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Video coming soon!
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The boat was made by me and my cousin in Colorado. I went there for the most part of July, 2002, and while I was there, we got this idea of making a boat. You see, last time I went to stay with his family, we made rocket cars that went 80 or so miles an hour using estes rocket engines, and lots of sheet aluminum & hot glue. So when I arrived, naturally, we wanted to fabricate something using sheet aluminum. We decided on making a remote controlled boat.
We started out by making the frame. This was no easy venture, mind you. We drew plans on graph paper made out to the nearest eighth of an inch, then made a posterboard full scale model to see if we got the curves right. Then, after 5 trips to the hardware store, 8 pieces of sheet aluminum, and about a week later, we had our frame. Next came the motor mount and driveshaft, which was pretty easy despite what you may think. We used aluminum rods and tubes angled just right to get the prop to spin. Perhaps the most difficult part was finding a good design for the rudder. We had a servo mounted, but couldn't find a way to get it to move a piece of metal! After two more days, however, we had it. Perhaps the easiest part was getting the electronics installed. We used a futaba 2 channel r/c system, a novak explorer II electronic speed control, a standard servo, and a radio shack 7.2v nicd battery.
After the initial water test in my cousins hot tub, we took it to a small community pond for its first run in water. It performed beautifully! There were only the usual adjustments that cant be avoided, but after that, we had it ripping through the water. We went back to the pond the next day, also, but then, it was time for my departure to go back to California.
I took the electronics home on the plane, but the boat had to be shipped a few hundred miles before it got back into my hands to get these pics.
Any questions can be e-mailed to me at destillman@yahoo.com
Click on a pic to make it big. Each one is 100kb (+/- 15kb or so). Enjoy!
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