Part 1. ideal conditions; nearly 30°C, cool Bier at hand😜
Sea Scout built by Dad in the early sixties with a Taycol Target and 6V lead acid wet cells (very wet😡). Renovated and dragged into the 21st century over the last several months 😉
See Build Blog 'Sea Scout 'Jessica'' for details!
Motor: Propdrive 2830, 1000kV, 30mm 3 blade Raboesch prop. Quicrun 16BL30 (30A) ESC with BEC.
Tested with 3 battery types, all started with 99% measured capacity-
1. NiMh 4.2Ah 7.2V, nom. 408gm.
Result: Speed sedate (OK 😉scale river cruising!) No planing.
Max current: 3.6A
End status V / capacity left: At end of short run ca 3 mins. 7.78V 99%.
2. 2S LiPo 4.0Ah 7.4V nom. 257gm.
Result: Speed still sedate but due to lower batt weight at least the forefoot came out of the wet stuff! Max current: 4.1A
End status V / capacity left: At end of short run ca 3 mins. 8.25V 93%.
3. 3S LiPo 4.0Ah 11.1V nom. 315gm.
Result: Now we're getting somewhere!!😁
Good speed, manoeuvrability and planing 😊 Max current: 7.5A
End status: 11.95V 74% after several long runs, ca 20 mins total.
Estimated (extrapolated) endurance on a 4Ah LiPo around one hour - mostly 'full bore' - 'Pedal to the metal man' 😊

See also:

The competition!

Final run. (Beer was getting warm😁)

Cap'ns log entry:
Boat dead-weight w/o battery: 1.8kg.
Spray rails to be added!😲
Slight list to port to be trimmed.
Rudder servo to be reversed!!😲
Keel protection to be added: some scratches and flaking from stony sloping shore 🤔
Summary: much as expected👍 Forget anything less than 3S.
Anyone want to buy a batch (4) of new 2S 4Ah 45C Lipos? 'One careful owner'!
Happy boating people, Cheers Doug 😎
PS Many thanks to Camera girl Gisela 👍
Recorded in 1080p HD.

This is a restoration of a launch I was given that was found in a rubbish bin on a farm here in Auckland it is an old RCM ? plan built 'Fairacre' and was pretty rotten when I received it as it is made in balsa and had been wet for quite a while. I stripped it down, re 'planked' large portions of the hull and fiber glassed it, re- built the cabin, re- marked the deck planks, fitted lights, curtains (ex Graupner Commodore bits from the 70s I had kept), stern ladder, cleats etc. it is fitted with a 540 brushed motor (originally had an old Graupner monoperm) and 70s Graupner ESC and Using 2.4 Radio gear. I still have a few things I'd like to do such as a re-wire, fitting chine spray rails, better motor and maybe some safety rails, but for now it does the job.

First sea trial of "Mi Nuh Biznizz" (meaning "I don't care" in Jamaican slang). All plastic built using an altered Krick Lisa-M hull. Work in progress. Pretty wet run. Needs some spray rails, that's for sure 🤔