Bat boat

What a fantastic evil looking boat I thought when I saw this in the corner of our model boat clubroom. It had been left over from a sale of "proper" boats. It seems that only I saw the potential.

Taking the top off, I discover the this is a model by Tyco, and a quick web search revealed it to be a Bat boat.

So, after donating a fiver to club funds I find myself with another project I don't really need but can't resist. At a guess I'm thinking that everyone who reads this will understand where I'm coming from.

My prize turns out to be less than perfect. There is no radio transmitter and experiments with another 27mhz one make me inclined to think that the electronics in the boat are dead. I unscrewed a few bits but couldn't see anything obvious. What I did find was a hull filled with blue polystyrene and a small block of cement in the front about the size of two small matchboxes.

Anyway, one day this boat will ride the waves again. Dunno when and I don't even quite know how. My suspicion is that the outboard style motor will be rubbish, these things tend to tootle along at a speed a stupid child can't do any damage with. What it needs is oomph which presumably means something rather better in the way of a motor. Which means I have to rebuild the inside and turn the outboard into a rudder. This means I have to link a servo to it and bin the current electrics but then I'd have had to do that anyway as we'll want a proper radio in there.

Dangerous stuff this.