With battery fully charged, the white speedboat hit the water. It raced off towards the buoys in a reasonably straight line. After a bit of racing around – with the battery giving am impressive length of run – things seemed to be pretty good. Perhaps the lubrication on the shafts was smearing itself around a bit but the running seemed to improve over time. Hoping around the lake, including over several buoys and being shoved off the bank a couple of times – it’s a fast boat after all – things were looking good. This is a very impressive boat on the water.
Then it all went wrong. The motor noise changed and the boat starting going around in tight circles. We assumed one of the shafts had worked lose but had to wait until the light wind blew it into the side (can’t steer a bot like this with only one motor working !). A propeller was missing !
The retaining nut had obviously worked lose and spin off. This and the prop are now at the bottom of the lake. Good job we have spares from the spares boat. A little superglue will be helping the grip next time we sail I think.
Showing posts with label White Speedboat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label White Speedboat. Show all posts
Friday, July 07, 2006
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Victory - At a very fast speed !
Last year we bought a RTR model boat. A fine looking speedboat. Just to get starting with this sailing lark while the “proper” boats were being built you understand. The model featured laughably translated text on the box and instructions but it looked good and when first placed on the water, ran well.
A couple of minutes into a run though it pulled to the left very badly. Charging, oiling and tightening didn’t help so it was relegated to the shelf.
While browsing in the local model shop I mentioned this and they said that someone else had had the same problem. A few minutes later I was the owner of another boat sans transmitter and battery but otherwise the same. It had been destined for the dustbin so I got it for free.
The possible causes of the problem were a loose coupling between the motor & drive shaft or a duff motor. Not wanting to go at this half-cocked the couplings (a weird mix of plastic tubes, aluminium ends and lots of grease) have been replaced with proper UJ’s and the suspect motor has gone and one from the spare boat is in its place. The joints were off the shelf although I had to ream out the shaft end as the RTR shafts are slightly non-standard in size.
This is one boat that can’t be tested in the pool. I tired by holding it in place and I think it looks OK but the battery went flat before I could be sure. This goes on charge tonight for a test tomorrow.
A couple of minutes into a run though it pulled to the left very badly. Charging, oiling and tightening didn’t help so it was relegated to the shelf.
While browsing in the local model shop I mentioned this and they said that someone else had had the same problem. A few minutes later I was the owner of another boat sans transmitter and battery but otherwise the same. It had been destined for the dustbin so I got it for free.
The possible causes of the problem were a loose coupling between the motor & drive shaft or a duff motor. Not wanting to go at this half-cocked the couplings (a weird mix of plastic tubes, aluminium ends and lots of grease) have been replaced with proper UJ’s and the suspect motor has gone and one from the spare boat is in its place. The joints were off the shelf although I had to ream out the shaft end as the RTR shafts are slightly non-standard in size.
This is one boat that can’t be tested in the pool. I tired by holding it in place and I think it looks OK but the battery went flat before I could be sure. This goes on charge tonight for a test tomorrow.
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