| The Baltek comes in a colorful box that shows the boat fully decorated. This boat is a smaller copy of the Super Hawaii and uses a similar deep-v stepped hull. The boat uses the same gearbox as the Super Hawaii but with one motor instead of two. There is one compartment that houses everything. It seals with a hidden hatch that is taped on to prevent leaks. This design has proven to work well and is leak free. The supplied motor is a M&Y 700rst, a 28 turn, single wind motor that features adjustable timing. As delivered, it has a ton of timing built in. |  |
| The first part of the construction is to assemble the steerable outdrive. I'm using an aftermarket thrust bearing instead of the standard thrust bearing washer that comes with the kit. Tower Hobbies sells one made by Kyosho listed as a 4x9x4 Stainless thrust bearing. |  |
| Here is the assembled outdrive ready to go. Make sure you leave the required gap in the drive shaft to prevent binding. Also, fill the center section with a good waterproof grease. The Super Hawaii uses a similar outdrive but the rear of the shaft is extended further making it easy to use aftermarket props. This shaft length is a bit short but you can squeeze an Octura propeller if desired. |  |
| Unfortunately, the Baltek shares the same gearbox flaw as the ABC Hobby Super Hawaii, the rear gears do not line up properly and the main gear wears quickly. If you assemble the gear box as the instructions advise, you will get a bad mismatch of the main gear and the pinion gear... |  |
| ...which will cause the main gear to strip out. Actually, the main gear is a pretty weak item anyway and you may want to replace it the optional delrin gear that ABC Hobby sells for the boat. |  |
| The gear alignment problem can be fixed fairly easily by shimming the main pinion. I used an old 4x8mm bearing that was exactly 3mm thick. This proved to be the perfect size and now the teeth are fully engaged. |  |
| Before the spacer can be added, the slot that the rear pinion bites into must be extended so you can mount the pinion further toward the end of the shaft. Pictured here is the standard shaft before modification... |  |
| ...and after it has been modified. As you can see, the slot has been lengthened toward the end of the shaft. |  |
| Here you can just see the additional bearing I used to space the pinion out by 3mm. This is the second ABC Hobby boat I have built and I still can't believe they let this problem get though. Everything else about their products is first rate. At least it is easy to fix. |  |
| The Baltek uses the same gearbox as the Super Hawaii except it only uses one motor instead of two. You can get different pinions for the motor thereby changing the gear ratio to better tune it for your application. I'm using the stock ratio for now which I believe is 1.8 to 1. You could probably add another motor but that may make the boat too heavy as the gearbox alone weighs a good bit. |  |
| Here is the gearbox mounted in the boat. It's obvious that the boat will be heavier on one side due to the motor weight unless you counteract it by mounting most of the components on the opposite side. That is what I'm going to do, I will put the steering servo and the electronic speed controller (I replaced the mechanical speed controller) on the opposite side. |  |
Again, the out-drive is the same as on the Super Hawaii except it comes with a slightly smaller prop. I have had good results with this setup. The only thing to note is that the dog bone will eventually wear requiring replacement. (See the Super Hawaii section) | 
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| Here is my internal components of the Baltek. The original plans called for the steering servo to be mounted with tape to the plastic wall. This introduced far to much slop due to the hull flexing where the servo was installed. I glued in some light wood to this boat to mount the servo. Problem solved. I also replaced the mechanical speed controller with a home built ESC (Electronic Speed Control). I find that the ESC cause far less problems then the mechanical ones and also saves some weight. |  |
| There is not a lot of work that needs to be done to the hull. Here I have just attached the wing and the rails, add the antenna and on/off switch. It looks good enough to sail as is but there are still some further detail item to be added. |  |
| A pair of driver heads are supplied separately even though the center driver is molded into the hull. They must be cut out, sanded flat, painted and glued onto the boat. The cockpit of the boat should be painted to add realism. |  |
| The boat comes with a generous supply of stickers that let you decorate the boat to match two different versions, the Super Hero and the Baltek. I went with the Baltek version. |  |
| Once the cockpit and drivers have been painted and all the stickers have been placed, the boat looks really sharp. ABC Hobby boats always look good! |  |
