| The hull is made out of fiberglass and is impressively light. The hatch fit the opening well and looks excellent. The lip of the hatch has been cut way back, you can tell that weight was a primary concern in development of this hull. I did find some very minor flaws in the hull but nothing that would require and body work. It is a good thing because the gel coat is a nice bright white, it would be a shame to have to paint it. The hull did not come with a build sheet so it is up to the building to figure where to put things. |  |
| Toysport makes two different versions of this boat, a stepped and a non-stepped. I selected the stepped hull thinking it would be faster. |  |
For hardware, I selected the Offshore package from Fuller Fast Electrics. I picked this hardware because the rudder was located in the center of the boat. Since I am not racing, I wanted the boat to be able to turn left and right with equal precision. This package also features a water pickup in the wedged shaped rudder. The hardware is nicely made but the rudder is a bit loose in the strut bearing. | 
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The first thing I did was to drill a hole as low as I could in the center of the transom for the flexible drive line. Some people mount there hardware a bit off center to counteract the propeller forces other just leave it in the center as I did. | 
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| Before mounting the strut, I glue a piece of plywood to reinforce the transom. I used some very slow curing epoxy (T-88) to ensure a good bond. The drive line will run under the plywood. |  |
| I wanted everything to be straight and level so I had the strut clamped in place before I drilled the mounting holes. This prevented me from screwing it up. |  |
| Now that the strut is in place, I trial fit as much of the hardware as possible including the motor and batteries. I wanted to see how things would balance out. The center of gravity should be approximately 30% of the hull length as measured from the rear. It turned out that I would be able to mount the battery packs next to the motor keeping the amount of wire to a minimum. |  |
| The motor will be mounted inside of the middle step. I shortened the flex cable by about 2 inches. To cut it, I used a dremel with a cutoff wheel. This worked well and did not cause the cable to fray. The motor and motor mount came from Fine Design, same as the hull. The motor is their SS1, which is the current hot setup for budget racing. I glued the motor mount in place using some flexible glue called PFM. The glue is quite strong but I may need to go back and reinforce the mount because the hull flexes a bit. The drive line that came with the offshore hardware includes a Teflon liner. I bent a brass tube (not supplied) into a mild S shape and placed the Teflon liner inside of it. This is necessary because the Teflon liner is not ridged enough without some sort of support. The brass tube is epoxied in place at the transom and a plastic support was added at the motor end. |  |
| Now that the motor is in place, it was time to think about the steering control. To seal the control rod, I am using a push rod seal picture to the right. |  |
| The offshore hardware places the control rod very close to the drive line. It took me a while to figure out how I would mount the servo. Finally I decided to mount the servo on it's side. I wanted to be able to remove it for servicing so I build this little removable platform that the servo will be mounted to. |  |
| The hole I originally drilled for the control rod ended up in the wrong place because I kept changing my mind about the servo location. Luckily, the seal I selected covers a large hole so I was able to offset the smaller hole. Lucky me! |  |
| I added a small piece of plywood over the rudder control hole so that the screws that hold the seal in would have something to bite in to. The servo is screwed into two small piece of ply that are glued to the platform. I am pleased on how this turned out. |  |
| Now the rudder and the driveline are in place, it is time to add water cooling for the motor. Notice that the rudder has a pipe coming out of it. The leads to a hole near the bottom of the rudder that will draw in water as the boat moves forward. The rudder pipe was plugged when I received it and I had to carefully drill it out. |  |
| I drilled a hole in he transom mirroring the position of the rudder hole. I then glued a short section of brass tubing in the hole to act as the pass though. I used some silicon hose to connect the rudder pipe to the pass though. |  |
| Inside the hull, more silicon tubing connects the pass though pipe to the motor cooling coil. |  |
| The motor coil was purchased from Fine Design. It is made out of brass instead of aluminum which will prevent corrosion. I have had aluminum coils corrode and leak, not a good thing! . |  |
| Usually I just use a piece of brass tubing for the water exit but this time I wanted to try something else. I got a package of rivets from the local hardware store and cut the pin out of it. This left a hollow tube with a flange. |  |
| It makes a perfect water exit. |  |
| Just in case I flip the boat while running it, I inserted some pieces of a water noodle in the empty hull space. This will keep it a float even if it is completely full of water. |  |
| Once again, I am going to try and use one of my home built speed controller. The motor may be too much for it and a may end up having to buy one but I figure I would give it a shot. Wow, that is about it, now I just need to find a way to secure the hatch. |  |
| Even though I will be using hatch tape to seal the hatch when running, I wanted the hatch to be closed when on display. For the front of the hatch, I glued a couple pieces of plastic on both edges to form a slot that will grab the lip of the hull. |  |
| For the back of the boat, I glued on a few pieces of light wood planks so that I could secure a rubber band on it. The other end of the rubber band will be attached to a screw placed in the steering servo support. The wood plank is attached to the hatch in such a way that it pulls down the edges of the hatch. It ended up working pretty well. |  |
| Here is how the rear section is held down. It works well. |  |
| Well that went together quick and easy. I managed to scratch the hull in a couple of places so I may end up painting it but first I will make sure it runs correctly. I can't wait to get this one in the water. Time for the boat trials... |  |
| Update: My home made speed controller burned up the first time out with the boat. I bought a 90 amp speed controller from RC-Hydros to replace it. This speed controller requires that a diode be soldered onto the leads of the motor. Fortunately the motor is easy to remove for service. |  |
| The new speed controller does not include a BEC so I had to add a battery pack for the receiver. I mounted the receiver battery pack to the bottom of the hull with Velcro. Even though it is a little offset from center, it does not affect the balance of the boat. This ESC features water cooling so I rerouted the water lines to first go to the ESC then to the motor. |  |
