I have change my mind because I bought the small billings lifeboat. I'm going to turn it into a floating tow toy for my Tug but I'm going to weather it and make it look old.

Thanks for the electrical bit.

Thanks Dave I'll let you know how I'm doing when I start the project Wednesday 👍

HI Aaron
Welcome to the site.
I have a Billings boat in the US Coastguard version. I used to use 380 motors and had a single Electronize ESC feeding both motors. I had a 12v 1.2Ah SLA in the rear cabin and the boat worked well for about 15 mins until the battery went flat. it was never very fast after about 5mins.

As you note weight is the main problem and I have now fitted two small brushless (outrunner) motors with ESC's and use a LiPo in the rear cabin. Performance is now very realistic and I get about 30 mins sailing with an 11.1v 2200Ma battery. I use car type ESC's with a small fan for cooling and have not needed to watercool the motors

You could use Mtronic ESC's and replace the SLA with 12v NiMh or even a LiPo - the recent Mtonic ESC's are LiPo friendly and can be set to prevent over discharge damage to the battery.

Just a final thought the 380 motors used to come in different varieties and some were 6v so would not need the 12v mine required.

Good luck and please let us know how you progress 😀