New & Pilot Boat

[Mircea CalinParticipant @mirceacalin27655]

[Mircea CalinParticipant @mirceacalin27655]

Hi, I am new to model boats, and I found this pilot boat in a second hand shop in Northampton. I really need some help with the next issues:

Boat is taking water, I am not sure if is the propeller shaft or the body itself, one of the propeller is detached .

How can I connect the rudders , and what kind of rc kit I need.

Here are some pictures.

I don't know what the small motor at the stern is for.

What is the best way to attach the loose propeller.

Any suggestion will be of great help.

Thank you.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Mircea. Gosh so many problems!!

Firstly your pictures have not appeared so we are a bit in the dark.

Leaks. best way to determine whats what is to fill the bath up and put the boat in, weigh it down well with weights inside, and peer inside to see if you can see where the water is coming in from. Are there propellor shafts in both prop tubes? There should be and they should be adjusted with the nuts and washers on the ends of it for minimum play.

The propellor simply screws on the end of the shaft… as you are asking this question we might assume that there is NO propshaft in one of them, or it would be obvious what to do with the prop!

You could clingfilm the outer end of the prop tubes or bung some blu-tack in it to stop water ingress if you suspect the hull itself is leaking.

Small motor??? will need to see this to advise .

Radio control gear, a cheap 27M/hz set will suffice, This should come with one SERVO that is used to control the rudders, via control rods (I use thick garden wire usually if the run is not too long). The rudders should have a tiller on top of each one, with holes in to allow attachment of the wire. You would also need a motor electronic speed control (ESC) and the size of this would depend on the motors fitted and the battry voltage… and size of props.

Ashley

[Mircea CalinParticipant @mirceacalin27655]

Hi Ashley,

Tank you for your valuable advice. I will try to post the pictures again, this evening. You are right, at a closer examination I notice that a propeller shaft it's shorter and probably it's broken. The previous owner seems to tried to solder the propeller to the shaft. At the stern it's a complicated ( for me) mechanism to drive the rudders, seems to be run by a electric motor. Any advice on paint, please. Can I painted with oil paints?

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

M. The small motor then is probably the servo motor, without its cover (i assume)?

You will need to determine if the propellor shafts are metric or imperial, and order some more, and likely a pair of props.

ordinary oil paints, Dulux, or Humbrol or something similar are fine to use. I generally use ordinary "household" undercoat, and Humbrol paints for the top, and ordinary red-oxide for the bottom. For a pilot boat perhaps a gloss red or something might be better.

Ashley

[Mircea CalinParticipant @mirceacalin27655]

Hi,

At last I manage to download some pics, of the Pilot boat

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Righto. Nice looking boat, should be a good sea-boat… how long is it??The motor with the black pully wheel is one of the drive motors, There appears to be the same pully on the end of one of the shafts, so the motor would have been mounted above this shaft and a rubber O ring or similar would have connected the pullies together to drive the shafts.

The ingenious arrangement of wheels at the back looks to be some sort of gearing arrangement to turn the rudders, assuming the two brass meccano wheels at the bottom of the photo are fixed to the top of the ruder posts. All this can be got rid of and replaced by some tiller arms and a servo located in the body of the boat. The rudder posts will likely be 4mm if this IS a meccano pully.

Next you will have to identify the shaft diameter and length, in order to decide what to do about connecting your £6.90p motors to the shafts, or indeed get something else, depends how much you want to spend. The pully arrangement is quite common, and is an easy way of connecting the motor up. Will not take a lot of power thouigh unless a toothed belt is used (and so new pullies)

.Ashley

[Mircea CalinParticipant @mirceacalin27655]

Hi Ashley,

The boat is 72 cm length and quite bulky. I think the water, comes in thru the rudders shaft, so I want to put some grease in, and tested again. But also you are right and probably is better to change the shafts with new ones, and also may ask your opinion on a combustion engine? Do you think that will be suitable for this kind of boat? I am a bit worried about the batteries drain. The boat has got some connectors for 9 volts batteries . I can not identified what is the power of the electric motor, but I connected to a 9 volts battery and works fine. Another question , is if I change the shafts, how can I make the boat water proof? Shall I use resin?

Thank you!

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Mircea. Combustion engine. This would be ok, but you would need only one shaft and so hac=ve to take outthe ones you have and fit one in the centre. Most lakes do not allow i/c engines so you would be short of places to run it.

If the top of the rudder shaft tubes are above the waterline there should be no water coming in, if below, then grease may keep it out. A lot of boats take on very small amounts of water so i wouldnt worry about a little bit..

The motors look like standard 540 types, although there is a lot of variation in this size regarding power. It would be better to put new shafts in. They will not let in water if they are LIGHTLY greased and adjusted so that there is virtually no end-end play. Cut the old ones out, and put the new ones in, with the couplings and motors on their mounts (that you intend to use) so that you can get everything in line, the bits can be held in place with plasticxene, for instance, and then a drop of superglue will hold the bits in place so yuou can fix everything in with epoxy glue, or car type filler.

It depends on how fast you want to go as to what size of motor you want to fit. A standard 540, of a medium output (look at a few and you will see low drain types through to high power ones) on 7.2V Nimh batteries with 30 or 35mm props will propell the boat ok,

Speed 600 motors will make it go fatser, and so on…it is a bit difficult really, there is no set rule. However, 500 and 600 can size motors have the same mount, so you could start with the original motors, change to more powerful 540 types or even 600`s, simply by fitting new motors, with no other changes.

usually the motors are mounted behind the shafts using a universal joint coupling, so you would need the space behind the new shaft ends to allow fitting the new motors. IF there is not enough space, then gears and toothed pullies are available to mount the motors over the shafts, like they originally were. In fact, gearing the motors down would allow larger props to be fitted, and be more efficient. A ratio of 2:1 would be sufficient.

Coating the inside with resin cant hurt, but repainting the hull will re-seal any very small splits or cracks( larger ones, try rubbing epoxy glue in the cracks)

Ashley

[Mircea CalinParticipant @mirceacalin27655]

Ashley.

Thank you for your advice. I' start to order the bits and hopefully this weekend do some work on the boat. I made a mistake, water is coming in to the propellers shaft not rudders, as I've told before. There is only one motor with the boat who powered both shafts. I'll go for electric as you advised, and thinking to start with one motor and then change to two.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I would use two motors, as the boat is of a reasonable size to get going, and you would have to have a fair bit of tension with a large drive band to prevent slippage. Toothed pullies and belts are fairly expensive. A pair of "standard" 540`s, like a Mabuchi RS545 from Cornwall model boats,and a 25A speed controller for instance.7.2V Nimh battery and 35mm brass props.Standard sort of setup, cant go wrong. They also list plastic gears if you want to mount the motors on top of the shaft.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I would use two motors, as the boat is of a reasonable size to get going, and you would have to have a fair bit of tension with a large drive band to prevent slippage. Toothed pullies and belts are fairly expensive. A pair of "standard" 540`s, like a Mabuchi RS545 from Cornwall model boats,and a 25A speed controller for instance.7.2V Nimh battery and 35mm brass props.Standard sort of setup, cant go wrong. They also list plastic gears if you want to mount the motors on top of the shaft.

Ashley

[Mircea CalinParticipant @mirceacalin27655]

I will do exactly as you said. Do I need a separate set of batteries for each one of the motors or only one for both of them?

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Nope just one battery at a time, obviously the bigger the better, a 4300 Nimh pack is probably the most economic as far as cost/capacity goes.

Component shop is as good as anywhere to get batteries and wire from.

Get two batteries and they will give you quite a good run time, depending on the throttle ! You will need a proper nimh charger, if you dont have one yet. Do not get a fast charger, 300-600 mA is enough.

Ashley

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