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[Dreadstar]

Took some pictures of her today at Elder Park,but I've not quite got this move and shoot down yet,so a couple of the pics are a bit fuzzy.
 I've still got quite a bit of work to do on her,but it's getting there,at least I've managed to sort out a decent motor/prop combi for her.
 Unlike other RTTL's that I've seen on the forums,my one only has the one prop,but as you can see,this plywood beast still hits the plane.

[Martin (Admin)]

Nice one Dreadstar!   
 Very purposeful looking. How big is she?

[Dreadstar]

She's 36" long,with a beam of 10" and a height of 8" to the top of the main cabin. She's powered by a direct drive linked MFA RE550 motor  with heatsink and propelled with a 2-bladed JP Accessories 35mm nylon prop. The photos were taken with the boat powered by a 7.2V-3700MAh stickpack,which gives you around 12 mins runtime. She has the twin rudder set-up,as per the original,(2.5"in height x 2.125" long),which gives her quite a tight turning circle. I'll try and get some internal pics posted up later.If I use a 6V-4A lead-acid battery,she doesn't plane quite as high,nor run quite as fast,but that's only to be expected,due to the increased weight that the battery provides. I'm really glad that I don't have the prop vibration that I was experiencing with the 3-bladed brass props now.

[Dreadstar]

Motor/stickpack battery access:-



Coupling/receiver/6V battery access:-



Steering servo access:-



Rudder access:-



Rudders and prop:-



Does anyone have any photo's of the cockpit interior for this boat?

[JB]

Not sure if this is any help...

[Proteus]

is this the boat with the vibration, ? it is prob due to the amount of unsupported shaft before the coupling


Proteus

[Dreadstar]

Excellent photo Jab,that's exactly the type of photo I was after.

 Yes Proteus,this is the very same boat,but I've not had vibration trouble since I lengthened the skeg to nearer the prop.

Please excuse my little bit of artistic licence,but I've used a perspex windshield instead of the metal one in front of the cockpit. I've still to remove the front guard rail,that the builder fitted,but I wonder if I really need to do that,though I'd need to if I want this boat to be anywhere near accurate,just like I'd need to do with the windshield too.
 
 What do you lads think?

[Dreadstar]

A bit of a set-back today,whilst giving her a little run around the pond today,I hit the pond edge,and sheared off the port rudder. I'll need to wait until tomorrow before I can salvage the rudder from the pond,as I couldn't reach it today. I've made up a temporary one from an old tin can in the meantime. Having only the one rudder on board,meant that my steering was very poor in reverse,but fine when going forward,if a little wider in radius. Timed the 3700 MAh packs today,and I get a good 20 mins out of them,even if using a lot of high speed runs. I wonder what sort of runtime I'll get by using a set of 4300MAh racing packs? It'll mean changing my ESC from the current one, to my race ESC(no-limit/ reverse) from my RC10B4,which has corally tubes fitted to the powerleads,plus a large in-line capacitor.

[Islander1951]

No need to change your ESC if the voltage is the same, more Mah just means longer run time. 

[Islander1951]

Make up an adaptor if necessary.

[Dreadstar]

It's quite easy to just add the B4's esc into the boat,as there's plenty of room,that'll allow me to run any of my battery types then,from the 6V gell cell to race matched stickpacks.All I need to do is change the connections between the 2 esc's,a 2 minute job.

[Dreadstar]

I'm going to try and take some video of her today,as well as some better photo's of her underway. I'm not all that good at photography, and I've only got a little Nikon coolpix 7.1 meg camera to work with. The good thing is,that the sun's out today,can't remember too clearly the last time we saw it up here.

[Dreadstar]

As promised,a couple of vids and stills from today.









http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/?action=view&current=DSCN1175.flv

http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l4/xuihpilli/?action=view&current=DSCN1180.flv

[Circlip]

Good to see Vics design chasing about Dreadstar, but how close to the plans is the bow area??  Is the bow block scooped out enough?? The bow wave looks to be mushy and holding it down. On the BPB Seaplane tender (OK, a different design) there is a chine rail fitted which deflects the spray down and away from the hull sides, but I would have thought that a Vosper design, although not fitted with this would have been such to overcome this problem.

  Bought the "Lawrence Manufacturing" fibre glass hull for this design in 1959 and was told that someone had fitted a "Gannet" 15cc petrol engine (Yes PETROL) in it, but had to fit "Spray chines" to make it run properly. Mine was to have a "Racer" as powerplant with "Aeromuddler" transistorised Receiver and a 120Volt HT. 3D6 powered transmitter.

   Regards  Ian

[Dreadstar]

How big would the chines have to be,in order to be effective Ian? I've seen these chines fitted to many of this class,including the one at RAF Hendon. I wondered why they were there,now I know,thanks.

[DickyD]

The Model Slipway one has chines

[Mi Amigo]

A bit of a set-back today,whilst giving her a little run around the pond today,I hit the pond edge,and sheared off the port rudder. I'll need to wait until tomorrow before I can salvage the rudder from the pond,as I couldn't reach it today. I've made up a temporary one from an old tin can in the meantime. Having only the one rudder on board,meant that my steering was very poor in reverse,but fine when going forward,if a little wider in radius. Timed the 3700 MAh packs today,and I get a good 20 mins out of them,even if using a lot of high speed runs. I wonder what sort of runtime I'll get by using a set of 4300MAh racing packs? It'll mean changing my ESC from the current one, to my race ESC(no-limit/ reverse) from my RC10B4,which has corally tubes fitted to the powerleads,plus a large in-line capacitor.

Hi
 your average current draw is about 22.2A, 4300mah batteries will give you around 3 mins 12 seconds extra runtime over the 3700's.

It looks smashing on the water, I bet you are really pleased with it, Circlip refered to Vic, is it a Vic Smeed Design?

Neil

[Perkasaman2]

Here's the Hendon RTTL.

[Perkasaman2]

Try again

[Mark47]

I've just checked Vic Smeeds Drawings and they show the chine line.

[Dreadstar]

Personally I'm not sure if that's the designer,but it seems to have been based on the Model Maker plans,with a few artistic licence modifications.
  Forgive me,but I'm very new to this game,coming from 1/8th off-road racing,I saw this boat for sale from a member of Elder Park boating club,and thought,I've got to have that.I bought her for 80.00,she'd been lying in the clubhouse for over 2 years,and had never been sailed, due to the fact that the previous owner had passed away,before he'd had the chance to sail her.
   Having looked at the various photographs of the real thing,I've spotted quite a few differences,the most noticable being the handrails at the bow,and the oddly shaped rudders,plus the fact that there  was no cockpit.
  I'm trying my best to get this boat into something that looks a bit closer to the real thing,but I think that I'll leave the bow rails on her,as I quite like the lines that it gives her.

How she originally looked.



How she's looking now

[Circlip]

Yep, sorry Dread, just picked this back up. The RTTL was a freebie giveaway plan in the 1958 Christmas edition Of Muddle Boots, drawn up by the wizard of all floating and flying things Vic Smeed. Boy, did THAT guy know his onions, his designs were so damned predictable, they ALWAYS worked, even when built by hamfisted twonks. I think the following year he did the E-Boat.

  First impressions on it sailing Dread was that the ballance may need re-ing, but the bow wave looks as though it can't clear the hull sides. When you turn the wick up, I would have expected it to lift its skirts and be sat with the spray at about 1/3rd to 1/2 back being chucked well clear from the BOTTOM skins.

[Mark47]

You've done a grand job. At the end of the day she is your boat now and what you want on her is yours and only your decision. I would still think of putting the chine rail on as this will only add to the handling and over all look of the boat on the water. You may find in tight turns at full speed your taking water on . The chine rail will resolve this for you by kicking the water away from the boat.

As I said it's your choice what you want in/on your boat.

Mark

[Dreadstar]

As you can see,I've attempted to fit a set of chines to her sides,maybe not too accurately,but hopefully it'll make a difference. I'll let you know if they've made any difference after I've tried her out tomorrow.I just hope that I've not put them on at too steep an angle,I was trying to follow the natural curve up from the step of the lower hull.

[Mark47]

As you can see,I've attempted to fit a set of chines to her sides,maybe not too accurately,but hopefully it'll make a difference. I'll let you know if they've made any difference after I've tried her out tomorrow.

The chines run the full lenght of the hull connecting to the bottom of the transome, this will stop any intake in the tight turns.