Calypso

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I guess it is just a case of experimenting then. Let us know how it goes and post some photos if possible.

Bear in mind that lead acid batteries should not normally be discharged below 50% to avoid internal damage so your 3.4ah battery will have a practical capacity of about half that. NiMH cells can be discharged to a much greater degree and almost all the nominal capacity is therefore available which will give a much longer running time.

Colin

[Charles OatesParticipant @charlesoates31738]

Hi Brian, the Calypso I mentioned in my first reply uses a 7.2 nimh pack, as Colin says it will allow you to keep the weight low down in the hull, essencial in this model. I use 2 x 385s on 7.2 volts in my Emden. It weighs nearly 5 killos and is 1.4 metres long. It’s slightly overpowered.
A 3.3 ah pack runs it for around 2 hours.

[BRYAN ASTONParticipant @bryanaston57723]

Colin

I will let you know.what happens.

Bryan

[Charles OatesParticipant @charlesoates31738]

I meant to add that a lake is a very unforgiving place compared to the bath.

[BRYAN ASTONParticipant @bryanaston57723]

Greetings Colin and Charles

I have not bought a lead acid battery yet I will try as before using two 7.2 v packs as power and ballast.

I have been cutting up lead sheet today and sticking it to the battery deck, so far I have installed four layers I will try the boat in the bath when I get the lead shot delivered and poured in under the battery deck.

I have replaced the batteries ,receiver, motors,ESC and the rudder servo, I am still trying to tame the rudder servo it jams the rudders on full lock. I am sure stamp collecting is less agro.

Watch this space, I will win the fight in the end.

Bryan

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Bryan. The servo arm has to be shorter than the rudder tiller arm. Having it the other way around is the usual cause of jamming. At neutral I try to keep the servo arm and tiller arm parallel.

I am not keen on small amp hour SLA, as they are too easy to drain and then they are never the same after, and in point of fact, there is more useable amps in a 3.3Ahr Nimh Battery that a 3.4Ahr SLA..

If you already have 7.2v pack, if nothing else then there is an economy to be had by using them and not buying anything else !

I have an 8.4V pack and a 9.6V pack purchased for different craft and these are handy for several boats that use 385 motors to give them a boost.

Ashley

[BRYAN ASTONParticipant @bryanaston57723]

Greetings Ashley

I was only considering a SLA as ballast and power. I use a 12v 5ah in my large Huntmaster as ballast and power and it goes very fast and is very stable, how ever when I fitted a Grand Banks type superstructure instead of the usual superstructure it rolls like yacht under full sail, but it looks very impressive when it is not sailing, more ballast is needed.

I will follow your advice ref the rudder, continue watching this space.

If I ever find out how to post a picture on this forum I will send one of the Calypso floating upright on the water, one day.

Bryan

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Bryan. Creat an album and then post pictures in your, er, post by using these. there is a thread or something about posting pictures, may be by the articles column.

It is of course very sensible to use the battery as both ballast and power. Quite as few of my earlier builds were sized around using the common 6v 4.5Ahr SLA batteries, and they work very well, and most of mine have been bought at a very reasonable price due to Maplins flogging them off now and then.

Ashley

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

As far as pictures are concerned there is some advice in the FAQ section at the bottom of the right hand side of the page.

SLAs do have their advantages but they also raise the centre of gravity and given that you can buy NiMH packs for a very reasonable cost these days they are the power source of choice for most scale boats with a conventional power setup. The high capacity cells are pretty dense too so make good ballast.

Colin

[Mike DunnParticipant @mikedunn19317]

hi bryan, i have had this same problem in the past and i found the best way to go about it was to use lead shot, you can get this from fishing tackle shop and gun shops, the best thing about lead shot is that it is for the most self leveling once you have ballast right some pva glue left over night to set and your sorted.. i now use this all the time and works a treat.

best of luck mike.

[BRYAN ASTONParticipant @bryanaston57723]

Greetings Mike

I have already sent away for some lead shot, great or desperate minds think alike ,it seems that fishing shops are not allowed to sell lead shot now as it is illegal to use as fishing weights, life used to be simple.

I will see if the amount I have ordered is enough, 1Kg.

Thank you for your suggestion it is much appreciated. Watch this space to see if I am successful.

Bryan

[Charles OatesParticipant @charlesoates31738]

If feasible, a simple and cheap way of making ballast is to use cement. I line the area I’m going to
fill with some cling film, usualy between 2 bulkheads, then simply pour the mix in and let it set. Later I can remove it
With the cling film, and seal with old varish. If a model neads a lot of balast, this method allows you to spread the weight evenly, which helps the models handling, and it keeps the weight realy low down which helps stability.
Can’t claim this idea as new, I nicked it off Vic Smeed in the 1960s.

[Malcolm FraryParticipant @malcolmfrary95515]

In a marginally tender boat, cement might not be dense enough to get the CoG low enough to get the wanted stability when floating at waterline.

[BRYAN ASTONParticipant @bryanaston57723]

Greetings Charles and Malcolm

Thank you both for your suggestion , I must admit that using concrete had never entered my head although I can follow the logic. When I eventually get the lead shot I hope to solve the problem.

I saw on the web today that Calypso does sail very well it just needs more ballast or a different pilot.

Regards

Bryan.

[BRYAN ASTONParticipant @bryanaston57723]

Greetings all

After installing 4 100mm-by 60mm lead flashing sheets on the lower deck , 2Kg of lead shot under the lower deck, and two 7.2 battery packs I finally got the boat to float at the correct water line and despite my rocking the boat from side it was very stable , happy days.

I left the boat floating in the bath for around two hours on my return there was around the best part of 10mm of water in the boat, I have previously ,before adding the ballast ,left the boat floating in the bath overnight ,dry as a bone in the mornining what happened now. The boat has a plastic hull and I cannot see any damage of the outside of the hull, I cannot see the bottom of the boat inside owing to the lower deck, instead of fitting a bilge pump or ripping out the lower deck is there anything that I can brush or spray on the outside of the hull to seal it.

I am of the opinion that these boats are not suitable for sailing but just for static display. I am considering using it as a modern version of a Viking funeral barge. Any suggestions please.

Bryan

[shipwrightParticipant @shipwright]

Bryan,

Looking at a photo of the Calypso model (on Cornwall Model Boats website), is the correct waterline at the junction of the black and red on the hull ? When you had no ballast roughly where was the waterline compared with the design waterline (eg halfway up from the keel) ? And when the boat had no ballast were the props and rudder fully immersed ? I assume that there is no possibility that the boat drifted under a dripping tap or showerhead whilst unattended (I know it sounds ridiculous but I'm only trying to cover all possibilities other than a faulty hull).

Ian

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

take the propshaft out and bung up either end with blu-tac and sticky tape, both ends, and then take the rudder post ouit and do the same and then try it in the bath

This eliminates the only two openings into the water. if it leaks then, there must be a hull issue.

Ashley

[BRYAN ASTONParticipant @bryanaston57723]

Ashley

Belay my previous message regarding the leak in the calypso I have found the culprit, a gland nut for one of the rudders had worked loose probably when the rudders slammed over when I changed the water damaged servo as I said previously. The gland nut is very difficult to see as it under the rear deck and hard to get at.

Perhaps I will delay using the boat as a Viking funeral barge for a while.

Thank you for your reply, the saga continues

Bryan

[Kevin Flack 2Participant @kevinflack2]

Hi Bryan,

I too have a Calypso and had similar experiences, mostly the kit has too much weight topward.

Test the ballast in very still waters and make sure it cannot move!

Mine seemed to get better on the removal of the 540 and replacing with 380 type motors.

I have lead solder rod on the sides and a few fishing sinkers strategically placed to do smaller corrections. The motors are run on 6-7.2V Nicad packs.

Still only sailed on days with no wind!

Kevin

[BRYAN ASTONParticipant @bryanaston57723]

, Greetings Kevin

With the amount of ballast now in the boat I am hoping for a lot more stability, I have now located the leak and fixed it. The boat was originally built with 380 motors which I have now replaced, when the weather improves I will sail it again. With fingers crossed.I have never had such trouble with any boat I have built my self, I am most disappointed with it.

Regards Bryan

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Bryan, I'm afraid it does have a bit of a bad reputation as a working model but that is one of the perils of buying something as opposed to building it yourself. You are stuck with other people's mistakes!

To be honest I would never buy a boat somebody else has built although a appreciate many people do just that.

All my boats are built by myself and if they have problems then it they are down to me!

Colin

[BRYAN ASTONParticipant @bryanaston57723]

Colin

The trouble with the calypso kit is that the hull is much too light it is plastic , if it was glass fibre it would be a bit heavier, not perfect but an improvement. The boat has been built to the kit building instructions, I downloaded a copy from the web, it is just a bad design. I personally would not buy a similar kit in the future.

All my other boats have been scratch built by myself using a photo or sometimes a plan which I alter to suit myself, I use the plan just as a rough guide, every one sails very well, they do not have the detail of the billings kits,but they do what they are supposed to do ,they do not capsize and they have no ballast ,only the battery packs, and apart from the Huntmaster which was a pig to build ,not much fitted, they all have wooden hulls.

I will win this battle in the end, onward and upward.

Bryan

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Bryan, I totally agree that the Calypso kit is badly designed as a working model as it carries too much topweight in the superstructure. However it is not the lightweight plastic hull that is the problem, a GRP hull would simply make matters worse by raising the centre of gravity as the material is heavier than plastic. The hull itself needs to be as light as possible so that a greater proportion of the total weight of the boat needed to float it at the correct waterline can be concentrated as ballast in the bottom of the hull. If the hull sides were to be made of thicker and heavier GRP then that is all weight which is being carried above the bottom of the hull and contributing to the instability of the model.

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

It is a shame but a perfect scale replica of a ship and whats needed to sail nicely as a model are two different things.

The Sentinal coastguard cutter is one, an inch more hull depth would make this model so much better as a working boat and so on with others.

Perhaps companies could offer an r/c hull as an alternative to the perfect scale one….

Ashley

[BRYAN ASTONParticipant @bryanaston57723]

Greetings all

While I was contemplating my navel this morning it occurred to me that perhaps I could follow Colin's previous suggestion that I need a removible keel, a magnet attached bilge keel would appear to be a solution, has anybody out there any experience of this mad idea. Any suggestion will be welcome, the calypso at the moment on the bench drying out for the second time.

This morning I took out to the lake the first boat I built ,a Sea Commander thrown together , with glue , a staple gun, and lots of body filler ,I had no idea what I was doing at the time,I don't know much more now, and it still sails perfectly, isn't life strange.

Bryan

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