video of all lights operating from transmitter.
I had to paint the inside of all the tops to stop the light shining through, hence blacked out!. For normal operation wher the lights are not used, I have small jst connectors that njust disconnect so there are no wires when taking the tops off

Also, a pic of some of the really nice stuff modelling timbers do, brass door knobs and handles

OK, this is why I hate rc modelling!!!! 😱 😡

Last time out was the video, it was ballistic, no problems, could not have been better. it was cleaned, put away only a few weeks ago. Today taken out, with fully charged batteries which all have battery monitors, so I know they are fine. No changes whatsoever, it was working at half speed, would not go!
Tried everything, breaking all my rules of not tampering at the lake, would not Improve.
Tonight I have reset and recalibrated the two esc's, recharged the batteries, no change, so I am now stumped!
Nothing binding, boat is not pulling, I measured the revs on both motors before and after recalibration, no change, its been a very bad boat today, and is now on the naughty step 😭
Currently at a loss as to what is wrong..... I hate rc modelling!

off work today, and have not been able to settle with the fireboat speed problem hanging over me, so after extensive fiddling etc, its back to Gautby Road lake in Birkenhead for trials.

I am happy to say I recorded 21.5mph in windy choppy conditions, I have a feeling that I have a bad battery pack, even though they are all reading charged, one isnt working, as I did hear a low voltage alarm going off, however all packs read high volts, so something isnt right.

As I was thinking it might be a battery, I had two spare packs with me, from the Huntsman, 3 cell 5300mah lipos, so decided to be really ruthless and put 5 cells on each motor, meaning when fully charged nearly 20v per motor, that was scarey! 😁 24.67mph 43amps, thats a tad faster than the Huntsman has ever gone!

It ran for 15 mins, then another alarm started bleeping, on one of the origianl 2 cell packs, so I think I might have identified the problem to be a battery, I hope so, cause its an easy fix, although I have to spend money to fix!

Coincidentally I also received today my long awaited counter rotating beautiful 3 blade propshop props, alas, very disappointingly, they are 3 mph slower than plastic 55mm "x" props I have been using, so will have to go back 😟

now here is a lesson, check things properly! 😯

so today, I had limited time available due to family commitments, why are days off work so littered with "other" jobs! so rushed getting ready to sail.

The weather wasnt great, windy, threat of rain, and I had been having problems with the boat that meant a lot of things inside the boat had been fiddled with.

I thought (in the rush to get out this morning) everything was back in its place, but I was wrong. 😭

After the first run, which was only 3 mins I realised what had been left off, the water cooling pipes to one of the esc's, I now had an inch deep lake INSIDE the boat, and you have seen all the wiring in this boat, plus the eagle tree data logger was in there, no doubt I will have all sorts of electrical hiccups during the next few outings 😯

I was so annoyed with myself for being so sloppy!! 😯

got some new toys in the post yesterday, two pairs of beautiful 3 blade prop shop counter rotating props to test. I haved fitted one pair, using thread lock, don't want to lose one as they are not yet paid for.

I think I might have some battery issues, which will be a pain! Last time out a few weeks ago, boat went real slow very quickly. I thought at first the esc's were going into some sort of low power mode, so I have recalibrated them. I have charged and discharged a few times the 4 packs, and they seem to be fine, all discharging the same, but its under load that will be the test, I hope they are ok as I need to gather the data to see which props are going to be best, and if its going slow I cant do that.

Santa gave me a new HD camcorder that I am looking forward to using. Lets hope it all works after the serious dunking in December, what this space 😱

well disappointingly still not sorted. I ran the boat a few days ago, with the beautiful new props, and all hooked to data logging, but alas, it still goes into low voltage shut down. I tried different batteries, it does the same. if I disconnect the esc and reconnect then its fine, revs great at the lake side, the minute it drives off, it happens again, and I don't think its the batteries.

So, back home, complete strip down and inspection

all stripped down, inspected the motors and no evidence of any faults, I took this opportunity to clean everything and replaced a couple of bearings, but no tight spots, it runs perfectly, but something is causing a spike in amps and watts (diagnosed with the data logging) that is pulling the batteries down momentarily causing the low voltage shut down

several people with fast brushless set ups have advised to reset all esc settings, as the type I use have a reputation for dropping the settings. The low voltage protection could be kicking in way too early, meaning as the boat accelerates, the batteries drop momentarily but the esc's think the batteries are flat, and kick in the low voltage protection, flippin heck, there is a lot to be said for simple set ups, but I always do things the hard way! 😀

so, not off work till weekend, so its a reset, which is very fiddly. I have a spare pair of castle creation esc's meant for another build, I might solder up compatible connections and try them. I have eliminated batteries, that will then eliminate esc's then only motors left! This will no doubt prove to be something obvious staring me in the face 🙄

well we are back to normal, not convinced I have altogether solved it, but I think its a combination of things. I turned off the low voltage cut off, and things seemed to be much better. I tried the castle creations esc's and things where very good, so the only difference, Ignoring the quality comparison, was the motor timing, and I'm not really sure what that is all about, but the cc esc's run on a higher timing. I also tried a set of borrowed batteries, and things where a bit better.

A couple of people have now seen the boat run, and whilst the speed at 23mph is awesome, its too fast!, I have sort of agreed, so yesterday settled for 20mph as a bench mark. This means I can run my own original batteries and motors, and the turnigy escs can stay, although the castle ones are way better and as there intended project isn't off the ground yet I might just leave them in the fireboat.

It was surprising however, after relatively little use, how much gunge needs cleaning from the shafts, bearings, etc, maybe a characteristic of a faster boat that they need extra tlc! The new props are here, I tested a pair of 50mm and 47mm counter rotating 3 blade propshop props. They are beautiful, and I will use the 47mm, although a bit slower, the amp and watt usage is quite low and well within the motor capabilities, so they might last a bit longer, but I doubt it as the motor bearings are already getting noisy!

This might help people doing a twin screw build. The real boat was same direction, propshop advised have then turning outwards, the explanation made sense, lets face it they are the experts. I wanted counter rotating to stop torque roll, which it did. However, turning outwards caused real bad turning characteristics at anything lower than 1/3 throttle,

I swooped over to turning inwards, and the handling is now fine 👍