Hmm... I was really looking for a 'sweet spot' on price/performance. I have an 80A watercooled esc to use with it, the ESC and motor are rated to 21v, and I've had it running on 12v on the bench. It humms along at 12 - I could easily ramp it up to 15 or 18 if that were to help the planing performance.
Having talked about volts, amps is really about duration. I had hoped to get 30mins+ out of it, but that looked very hard if it were going to draw 50A. If it's nearer 10, that still means a 5000 battery, or 2 2500s... I'm not sure what the relative benefits of NiMh and LiPo are at those ranges...
It sounds like changing the prop will make a lot of difference to this one - so a range of sizes would come in useful... It also sounds as if I have rather over-engined a 30" hull, but the old Aerokits are not light. I could move it to a Sea Commander, or Swordsman. What equivalent glow-plug would you say this was?