year. Not sure what the future with RCU will be. Have to wait til the season is over. Did your District give you any reason why you couldnt run with. I know for a fact they dont have an overabundance of scales there. Or maybe they didnt want to get embarassed by an electric.

The reason was that the motor needed to be a .67 nitro and it did not fit.

To help your roll problem ( at least with the Sports) this is what I do, run 18 cells on the turn fin side and 16 cells on the other side. this will help a little as not to carry too much weight on the left sponson. Also when crossing a wake in a turn, let off the throttle for a secondan you go threw it reapply the power. Hope this helps, I know you have a lot of experance and may or may not know this.

I will put up some pictures of my progress soon in the scale board.

[Roger J. Newton]

Thanks Randy. I had thought of the battery thing. Makes sense. My son runs the Hawaii Kai with a CMB. [ One those noisy messy motors] and he can go thru the corners like you wouldnt believe. I keep expecting him to roll but hasnt yet. The difference has to be the extra weight of the batts. With the smaller prop and I am watching my speed in the corners now it seems to be better. Hasnt rolled since. But it would be smart to get more weight to the right side.

[Randy Naylor]

Originally posted by Roger J. Newton
Thanks Randy. I had thought of the battery thing. Makes sense. My son runs the Hawaii Kai with a CMB. [ One those noisy messy motors] and he can go thru the corners like you wouldnt believe. I keep expecting him to roll but hasnt yet. The difference has to be the extra weight of the batts. With the smaller prop and I am watching my speed in the corners now it seems to be better. Hasnt rolled since. But it would be smart to get more weight to the right side.

Yes the big differance is the weight and the shovel is narrow. With these big boats it would seam that bouncing due to off center weight would not be a problem. Get the weight didtrubtion right and if the turn fin can hold you should be able to do the same thing. The big problem with the little sports is that the deck is too low and if the sponson is pushed too deep in the water it trips. It is gona take a 4 or 5 inch wave to trip the 1/8 scale.