Unfortunately at present we have been inundated with orders so have not had the time to watch or reply personally to 'WCW'. May I firstly state that of the hundreds of this model we have sold he has been the first person with any problem.
Obviously we have tried to help, but when people deviate from the instructions which we know to work then they are entering uncharted territory. George's boat without battery & with all figures and resins weighs 610 gms, the boat in question without battery & only 1 figure 1100gms - 80% heavier.
Further as everyone who knows George will attest - George would not sell a kit which did not work to his extremely high standards. Please also refer back to posts 7, 12, 18. We will be attending the Blackpool & Warwick shows this year & the only thing further I can suggest is that WCW attend a show so we can help him out on a face to face basis with him steering the boat on the water. Further our kit will be available for all those interested to have a go.
From George's test the prop was not the problem or the prop shaft angle, the shape of the stern is fine as with all our other narrow boat kits which we have sold. A further point which may help solve the problem is that a rudder extension has been attached to one side of the rudder supplied in the kit, this is not according to build iinstructions.
I will attach part of our response to the person in question which may deal with a few of the mentioned points and be of further help.
On receiving your n. boat the first thing that struck me was the high class of modelmaking & attention to detail. On looking inside again a first class job but perhaps very over engineered with layers of plastic stuck to the sides and bottom making it very strong but heavy. This is somewhat unnecessary - I have thrown a narrow boat (without battery) 30 feet down the garden, don't ask why! Apart from a figure and resin part coming off the only damage was to paintwork. Also the prop shaft comes out low & the rudder is lower than on my boat, with an extension fitted to 1 side.
The 1st test was in the bath, I fitted the recommended 6v 7ah jell cell into the battery compartment, once again very well made but unneccessarily over-engineered, switched on, checked trim, placed onto water, went fine. 2nd test took boat to local park, switched on put boat on water, with a little trim adjustment off she went, seemed to steer strangely - found servo sliding out of box, pushed in firmly tried again - no real problems.
These boats being long & flat bottomed are prone to cross winds & currents but this can be sorted with trimming. With this sort of craft you will have to change trim to suit wind direction.
My conclusions are that I canot find any major problems, you do have to adjust trim as you sail but no more than on my boat, advice re checking servo, trim, range check on radio. Plus mention of weight difference - 80%.
It should once again be stressed that a heavy boat will not steer as well as a boat built to the recommended instructions.
Many thanks to all those who have offered advice on this topic and apologies for such a long post.
Sharon