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Got a set up you would like to share - or info etc.. write a small article and we will publish - just e-mail it in
 Got next year sorted yet? Let us have your events calendar and we will publish it.
27th January 2010
- ... and then the parcel man turned up with the U7 cuts.
27th January 2010
- Nearly the end of January already - wher edid that go. Well we have been a little less busy online but busy behind the scenes. We had an attack on our shop which was used to send emails- our abject apologies - that has now been fixed and further security introduced. we will know very quickly of any unauthorised access in future. The U7 kit is nearly complete in prototyp and we are still waiting for the laser cuts. We have also got some new products coming the star of which is the Genesis Cat from TFL/HOR. More later till then happy modelling.
20 November 2009
- Isn't the year going quickly - nearly Christmas already! Traditionally this has been a mixed time for us and I guess that since we are mostly mail order that should be expected immediately before Christmas however the last couple of years have gone against that with us being really busy right up to Christmas, What I am saying is please give us a fighting chance and get your orders in early. We are a small company and peaks are therfore not easy to deal with. That said we have received a delivery from CBC so the mini cat and mini mono are now back in stock and these along with the HOR micro predator and micro hydro would be fantastic christmas gifts, if I did not have one it is something ( as a long term hardened boaty) I'd like to find in my stocking. We have also large stocks of the now very good quality hardware coming from China and especially ETTI from Hong Kong. Now everyone makes mistakes and I am just recovering from one. I liked the look of a Cat on a supplier site and ordered one. The figures said it was on the large size and I wanted one a bit bigger than those we currently supply. The mistake became apparent when it arrived - it is not big it is Huge at over 50" long and ? wide It comes with a Large outrunner, Twin rudder hardware and a 100 amp esc (I think) - I'll take some pics and post them shortly. Anyway - the price should have warned me - but it will be fun!! Any Offers?
6 November 2009
- Thanfully the postal strikes have been called off until at least the end of the year. We were looking for ways to make it easier for us and came across a UK mail modules for our shop, it has many choices for royal mail here and abroad, parcelforce 48 and city link. We would not necessarily use city link but its a good basis for another courier. We also looked at FastWay - prepaid courriers but have not pursued that. Meanwhile we have had an order arrive from ETTI, Next week we expect a shipment from CBC and last week we had a shipment from HOR! So we have been busy but hope to get out a run some boats (My Storm Knight arrived and I have yet to run my Demon and Chaser). Have fun Boating!
3 Nov 2009
- Last October we served 69000 pages, this October it is 124500, an average of 2200 pages a day last year and now it is 4100. Last October we had just over 1 million hits ( information requests) on the website, this October it is up to 1.65 million. Whichever way you look at it thats a huge increase, and that has been reflected in the orders that we receive. We believe that it has all been driven by our provision of high quality, high end products within the FE Market and our continuing search for more. So many thanks to all those of you that read our pages and be assured that we will keep up the work. We end with a plea! If you do have some nice pictures of our products working or nice stories, then we would love to hear/ see them - please mail us with them. Again Many Thanks - Allan
29th October 2009
- We have updated the site from PHP4 to PHP5. This should work OK throughout but there will probably be a few bits that do no. Please let us know if you find one!
26th October 2009
- What a bad weekend for me. My PC crashed. I thought I had been clever and I have an OS drive and two SATA data drives - but I eventually found the SATA controller had broken. So my data drive and its backup could not be read. Saturday I purchased a new PC - a dell 545 from PC world - they are on offer at present and reasonable for what you get. Got that home and plugged in my SATA drives and they came up - big sigh of relief. I re-installed my accounts software and it seems to work - but will not print. so after a painful half day I bought an alternate package which is working but its slower than having all the customer details to hand. Email worried me but I was able to boot my old PC and re-load the mail file from it over the network - whew!! Just about back in business. So this will cause a few delays for which I apologise but with that and the postmen you probably won't see the difference (I hope).
1 Oct 2009
- Three quarters of the way through the year already!! Slightly less busy from our point of view this month BUT not for the site. The site has been running at over 100,000 hits per month since May but this month was an all time high at 119,500. Many Thanks. This month we have introduced a fair few new items once again. Notably new hulls, motors etc from ETTI - and there are more CNC props on the way. New ARTR from HOR - I am told this ( the sea predator) is a wicked little machine. Ne ARTR huills from CBC ( this is a new relationship and the mini hulls are extremely nice and well constructed/ finished. Lastly new hulls coming from Tenshock - and some new motors - and we are looking at their ECO hardware as that is really nice. The U7 Kit is nearly finished - the new cowl mould is in the workshop and I expect that to be available in the next two weeks. Finally Dave Keogh of PANDAN is retireing and with a very short amount of time I have rescued the moulds for Miss T plus - 1/10th scale Turbine hydro - and the Jerry Dunlap design 3.5CC Tunnel - with some of the hardware. AND I have a few moulds - I could not take more which is a shame and they all went in a skip. Still I hope to have the moulds I rescued with my moulder in the next couple of weeks. Meantime I have around 10 of each mould or will have when the cowls for the 3.5 arrive. Have fun boating and please keep n touch - we especially appreciate video and pics of working models - even more so if they are from our products!!
Anyone with some more pictures please submit them for the Gallery page.
Allan
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Lipo Technology
Well we thought Lipo technology would give us a solid stable base to work from. That now looks to be incorrect with 25C being available last year and then 30, 33C and the latest email is offering 40/70C (40 C constant and 70C burst). They are heavier but as they become available and the usage of lower ratings drop of we will be forced to look again at the racing rules. It would be simple if it was just C ratings but capacity is increasing, different compounds are in use so weight per "C" is also reducing.
Quite apart from the 40C we have also been offered 6000AH but as you would expect these are outside the current weight limits.
One of our Customers has been testing some new 5200 Nom cells for us and these come out at 5100 within the set existing parameters. but some cells are also showing a lower low end voltage. These are good cells and there is a 5300 version - the 25c are lighter than Visleros but the visleros seem to provide nearly 10% more than the spec..
So whilst we'd love to be able to give a definitive suggestion it seems that some difficult negotiation will be there somehwere in the future. We'd enjoy seeing your thoughts and feedback!
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2009 Naviga Cell rules
It looks very much like Naviga have now agreed cell rules for 2009 and they are much as discussed previously - i.e. 7 cell nimh/ 2slipo/ 3s2p life or 14cell nimh!!/4s lipo/6s2p life - max weight 280 gms (2s) etc and the lipos can be 2p. Full details can be found on the Forum.
Coincidentally Flightpower have announced Marine power cells and several manufactureres are offering reduced weight cells. Danlions have re-badged their Vislero cells but the weights, capacities and sizes remain the same.
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SWAMBC have updated their rules this year. The most notable change ahs been in FM4 which used to be BB700 8.4 turbo motor and 12 cells (any hull). Last year new cell capacity meant that motors were burning out , that coupled with suitable speed controllers becoming scarce as everyone moves tp brushless AND the poor quality of NIMH cells meant that something had to be done!
Formula 4 has been altered as follows:
Motor: Mega ACn 22/30/2 (1770rpm/volt) ONLY
Drive: Any drive form may be used.
Hull: Any hull design or type.
Batteries: Lipo 4S1P, 20C minimum rating, 5000mah nominal capacity.
Weight: Minimum of 2kg with the boat in a racing set up, including its batteries installed.
Duration: 7 minutes plus a 10 second “Mill Time”
Course: Clockwise around the outside of the “M” course, or as the water permit or dictates.
SWAMBC Rules
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ETTI Motors
There are new motors on the block! ETTI have started a range of motors with two - one fro Eco's and one for mono 1's. Both are 4 pole motors 29 mm dia 60 mm long nad capable of 60000 rpm. I'm told they are better than Lehners. A bit pricey but you have to pay for quality!
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