The Kyosho Wavemaster is a semi scale model of a tunnel hull racer.  It includes the outboard motor and a simple on/off speed controller.  This is a entry level boat and thus is designed to be easy to assemble and run.  I've read a few reviews that mention it's speed is somewhat slow out of the box.  That's ok because I intend to modify it until it's a real runner.  

My intentions was to initially build-up will be more or less in stock form to see what the original speed was like.  Due to problems with a experimental speed controller, I ended up cooking the stock motor (twice!).  I did finally figure out the cause my my problems and tested the boat using a cheap 19 turn motor.  The speed was ok but not great, I can imagine that a stock motor would be even slower.    It just wasn't fast enough for me so I modified the outboard motor by adding a gear drive and a hotter motor.  Now it flies!  Check out my modifications or  RumRunner's hopup article.  Another good link is  Project WaveMaster.

Conclusion

This is a good looking boat but I did have a complaints about it.  First and foremost is that it is just plain slow for a racing boat.   I also did not like or use the stock on/off speed controller and would recommend that it be replaced with a good electronic version.  (Not one my my experimental motor smoker ESC's!)  Another thing that I found not up to the usual Kyosho quality was that the seam between the upper and lower hull.  It leaked a little bit but was easy to fix with a few drops of CA glue.  The assembly is very easy.  Once build, the boat steers and handles very well.  It would be tough to flip this boat.  It may be a good entry level boat but I would grow tired of it's slow speed.  

To liven up the boat, I decided to modify it.  Once modified, this boat is a whole lot of fun and quite fast.   The modifications would not be for everyone because the run time is much shorter and maintenance is much higher then in stock form.  For me, the modifications made this boat a winner.  I am looking forward to showing this boat at the next local boat club meeting!

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Last Updated: 08/28/2008