WTB and thoughts on: H&M M-1 Super Cat

[Ballorshk]

Hi,

I have never raced formally but I do enjoy FE sport racing. And someday, when time permits would like to get to NJ or somewhere in the Northeast for an FE NAMBA race.

Well, anyways, I own a Fine Design built Titan 40 and Graupner Keywest. Both boats are fun and can be made to be fairly fast. I have the Keywest running low to mid 30's and the Titan 40 running high 30's to low 40's right now. I cannot seem to get the Titan to run mid to high 40's without blow over concerns.

I want a boat that can run 50's or higher with the ability to hit 60 mph. I want her to be stable in the straights without too much worry of blow overs, and it would be nice if she can take a turn at a decent clip. Runtimes will vary I know. But, since I will be using her for sport reasons I would like to get 6+ minutes out of her and still run high speeds. Is that possible?

I detune my Titan 40 so I can run several minutes or more at my local pond and really enjoy it. It took me one season to really tweak my Titan to get it to run fairly cool, with good run time, and still hit decent top speeds with low end turn pickup.

But, I hear the M-1 is a speed demon when set up right and is stable as well.
Tell me what you think about this CAT? Is she a fast hull, can she turn well at speed? Does she blow over easily?

I am looking to buy one, preferably already set up and in good condition. I will pay a fair price but do not want to lay out the kind of money for Chris Fine to build me another boat right now. I can maintain and tweak my boats, but do not want to try and build one from scratch.

Anyone know anybody looking to sell one? I never see them on Ebay, this site, or even RC universe.

I would love to find one RTR. But, if it was setup with hull and hardware only, I can always furnish the radio, motor, and ESC. I already have some lipo 3S packs, and some 8 cell and 10 cell NIMH 4200 packs. I even have a 9XL Fegaio for a motor. Although, I am not sure if that is a good motor for that cat. I would like to get a Hacker ESC because I have had decent luck with them, but want something higher than the 77 AMP Navy model.

Ideas, thoughts, opinions?

Please let me know what you think and where I can look.

Thanks,
T

[Stephen Mason]

Sounds to me like you are already in the high ends of the speed range for those boats. And you are asking for the performance that all rest of us are also working toward! In other words you have already achieved 90% of the performance available for your boats. If you want more stability and even more speed then start looking to things like: more efficient wiring, prop work, hull surface conditioning, airflow management, battery pack management, improved driving, etc, etc.
Just my two cents worth, but I am now spending 90% of my time in pursuit of maybe 10% more speed and stability.

[Jay Turner]

The Titans seem to lose stability when pressed much over 45-50 mph. This is a hull design issue and there is little you can do to improve it. Every hull has a window of speed in which it will perform well - above or below that and performance suffers. The Key has similar issues when pushed over 35 mph. Above that speed you need a boat like the MicroDrifter. Mine goes 47+ mph on 6 cells. ;)

The larger M1s are awesome. One club member has one he runs on 18 or 24 cells with a single motor gear drive, it is extremely fast and handles better than most of the other German cats because it is not too narrow. So many of the German cats are hung up on scale appearance with a narrow tunnel. Look great, go fine in a straight line, roll over in turns. I do not know anyone who is selling a pre-built M1.


strg

[BACKEMF]

The larger M1s are awesome. One club member has one he runs on 18 or 24 cells with a single motor gear drive, it is extremely fast and handles better than most of the other German cats because it is not too narrow. So many of the German cats are hung up on scale appearance with a narrow tunnel. Look great, go fine in a straight line, roll over in turns. I do not know anyone who is selling a pre-built M1.


strg

Do you think that if people would setup the Drifters as they are meant to be in 3 point style and not tail dragging cats as in the West, that you might see less tendancy to roll over?
Even using the hardware H&M specifies for their long narrow cats can help significantly in how they turn, or how well.

I see soo many people that own Drifters with modified sponsons because they can't get it to ride, or drive right in the tail dragging style. Why don't they set them up the way they were supposed to be?

Anyway the M1 cat is a much better design hull that is true.

[Jay Turner]

The problem most people with the Drifters is wide, imprecise cornering. They modify the sponson bottoms thinking that makes a big difference - IME it doesn't. (Run as a three-point they turn even worse.) They are not designed to turn, they are designed to look cool and go fast in a straight line just like the full-scale boat they are based upon. But they cannot go too fast as their tunnel/deck have too much lift for that. :(

To cure the poor turning of the Drifter S, adding a small turn fin makes a big difference and has been proven on several models. But in the larger sizes the M-1 is vastly superior, it just doesn't look scale.


aer

[BACKEMF]

I will heed your advice and experience Jay, thank you.

[Ballorshk]

Thanks to Jay and all the others that replied to my post. I think if I get another FE boat, it will be a CAT. And it sounds like the M-1 is the way to go unless I want to go to the really large MHZ or Aeromarine models. I think a CAT in the 33-36" length range is where I want to be for my local ponds and lakes. My Titan 40 is maxed out already, but I love her! But, maybe it's time for a new toy, better start saving up my pennies, lol.

Now, do most people run direct drive with a M-1? And would a Fegaio 9XL or 10XL be a decent motor choice, as I already own those?

And I like Hacker brand esc's. Would a Navy 77 be a good choice, or should I get something with more amp/volt handling?

Thanks,
Ted