The SHADOW

By   SHG Marine
Nick named "The Little Pig"

Source:             

Kit:                    

Accessories:   

  Mail order, shows, etc.
Multi boat styled hull for electric or glow engine. 
3.5cc Glow engine, fuel tank & silencer + radio.



AIMS 

  Now that I had actually built a radio controlled model boat (see Piranha),   I wanted to  get  my  hands on a boat with an IC (Internal Combustion) or glow engine and  some  real power! ( See Glow engines on this site )

STYLING 
  The   style   of  the boat is modern and sporty looking with  it's  dipped  bonnet and it's swept back windscreen.  It's  a  day  or weekend sea going  cruiser or even a race boat. The interior is an open  two seater cockpit and sun deck to rear.  The hull is a cross  between   deep  Vee and 'multi' bottom and is not taken  from  any  specific  prototype  but seems to be based on  a  'multi boat'   design.   This is a  lovely looking sports boat,  fun to build and fun to run, and probably was the   most complete fibreglass kit for IC engines around. This was a very popular  kit and many of them could be found in model boat clubs around the UK.
 

THE MODEL
  The  SHADOW is all GRP boat so I don't need to  reiterate (good word Huh?)  everything  about  working with GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic - Fibreglass) from my review of the Piranha.  The boat is  660   x  220mm   in  bright  orange and can be  powered by electric   motor  or  IC  engine.  Again  as  with  all GRP boats the hull needs to be  checked  for  flatness with a steel ruler, if it's even slightly concave or hollow - reject the  hull and seek a replacement.  Fortunately my kit was a good one but do check  any GRP boat you buy.

  The  fittings  in  the kit are all quite serviceable apart from  the  main  shaft  which  has plastic bearings,  this needs to be replaced with  brass  bearings.  Shafts  with plastic bearings are next to useless especially on  an IC boat,  buy one with brass bearings which offer  less  friction.  The rest of the bits and pieces in the box are  of  good enough quality to produce a nice boat.
 

I found these pictures  of the Shadow kit on eBay.co.uk
 
 

THE MAKERS DO KNOW
    The   first  thing I must say about the SHADOW is DO NOT OVER  POWER   THIS BOAT.   I'm   telling you,  the instructions tell you and anyone that's built  one  will tell you, ignore at your own peril!! 

  I built mine with an  ENYA 19 marine glow engine and this proved  just  about  as  much as the boat could handle as you read about later.  If you want to  build  the  model  with  a  electric   motor,    the   maker  recommend  a  Hummingbird  15  or a 540/550 motor but as these  size  motor  don't  come  near  to the power of an IC 3.5cc motor I would  venture  to say it  could  take more a powerful motor e.g.  twin 540's, 550's, a single  Graupner 600, 700BB or  even larger,  the limit being the weight of the batteries and the depth of  your pocket.

    The   instruction   booklet  is  very  good  and  gives  step   by    step   instructions with photographs,   drawings & measurements but unfortunately  no   full  size plan.   The instructions indicates, unusually, the  balance  point or centre of  gravity  (C-of-G).   Now when you are building a speed  boat   one  of the most important things to get right is the C-of-G.  This  next  section might get a bit boring if you know about boat balancing  but  as  this web site is aimed at the newcomer to sports boats,  I'll go over it  anyway.
 

THE BALANCE POINT or C of G
  The  C-of-G is a point on the boat where,  in theory,  all the weight   of   the boat is carried WHEN ON THE PLAIN or AT FULL SPEED.  If it's  too  far   back   the  boat's bow will tend to bounce  up  and down,  known  as  porpoising, bouncing & slamming.  Conversely, if too far forward, the  boat will not get on the plane and plough through the water, referred to as  having a slow or lousy boat!

    The   balance   point should ideally be half way between  a third   of  the   hull  length and a third of the water line length.  You can  find  the   water line length by resting everything that will eventually  go  in  the   hull roughly where it should go and allow a little extra  for  paint  glue   etc,   plonk   the   lot in the bath  while  the   misses   is  not  looking   and  mark where the water comes up to on the bow  and   transom.

  Back   on   the  work bench,  mark a third of the hull length   from   the   transom, the C-of-G is half way between the two  marks.  Usually  you will  find  that a third of the hull length from the  rear  is  good enough  for  most  boats.  The plans gives the C-of-G for the SHADOW as 230mm from  the  transom, if you sit down and work it out on paper you will find the C-of-G  is too far forwards. This caused trouble, again as you will see later.

    If  you  now try to balance one of your boats between your finger  at  the  C-of-G to see if it is nose or tail heavy. A badly balanced boat might run  well  but  if  the balance can be corrected by reducing weight  or  moving  things around then a boats performance might be significantly improved.  A  model  boat's  weight distribution is different from real boats.  On  full  size boats the engine is usually near the transom (behind the C-of-G),  in  model  boats the engine usually sits forward on the C-of-G so we  have  to cheat to obtain the correct balance by moving things around. 

  Your  model boat's engine or batteries need to sit on the C-of-G as  these  are the  heaviest objects in a boat.   The rest of the internal components  can   be  moved  around the  C-of-G so that the boat can be balanced  out.  The  balance needs to be monitored all through construction so adjustments  can be made as required. Sports boat should be as light as possible as the  lighter  the  boat,  the  higher it's potential speed but weight  adds  to  stability  especially  in choppy water.   The C-of-G is important  but  it  doesn't  need  to be micro millimetre accurate especially as you  won't  be  winning any  multi races with this boat.
 

BUILDING
    The kit's instruction are good enough for me not go restate  the  obvious,  but  I  will point out a few  things  that could be of help to  you.   The  instructions refer  to  "Glass  fibre  filler paste" which turns out to be  'Easibuild', a resin mix with  long thin fibreglass strands in which gives  a  strong joint with a smooth finish (available from multi boat suppliers or car bodywork repair shops).  Glazing resin is another useful product painted on the interior of the  boat  hull to give  a smooth,  easy to clean and hard wearing surface.   I  also  used Isopon Fastglas resin and David's P.38  car  body  filler paste  on everything apart from the shaft and skeg where I used am expensive glue called Stabilit Express ( but this proved unnecessary).

    After  cutting  out the holes for  shaft,  skeg,  rudder  and  water-scoop  the  prop  shaft  and skeg can be trial  fitted.  Cutting  out  cardboard  templates   as  shown in the instructions is  really  good  and  almost fool proof. The skeg is meant to be cut 10mm above the floor but if  you add another 5mm,  2 or 3 small screws or bolts can be put through the top of the  skeg  to strengthen the joint and gives the glue something extra grip.


 

ENGINE & SILENCER
    You   can cut the engine mounts as shown but this  reduces  the   base  area of the mounts.   When you are starting your engine this is where you will  be  pulling  hardest  so you need all the strength you can get.   If  you  are   careful   the   mounts  can be easily bent in a vice and a pair of  pliers.   I  did  this  to my engine mounts and  the result is a very strong mount with  the  load  spread  over a large area.  When cutting out the  aluminium   engine plate  make  sure you cut it out to fit your particular engine,   but  you   knew  that anyway!  

  Alignment  of the engine to the shaft  is the section where  you   should  spend a lot of time.  I  used a plastic Huco coupling as they are  solid   enough   to   handle the power from a small IC engine.  On my first boat,  it  was a lot of bother to  strip down the shaft to oil it,  so on the Shadow I  fitted an oiling tube  near  the top so the shaft can be lubricated  easily.   This tube  is  a short length of 1/8 brass tube soldered to top of the shaft after  a  hole was drilled through.  Assemble the engine,  plate,  mounts,  coupling  and shaft and check,   recheck and check again that the alignment  is  the  best you can achieve,  it will pay in the long run.  

  Once  you're  happy,   the mounts can be then fixed down.  I used 'Isopon'   to  seat the  bases  and a couple layers of glass fibre matting and  resin  on top,  I  smoothed  everything  over  with 'Easibuild'. Leave the engine  and coupling connected together while everything set over night. The inside of the boat can then be  coated with glazing resin that gives a smooth easy to clean interior.

    If  you  use an aircraft type silencer,  like I did then an  extension  is  needed   to take the exhaust to the transom exhaust flange.   You can make  this  up from  brass tube available from model shops any anything lying around the shed.   I  included  an  additional in-line  silencer  to make the boat even quieter and exited the  exhaust out through a brass transom exhaust flange.   The in-line silencer  was  not fixed in place but held by the two short sections of silicon tube  from the aero silencer and transom flange.  Use clear silicon bath sealant  (from DIY shops) to  hold the silicon tubing to the pipes.  Sealant stinks something   terrible   before it sets but has no smell  afterwards.   Make  double sure the surfaces  are  clean before gluing.

    Sport engines are best run quite cool as they will last longer,  so a good  flow of water is required.  The kit comes with  a lovely design, low profile plastic water-scoop.   Run silicon  tubing  from the water intake  to  the  engine head and then from the head outlet to  the  outlet  overboard,  in  my  case  the transom.   A  very  small  dab  of   Superglue   on  the  fittings  not the tubes  will  hold  them  on permanently, careful not to block them! Water  cooled  engines don't have  an  inlet/outlet  but  if  one nipple is  lower  than the other,  use  the  lower one as the inlet,  this  will  ensure  that the water jacket remains  full at all times.

    To  have  a fuel tank is a good idea for an glow engine.  I used one  of  the   'SLEC'  type 'clunk'  tanks.  As SLEC tanks are square they hold more fuel  than similar sized round tank,  they are also easy to secure in  place and  they   don't have those annoying brass feed pipes that have to  bent  into  all  sort of strange  shapes.   A few wood stops around the base will hold  it against the starboard wall.  A hook and elastic  band holds it in down.

    For  buoyancy,   shows how to hold in  buoyancy  bags  for  the   starboard  side only ( that's the right side looking forward if you didn't  know ),   but I recommend adding some to the port side also -guess  where  the port side is?  . If  you  are planning to use foam as buoyancy in the  bow  of  the  boat  (a  good idea),   fix the bulkhead very securely  with  resin and matting as the  foam  will exert great pressure on it.   I  tried to save time here and filled  the  bow  with of  foam  and  then sealed the hole in the  bulkhead  after  only a few hours.  The  result  showed up after a few days as the front of  the  boat started to swell  and  ballooned up like a ball.  I didn't  know  what  to do,  so 'hesitation being  the better indecision',  I left it as it  was and carried on  construction! (Bubble wrap would have been a better, cleaner & cheaper solution to start with!)
 

RADIO
    The  easiest way to protect your radio gear is to use a watertight radio box made   for   the   job  such as one of the SHG boxes.   I wanted to  use  another  Tupperware  butter  holder  as used in last months  PIRANHA but it  was  a  little  on the big size so I used smaller plastic  electronics project box  from  Tandy or Maplin  (120x63x27mm).  The idea was to make easily removable  so  it  could be fitted in other boats thus saving on buying more radio  gear.   I  used  an  Accoms Techni Drive radio,   which has quite small  servos  that  could  fitted  inside  the box,  the output is taken through the  lid  and  sealed silicon  sealant. A wood  frame  was  made around the base  of the box and again held down with elastic bands. 

    This   box was never proved waterproof,  but  did it's job for the most  part. Some boats get away  with  running  the  receiver aerial under the deck but I used an  upright  steel  whip   aerial  (loop the  top to save your eyes),   a straw with the  aerial wire run up it is also good,  tie a knot in the top end.  Have you read  about  not increasing or  reducing  the total length of the aerial wire   supplied on the  receiver?   It make for better radio reception,  thus better range from the  transmitter.  If you use a whip aerial,  remove  the length of the whip from the receiver wire.

   Cut and trim the cockpit parts and  glue  together.  The  windshield  is a right fiddly job.   Careful how you  cut  it  out as  any  slip  with  the  knife  and you either have  a   permanent   scar  in  the  windshield or in your fingers.   It helps if you grow an extra  hand  here  to  hold everything together,  glue it and tape  together  while  the glue  takes.   If  you  use the new Superglues on the market such as  Zap,   you  only need to hold parts together for 15 - 30 seconds. Model aircraft canopy glue will prevent 'clouding'.

 

    About  now you should realise that the engine has no air intake.  I cut  a  hole   under   the  seat and another in front of the seat  base,   no  one  notices   them  there.   Don't use the 'Velcro'  strips  to hold the  deck  down as they get oily and yucky! Use some sort of  catch   or  an elastic band through small curtain loop and hook.   Fix one  to   the   underside   of   the deck on a couple of pieces  of  ply  stuck  together   and  glued to roughly the centre of the deck i.e.  just  behind  the  seats.   Find  a  convenient place for the other hook on  the  hull floor where  it  won't  foul any of the internal 'gubbins' especially  the hot exhaust pipe. 
 

FINISHED?!
    Apply   all the stickers and fittings that are included in the kit to give   a  sort   of cabin cruiser appearance.  Because the finish of the  GRP  is  orange,   it  may be difficult to change the overall appearance unless you  completely re-spay  the  whole boat.
 

RUNNING IN
   The boat  was  float  tested  in  the bath and checked for  leaks,   balance and style,  it  must  impress everyone when I take out of the car!

    When starting in your IC engine,   ask someone that knows. (See starting glow engines on this site). Engines are not   cheap   and can easily be over revved and damaged if you don't  know  what  you're doing.  I read a couple of articles and a book on model engines and  prepared myself and the boat for the great event.   So as not to embarrass   myself at the lake,   I experimented with the engine and boat by  starting  the  engine at home using straight caster fuel and running  water  through  the  engine  head via two containers,   one above the boat and the   other  below the boat.  A short length of hose pipe runs the pollution out the window.....   Check the washing is not out and don't do this after  midnight  unless you live next to a motorway!

    The first time the  engine  burst  into life,   the sudden noise and sense  of  power the engine  emitted  gave  me a fight and it took me a couple of  seconds  to  realise   what   was   going  on   I  and  grappled  for  the  transmitter to back off  the  throttle.  "This is great" I thought and was  excited that this boat looked  like  it might actually work. The 'boy racer' in me came straight to the fore as I stood there playing tunes on the throttle with a big silly grin on my face!

   After a few  more  practice  starts,  I  got the engine running smoothly and ran it in with a  few  tanks  of  fuel.   I  don't think I slept that night or the next  few  waiting  for the weekend.  Total construction took me something like 72 hours as  I  took a LOT of time aligning the engine and prop shaft -   which  is  not bad for only my second boat!
 

MAIDEN VOYAGE
    I   press-ganged a mate, 8 ft Jason, down to the lake with me on  a   Saturday afternoon for help and moral support.   The engine started OK and  the first couple of  slow  runs went mainly to plan.  We then settled down  to  learning the boats  habits.   A little  fooling around with the needle valve and I soon  had the engine running at  full  throttle  which  is great fun when you do it  for  the  first  time..... like most things! The boat responded well  to the throttle and on opening  it  up  the boat just seemed to pick it self up and  hurl  itself forward  just  like  the TV cartoon  characters. The boat  ran  very well  at   all  speeds  and  handles  corners  without  too  many    frightening   consequences   and  soon we was flying up and down the  lake  and  turning  circles  at high speeds.  After running several tanks of fuel through  the  engine we was well happy and went home.  

  A few weeks later  (on a freezing Sunday morning), I   was   still  having  great  fun and the boat was still running well.   Another friend, Tim, came one time to have a go,   he's the guy that has done  most of the  cartoons for me on the site ( talented b......).  It was freezing cold and Tim was  questioning our sanity as  we  got  the boat started.  I was feeling quite  confident  now  and   I again started tweaking the needle valve  and changed props to get  a  little more  speed.  I was running  the  boat without the deck so  I  could  tweak things easily.  I was using 5% nitro  fuel  and  had  just put on a bigger prop when without  warning  the  boat  hooked  itself  into a sharp right turn  and  dipped  the bow down into  a  wave.  The water rushed in and  stalled  the  engine and the boat started to sink! My first disaster at  sea.

    As the boat was now half full of water and listing heavily to port,   this   was allowing more water in causing the boat to sink stern  first.   Only the  foam  I  had  in the bow stopped me loosing it  altogether.   Now  with  a  pointed  bow now sticking about 4 inches above the water,  how on earth do  you   get  it  back?   No matter how many times I used my first boat, the Piranha to   circle the  drowning boat, I couldn't get it to catch on  anything. We had to wait 2 hours for it to drift  in.  Several strong  drinks (coffee!) eventually thawed us out,  I thought  many   things  about  the SHADOW for the rest of that day none of which  I  can   repeat here!.  The boat was striped down to see  what  damage  had  been done and on opening the radio box,  water poured out  of  everything.
 

DUCKING AND DIVING
    Unfortunately  I hadn't written these articles at this stage and so hadn't  followed  my recommendation I'm about to write here! If  possible  fit side and stern buoyancy so if your boat does get a ducking,   then the  rear   buoyancy  will stop the tail sliding under thus making rescue  much  easier.   After  my sinking  additional blocks of expanded polystyrene was  fitted to the stern and to the port side under the  silencer.  Both blocks  were  glued in with PVA glue (white wood glue) and covered the top with  a  thin   sheet  of ply to protect it from the heat of the exhaust  pipe. The radio was dried out but I lost a  servo.   I should  have  given  up on the radio box at this stage but it was put back together  and  tested. The C-of-G was rechecked and both the boat and I   were  ready for  another go.

    On  the  lake the same thing happened again and the above  sinking  turned   out  to be the first of many,  but at least rescue was easier with most of  the boat above water.   The more I used the boat after  this,   the  worse  it  got.   As  soon as I got the boat anywhere  near  full   throttle   it  would   do   something weird.  It would  not  turn,   not  stop   turning,   suddenly   twist and pull itself under the nearest wave and  all  sort  of  other   tricks.  I just couldn't figure what was going  on  much-less what  the  problem  was.  At half throttle, the boat acted perfectly but  at  the  time I  didn't  see  the importance  of this. Somehow  I  had  to  get the  boat  running long enough at full speed to see  what  was  actually happening. About this time the  boat was renamed   "The little Pig"  and put in  large  friendly letters across the transom.

    Believing there was some mechanical or radio problem, I  had an idea.   I would fit a clear water tight sliding cover  over  the   opening.   A slide  cover was fitted to enable me to start the engine then   slide the cover forward to seal the front.   So now even if it did  dive   into the water it would still keep going and I could work out  what  the fault was.   Can you see the problem with this yet? Yes,  an IC engine  needs  air to breathe.   I had to cut off a strip near the transom to  let   air in. I only figured this out after an hour of starting the engine and it stalling when I put the lid on 20 times!

   Anyway, lets try it.  Well the idea worked, at full speed, it again tried to pull itself   under   the  nearest wave but it couldn't sink this time and  kept  on  going ...  underwater, after about 3 feet it bust to the surface with the   engine STILL running!   It then when under two more times before it had  enough   and finally stalled. The idea was fairly sound even if my mind wasn't. The  problem seemed to be that the boat wasn't planning properly which could be  due to a hull moulding fault or wrong C-of-G. 

  By  this stage I had got so despondent with the boat that I looked back at  the  instructions which stated the boat can be run on an electric  motor.  I  removed the glow motor and fitted an old car air horn's motor with a home made hose clip  mount  using the IC engine mount bolts. Also fitted was a mechanical speed controller and a load of old batteries. I also got  fed  up with the bulb  nosed  bow and reopened the front bulkhead hole removed the plumbers  foam  with  a  large  flat drill bit used in a battery drill.  Surprisingly  the  hull returned  near enough to it's true shape after a few days!.  The bow was then filled with  foam  chips  as used in packaging and the hole resealed.

  I took the 'new'  boat down to the water for testing but was totally humiliated to find that  the motor was big and powerful but very low revving. Embarrassingly even  at full speed the ducks could still swim pass while laughing at my boat. I  gave  up  and took it out of the water pretty quickly,  stuffed it in  the  back  of  the car and sped home to hide my stupidly.  I've  since  learned  never  to  give  a  launch  a boat on her  maiden  voyage  or  demonstrate  something new in public until it's been thoroughly tested.

    By   this time I was ready to give up as myself, or anyone in the Peterborough  Model   Power Boat Club could work out the problem either.   It was the middle  of  winter so what was I doing on the lake anyway with icebergs on it?   As it  happens   it  was near Model Engineer time at Wembley and as I  was  going  I   would ask someone there.   An answer was soon coming  from  the  Model  Power  Boat Association stand.  "Your rudder is  too  big".   

  What   happens  is  that  the water leaving the propeller  blades   leaves   in  a  spiralling motion, like a corkscrew. As soon as speed increases the  rudder  gets  caught up in the swirling water  and starts to twisting  the  boat in the same direction via torque action. Back home I worked late into  the night cutting the plastic  rudder into strange and interesting shapes.

TUNED PIPE
    The  IC engine was quickly refitted along with the modified rudder and the  boat  taken back to the water...IT WORKS!   It could now go in a  straight  line  at full  speed  with very little twitching which was soon sorted out  with   a little more filling of the rudder at lake side.  The new  lighter  bows  also  made  a noticeable difference as the ride  attitude  was  much  better  with  the  bow riding much higher,  this was because the C-of-G  was  now  further  back  nearer it correct position.  Now that I had sorted out  the  steering problem, I wonder if I could get it to go faster?  I  know,  I'll  fit  one  of  those Irvine power pipes,   a small tuned  pipe  that   fits  directly on to the engine exhaust port. (See Tuned pipes).

    Parting   with a few more quid I left a model shop with a 3.5cc size power  pipe   on   the  car's front seat.   Fitting it to the boat was  a  little  difficult  as the  engine  is obviously tilted downwards towards the shaft  so   the  manifold  section of the pipe had to eased into a slight  curve.  I  must  stress here  that  this is not recommended by the manufacture  by  Irvine so you do this  at  your  own risk.  Clamping the manifold end in a  vice  (from Miami ...  Miami Vice!   Get it?) and slowly heated the  front  section  with  my DIY type blow lamp (no  flash  workshop  tools  here)  and  gently  eased up rear  of  the  pipe  in  several  easy  stages  until  it  would  be  parallel  with  hull  and the end was in-line with the  transom  exhaust fitting. The Power pipe was supported at the end by a short length  of  silicon  tube to the transom fitting.  During this refit the   plastic  rudder  was  replaced  with a better home made brass  one of the same shape,   the  sliding  deck  was also removed and the  original cockpit   refitted.  The  'little pig' was ready for the water again.  

  I  had told big Jason about my boating problems and came down to the  lake   for  a  laugh.   We started her up with an X40,  adjusted the  needle  for  maximum revs,   fitted the deck and let go.  The increased power from  the   engine was immediately noticeable as well as the almost 'pinging'  exhaust  note which reminded me of those Vespa motor scooters.   She was up on  the  plane  before she left my hands and was off to explore the lake before Jason had any control over her.  

  Well I thought  the  boat was mad before,   but now it was insane! It knew  what  it wanted to do  and went of to do it regardless of what we asked it  to do. Jason regained  control  as  soon as he slowed it down. He tried to  speed  it up  in  slow  stages but at half throttle it yelled "Freebee!"  and was off again  to  play  with  some  friends it saw somewhere near the  reeds.   We   were  not  having any more of this and called it to attention  and  ordered  back to  the  jetty  at a walking pace.   It dragged  itself  down the lake  kicking  it's  heels  and waited until Jason thought he was  master  again  and eased  open  the  'motion lotion'   to bring it in  the  final leg,   it said 'TA!',  and shot  straight at us and embedded itself into  the soggy wood at the  front of the jetty.   It  took both of us to get it  out again!

    Back   home  out came the power pipe and in went the  old  exhaust  system   along   with  a  resigned attitude that I had all the speed I  was  safely  going   to  get  from  this  boat.  The IC engine was refitted and was run  for  a few more months like this and then sold to raise founds for another  boat....sigh!
 

CONCLUSIONS
    Being   my  first IC engine I learnt a lot about starting and  running  IC   engines,  and running quite fast boats. I learnt about how much damage the  bank   does to quite a fast boat having come into contact with it  several  times  at high speed.   Not leaving air-intake vents stalls an engine  and  can  take ages to find out why.  Be very careful with this foam stuff.  On  the  whole if you go by the maker instructions you'll have many  hours  of  fun  in  building and sailing.   A very good introduction to GRP  and   IC  model boating.

Well  all  of this is just my opinion,  but what do I know!
 

EPILOGUE

    As  a  matter  of interest,   another  SHG  SHADOW  made  an   appeared  on my local lake.   I waited around  to see what it was going to do.  He had fitted an OS20 (which was  a  slightly   more powerful than the ENYA 19 I had used),   an aero  silencer  and   a  single buoyancy bag in the bow.  (The first thing that came to  my  notice  was it that it made as much  noise  as mine did,  for such a small  boat  they are a little noisy.   If you are  going  to build a SHADOW then  rubber  engine mounts should be  considered,   SHG make an ideal set  that  would require very little modification to  the  kit if fitted.)

  Anyway,   once started, the boat shot of across the water and soon  started   to show exactly the same problems that mine had i.e.  ducking and twisting  when  full  speed was reached.   It was better than mine  because  of  the  lightness   of  the bow and didn't submarine as my model did but  even  so  the driver was  very  tentative  on  the throttle.   We put about pound of  lead  in  the  stern,  behind the rudder tube.  This improved the attitude  of  the  ride with  the  bow coming up cleanly out of the water but  still  the  torque  effect   could  be  clearly seen,   pulling the boat  into  a  starboard  turn at full  speed.  

With  a  little  patients and some  lead  waiting  and/or   trim   tabs  could  result in a successful, if a  little  over  powered SHADOW. If you have built one of these boats we would like to here  from you. Email me at MAYHEM .
 

MODIFICATION POSSIBLE
   Replacement rudder
  Quieter engine mount
  Metal propeller
  Electric conversion!
  Scale fitting etc.

FINAL SPECIFICATION
  ENYA 19 motor
  SHG  engine mount
  Huco coupling
  40mm propeller
  Aircraft + in-line silencer
  Yellow SLEC fuel tank, atmospheric
  Home-made rudder
  Accoms 2 channel radio
 

PERSONAL RATINGS (out of 10)

  Value ..............................
  Kit Quality ......................
  Kit Design .....................
  Ease of Building ...........
  Finished appearance ......
  Handling .......................... 

9 (Needs no additional fittings)
6 (Fairly nice, most parts included)
4 (Hull design lets down a good kit)
8 (Very good instructions)
6 (Comes with a nice bits to stick on)
3 (See text)
 

The original advert

SEE ALSO....

  The local club predominately run multi type boats,  multi meaning multiple   boats run against each other.  I wanted to join in and win a race or  two.  I   saw   a  second  hand boat in a model shop and  so   bought   it   and  entered  the realms of multi boat racing.   Click to see how I got on with "multi boats".... 
 




From left to right & Top to Bottom.
SHG Laser   -   SHG Shadow
Hydrafibe PREDATOR   -   Graupner Arrow
Krick Avanti   -   MFA Piranha   -   Graupner Hydrospeed