Mode 1 or 2 are more to do with aircraft mode 1, the throttle and ailirons are on the right stick, Mode 2 they are on the left stick, and are more common in expensive computer systems, with boats you don't need to bother with all this, and unless you intend running anything other that the motor and rudder you only need a two channel system which are cheaper anyway, also I find it best to get one with both the sticks self centering as you have forward and reverse on boats, with the 2.4 gig systems you bond the Tx to the Rx so no other system can interfere with each other and you can buy extra Rx's to bond to but be careful some of the really cheap ones don't do this,