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[midships]

hi all
first may i apologise to craig dickson , i am still getting used to the site and did not realize that only my forum name came up on the site
my name is
howard spary ,mildenhall suffolk ,midships
i recived your e mail and as you or any other member with experience of rtr petrol power boats your input and knowledge would be most helpful ,there seems to be a vast difference in prices for these boats
to all concerned please accept my apologies for any inconvinence to all those concerned
regards midships

[craig dickson]

Hi Howard

Firstly let me say that you have no need to apologise to me my friend. You and I had a little misunderstanding in the private message section of this forum and that is sorted. It is good to know your name and I thank you for that.

You are rightly asking about ready to run petrol powered model power boats. I agree that there is a lot of difference in the prices of available RTR boats.

As I explained to you in my private message, my first ever introduction to a petrol powered boat was by way of buying a ready to run model. And that in itself was worth the purchase because prior to that I had not a clue as to the components or set up involved. I had only previous experience of Nitro powered boats. I leant a lot from buying the RTR boat.

However almost from the first run of the boat, its shortcomings became apparent. Without going into fine detail, I ended up having to upgrade many key components to end up with a reliable running boat. I ended up spending as much money on the upgrades plus the original boat price as what it cost me to build my next boat from scratch with top quality hardware.

Personally I can not and will not comment upon the particular RTR boat that is the subject of your topic heading. I have no experience of that particular offering. It might be fantastically built with top quality hardware.

All I would suggest is that you think carefully about your purchase. Perhaps if possible seek feedback from others that have purchased this particular boat.

Craig

[MPM]

Hi Howard,

There is a massive difference in the price and the quality of Ready to run boats.
Pro Boat is a good name in RTR boats you pay for the that...
Only seen a Blackjack 55 a few times and they are a good boat. I dont think they make it anymore but i do belive it had a Zenoah 26cc Engine in there which is a pritty bullet proof lump. A common fault on them was the clutch... a few companys offered an upgraded clutch and you can usually find them for sale on the second hand market with these upgraded clutches.

Alot of the RTR boats you see on ebay are fitted with nasty 2 strokes, Bad pipes, Bad pullstarts and flexishafts. Altho these boats look good value they can be expensive to keep going in the long run.

Can i ask why you would like a RTR boat?

Many Thanks
Jack
MPM

[craig dickson]

Hi Howard,

Can i ask why you would like a RTR boat?

Many Thanks
Jack
MPM

Hi Jack

I was so much hoping that Howard would respond to your question (at the end of your contribution).
I hope that he will soon.

Without tempting fate, I suspect that Howard is in the same boat that I was in about 4 years ago. I can fully relate to him.

For my part I wanted to experience the joys of a petrol powered boat. I had not a clue as to the set ups or how they were put together. I had only previously used nitro/glow engines in the marine field. I had no folks that could advise me at club level or at any level. My solution was to buy a ready to run boat and see what it all entailed.

Howard, please correct me if wrong...am I on the right lines???

Howard your further input will be appreciated.

Craig

[MPM]

Howard decided to take the topic into PM...

Seems to be a need for good RTR boats for people to get into the hobby with.

[martno1fan]

Fact is there is a market for a good RTR package but no one is willing to pay what it actually costs for that quality,they expect cheap and we in the UK cannot compete with the Chinese on that score,but you really do get what you pay for.
Ive built one RTR hull last year for someone,i Will not be doing it again.It is not worth the time and effort and is certainly not cost effective.Basiccly he got a 60 mph boat for £850 ish,by the time i factored in my time and parts materials etc i just about made a profit ,never again lol.

[craig dickson]

I think Mart makes valid points here. From what I have seen of the far eastern imported RTR packages, they are experts at marketing their RTR boat packages. That starts with their striking decals which makes such boats extremely attractive to anyone new to the hobby. That includes photos of clean looking components with claims of top quality fixtures and fittings. And to a novice, those photos and claims are very convincing indeed.

Any one new to the hobby is I suggest unlikely to be able to ascertain whether or not the boat on offer can live up to the claims advertised. For that reason it is completely understandable as to why a person (perhaps naively) would opt to buy a cheap imported RTR boat. Such boats are presented as the ideal solution to get up and running quickly for relatively very little money.

I was one of these people that as a complete novice to petrol powered boats bought an RTR boat for about £500 a few years ago. I actually genuinely believed that I would get a top quality boat. So why would I want to pay any more than that?

Of course, it was only after running the boat for the first time that its short comings became apparent in terms of problems encountered. However for my part this purchase did serve its purpose in terms of giving me confidence to build a new boat from scratch. It turned out arguably to be an expensive learning curve.

Q: Would I have made the same purchase with the benefit of hindsight?

A: Certainly not cheap import. I would have paid more than double for a boat that was UK hand made with top race fittings.

Q: Would I ever buy another RTR boat?
A: No. The reason being that for me the most satisfying part of this hobby is taking my time to build a boat properly to the best of my abilities. The subsequent running of the finished boat is the icing on the cake.

Craig

[martno1fan]

I think one of the better Chinese company's who do a RTR package are TFL hobbies,there hulls are well made,hardware is very nice quality also.If you go for the Zenoah powered version then you will get a decent boat but I'm not sure on there prices as they usually supply other company's like HOR etc.Also Hor do a  RTR package which retails at around £660 so that's not too bad and there hardware is good quality.Certainly a boat and package way above most RTR boats you see with water cooled weedwhacker engines and sub par parts that wont last a decent run.
Mart