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[me3]

Hi all,

I have been on the lookout for a reliable RTR petrol model boat but I know very little about the manufacturers so I need a little help finding one. I have a budget of around £400-£600. I have found a Joysways Silverline but I am not sure if it has a proper make of engine in it.

Many thanks, Reece

[Bill D203]

Most RTR Petrol boats are not good. OK so they run and they start up, but they handle badly and one of two things will happen. 1 you will ram it up a bank and damage it, 2 you will lose interest in it because it will not run right.

No I have run Petrol boats for a few years and raced them. I used Zenoha engines because you can get the spares to rebuild the thing if you need to and you can get the spares. A stock Zen can be tuned to make it go faster

Get in contact with Scoop at the BMPRS as he may know where there is a good second hand race boat up for grabs, and may not cost as much as a RTR jobby.
I hope this is of some help?? PS leave the Bat boats in the shop as the handle like a pig on the water, unless you fancy swimming !

[w3bby]

Agree with Bill, most, if not all... RTRs have failed to fulfill expectations. Forums around the world are full of tales of disappointment from unfortunates that have bought them. Thin hulls, useless engines, hardware that doesn't hold up and bad spares availability. Do yourself a favour and build your own or look for a good used hull.
Check out sales on OMRA or BMPRS, 2 UK racing organisations.
Prestwich Model Boats and Ian's Boats sometimes have used gear for sale.
Also worth checking out some other forums from Europe, shipping isn't too prohibitive within Europe, Xtreme RC in Holland comes to mind.

[me3]

OK then thank you very much for your help, I much appreciate it as I have saved myself a lot of money!

Reece

[martno1fan]

We will be coming out with RTR Apaches very soon both electric and gas these will be top notch quallity using reliable engines ,motors etc,no way will you get a good RTR boat for £600 new,you would be looking at over £1000 -£1500 and up for something of good quallity.Yes you can buy cheap but you will then buy twice most of us have learned that over the years.
If you want something of good quallity then it will cost a little more but at least you know you wont be buying twice.If you want to save a little and enjoy building why not buy a bare hull and build it up yourself,you will learn a lot along the way  ,but even then your looking at arround £900-£1000 by the time your finnished.
Mart

[me3]

Thanks Mart I shall keep my eyes open for your RTR Apaches. Thanks for your help.

Reece

[essex2visuvesi]

I have to admit Im tepted regularly by this one
http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/graupner-hydropower.html

[mermod]

Back when I had my shop I tried a few differnt brands and yes, some brands were very basic, I found the vantex and dragon brands to have thin hulls and very basic r/c, but drop in a couple of decent servos and a good receiver pack and check and tighten everything, and they would run ok.
I found the best out of the box boat was the navicraft brand, still have an outrage in the shed, very nice boat indeed, not sure what brands are available to you guys in the UK.

[Bill D203]

I have to admit Im tepted regularly by this one
http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/graupner-hydropower.html

Nice!! However you have to fit a new Ex pipe on it as it will be to loud. 80 dB at 10 meters is the limit set by OMRA & the BPMRS and it at Stevenage MBC. So the 1st thing you will need to do is spend out for a pipe that brings down the noise. 

[scoop]

Bill mate it's BMPRS.......as in www.bmprs.co.uk 
Cheers
Scoop

[martno1fan]

I have to admit Im tepted regularly by this one
http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/graupner-hydropower.html

Just been honest but its just another poorly built boat with a bright paintjob to catch the beginers eye ,with no propper motor or pipe and they run like pigs save your money.About time people realised you get what you pay for,lets face it the hardware and motor on these boats wont last five minutes.
Mart

[Bill D203]

Bill mate it's BMPRS.......as in www.bmprs.co.uk 
Cheers
Scoop

OK  It's hot here! And Im on early starts all this week.
 Long time no talk ! whats going on then?

[black magic racing]

check ebay out theres a couple of hulls on now,maybe worth a look at?  kurt 

[mermod]

Gosh martno1fan, if a boat like this would only last you five minutes i'm not sure you should be advising people on a forum, I have customers/ friends that have had their vantex, dragon and navicraft boats for over six years and with a bit of maintenance they all still run togrther regularly, they are not after huge speeds, just a bit of fun.

[martno1fan]

Gosh martno1fan, if a boat like this would only last you five minutes i'm not sure you should be advising people on a forum, I have customers/ friends that have had their vantex, dragon and navicraft boats for over six years and with a bit of maintenance they all still run togrther regularly, they are not after huge speeds, just a bit of fun.

Like i said you get what you pay for.I wouldnt call a bit of fun spending £600-£800 on something that fails within days of buying it, no that to me is not fun its frustrating and annoying to say the least.If your happy offering these types of boats to people thats your choice

[mermod]

And like I said, I still have many friends running these boats after many years with nothing more than a bit of wear and tear, oh except for one guy that jumped up and down because it wouldnt turn, I simply pointed out that the assembly instructions required the rudder to be screwed on not just left in the box with the other bits

[martno1fan]

Yes and like i said you get what you pay for  .
Its a no brainer for anyone who knows boats,add up the cost of quallity running gear a propper reliable marine engine and a quallity hull and your allready well over £700 but at least you know then you will have a boat capable of running with the best not something unreliable.Why pay upwards of £700 for something with inferior parts it doesnt make sense to me whatsoever.Quallity and reliability costs but id rather sleep at night knowing i gave someone good sound advice based on experience first hand which is what ive given as have others before me.
Mart
heres a quick list ive probably missed a few odds and sods but give people an idea of the costs of good parts.
Hull£150-£250
Zenoah £240
Mounts£18 basic
Stinger £35
flex and shaft£45
tuned pipe£56
header £15
cooling flange £12-15
flex collet£10
pipe bracket £15
pipe saver£5
Prop£30
drive dog£1.50-2
Ruddder£30-35
water tubing £5
water outlets£5
radio box£15
bellows£2
pushrods conectors etc£10
fuel tank £8-10 basic type
tygon fuel line£4-5
trim tabs£15-25
turn fins£15

[craig dickson]

Hi Reece
My introduction to Gasoline powered boats was the purchase of a RTR boat costing about £550 about 4 years ago. The boat looked fantastic and this short clip showed it on its first run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQSbNlFblpA

The upside of the purchase was that it got me into gas boats and made it very easy to see how things all worked with the boat being pre-fitted out.

However I learnt within about 5 minutes of its first run of its shortcomings. That resulted in me spending a lot of time and money replacing components that while looking neat and nice were in fact cheap and nasty. That included the radio gear, the exhaust manifold, the radio box (needed heavily modifying for water tightness) and various other components. The engine (a copy of a Zen260PUM) has proved very reliable and easy starting despite a pull start mechanism that is weaker than a puka Zenoah. If that breaks I doubt that I will be able to get spare parts for it.

That experience soon led me to start building my next boat from scratch having bought a  47”Lynx hull. This time it was fitted out with decent hardware and built with precision having reinforced the hull for extra durability. I spent over a thousand pounds all in. However in my opinion it proved much better value for money. I ended up with a boat much faster, better handling and bullet proof reliability. And critically if I do need replacement spare parts I can obtain them easily.
This photo shows my Lynx in action:



That is only my opinion from personal experience. I will in future always build from scratch. I am totally with Martno on this.
Cheers
Craig
 

[scoop]

I couldn't agree more with Mart and Craig  the best way to go for quality and reliability is scratch building if you intend to race, see my BMPRS News columns in Model Boats mag for June/July/August 2012 for details.
However if you are on a budget then a RTR boat would be ideal but you must realise that they are much slower, in some cases a bit awkward to start the engines, and you will soon get fed up with having to repair or upgrade them. 
Learn from Craig.....like he said he got the bug from an RTR boat but it cost him in the long run........will soon be time to rub paint again at the next race in September Craig  Looking forward to it  .......anyone out there looking at an RTR why not pop along to one of our races (www.bmprs.co.uk) to see the scratch built race boats in action first, you will be made most welcome 

Regards
Scoop

[scoop]

OK  It's hot here! And Im on early starts all this week.
 Long time no talk ! whats going on then?

It's hot here too Bill.......well it's a bit quiet as we are in our Summer recess awaiting the restart at Leicester on September 2nd  ....................and here's hoping the dreaded green stuff doesn't show up as bad as it did last year.......mind you a lot of the lakes are full again so the weed might not grow as aggressively this time round. 

Hope all goes well for you on Sunday at Stevenage Lifeboat day (good weather and all that). I'm working so shall miss out 

Cheers
Scoop

[Bill D203]

It's hot here too Bill.......well it's a bit quiet as we are in our Summer recess awaiting the restart at Leicester on September 2nd  ....................and here's hoping the dreaded green stuff doesn't show up as bad as it did last year.......mind you a lot of the lakes are full again so the weed might not grow as aggressively this time round. 

Hope all goes well for you on Sunday at Stevenage Lifeboat day (good weather and all that). I'm working so shall miss out 

Cheers
Scoop

Hi Scoop
I had 32 deg on the way out of East London today. Makes working hard going.
Still it is going to cool down for the weekend. just right for me.

[black magic racing]

i also agree with martin,building from scratch is the way to go if you want to build a good boat,having said that i have a king of shaves cat which has had a pipe change and is a good fun boat,no race boat but the missus loves it,with me its all about power,handling and good built boats,which is something some of the RTR boats dont have,,

[mermod]

I also agree that scratch building wil no doubt give a better boat but i,m pretty sure the original question was about a good rtr so I pointed out a few good brands I've dealt with such as navicraft etc and as black magic racing points out the venom king of shaves is another good example

[martno1fan]

I stand by every thing i said 100% you get what you pay for 

[dog1966]

  )i stand by you to mart very very much so watch out if some one trys to say diferant