Lost Hull!

[Steve Reesor]

Well It was bound to happen...

I was running a couple of hulls this afternoon, and I flipped my P mono at speed. It floated upside down for what seemed like an hour...then went down with only the bow visible. NO wind. 34F water temp. No retrieve boat. Hull 15'out of retrieve ball range, with bow up only, ball is useless. Sun going down. Can it get any worse...

12 years of model boating, first spring loss. I iwll have to make arrangements tomorrow for a boat to row out into pond...

[LOU]

That hurts! I did that with my Villain in the fall. It was floating nose up within five minutes of flipping. I was lucky, It wasn't as cold as today and the wind blew it back in about 45 mins.

LOU

[Avenger]

34F jebus, you would have made it all of like 20ft. before the hypothermia kicked in! i sure hope it does not ever happen to me!

DAMN just jinxed myself!

[Steve Reesor]

The boat I lost yesterday, although I knew where it was at dusk, is gone this morning. This morning it was -8C, pond is frozen over, and the hull is nowhere to be found. The wind picked up yesterday and I believe the currents took it...then it froze over...chances now are remote to none.

Expensive loss:(

[LOU]

Hey Steve, That really hurts. How big is the pond and how deep. I have scuba equip and my nephew has a dry suit. Is the pond in Woodstock? I'm thinking Good Friday would be the day we could make it up there. Let me Know.

LOU

[Doug Forrester]

Cool! Actually, come to think of it - freezing!

Sorry to hear of your misfortune Steve. I'll bet, however, that the boat will return.

Cheers

[Steve Reesor]

Wow, you called it Doug. I finally recovered the hull today. But what a mess. The hull was frozen in ice, only one inch of the bow showing. A friend went out with hip-waders and recovered it.

The hull was submerged for 24 Hrs. Extensive corrosion on all electrical connections. Shotty diode was pitted and green. Rx circuit board green. Wood hull practically waterlogged even though hull was sealed with two coats of varathane. All compartments in bow were flooded, top deck split on the flip, and not enough bubble pack in the hull to keep it floating properly.

Mega motor, is in questionable shape, will have to evaluate later...

I think the hull needs more trimming...

Lou thank-you for the offer, I really appreciate it.

[RvE]

Steve
That is quite a tale. Glad yu eventually got he boat back. Hopefully you can salvage it and get it back in running order.

Kudos to Lou (who I don' think I have met) for the generous rescue offer. I am sure that underwater in that pond is not a pleasant place to be in late march.

Steve - why so much corrosion and "green" onthe electronics? Is your pond (or all ponds?) that polluted that the water is corrosive? Hmm...I suspect Humber Bay pond may even be worse.

Ralph

[Steve Reesor]

Thanks Ralph,

The corrosion is due to the fact the "pond" I run on is actually a river with a cut-off meander, it is actually quite large.

Unfortunately, it suffers from polluted run-off from agricultural operations up stream.

The geochemistry of this water must be way of pH, something Andy Kunz has eluded to before about electronics getting wet. My pond I guess is at the worse end of the spectrun for water bodies in this regard.

I will bring this boat to the April 21st fun run...

Steve

[Climate]

We are using a product called ACF50 to protect all the electronics onboard from water penetration. ACF50 was designed for full sized aircraft use and is a bit expensive, but works great. Certainly cheaper than a new receiver or speed control.
There is a similar product called Corrosion Block that works just as well. Here is a link to one of the distributors that we deal with.
http://www.skippersproducts.com/what_is_corrosion.htm
Have a look at this page for an explanation of how it works.

They claim you can immerse a circuit board in salt water and have it work when it comes out. While I have never purposly done this, I have soaked several boats and never had a problem after using the stuff.

[AndyKunz]

Yet another name for it!

ACF50, CorrosionX, CorrosionX Marine, Aeroplate, The Stuph,...

This is a good product. I use CorrosionX in my servos to keep them from decaying. It DOES make servo leads brittle over time, though...

Andy

[Steve Reesor]

I do use this product...on Rx's. haven't tries it on servo's though.

By the way Andy, Your speed control works perfectly and I am readying the boat for another high speed run this weekend...

I will get this boat set-up if it kills me!