Take a Breath and LIGHTEN UP!

Hi Everyone,

I've gone back and snipped a post I wrote back in early December of last year. I have a feeling that people are loosing sight of the big picture and the arguments have become totally out of control.

Many of the fastest guys in the country won't post anymore because their tired of the BS. Can't blame them, they've been running and building boats to the proposed guidelines and understand the practical limits of running parallel lipos in boats. There are in the neighborhood of 60 FE racers running 2P setups right now that I personally know of, there could be more but I'll mention what I know.

It's a real shame that a few guys with ideas of what "could" happen are causing so many problems by pushing 1P as a limit to what can be run in a boat. Some of these guys don't run ovals in the U.S.A., to make matters worse some don't run ovals period.

Here's the post I made trying to explain a need for change. Take a moment to read it, sit back, take a breath, and lighten up.

I would like to explain why "I" think lipo cells won't be the death of FE racing and also why "I" think it can only help.

First thing you have to understand is how an FE race is run. Up until last year the course size for a FE race was 5 laps on a 10th mile oval. This was fine with the components that were available at the time rules were drafted. With the introduction of high power BL motors, better controllers and higher capacity cells it was quickly understood that the speeds were greatly exceeding the course size, lots of wrecks and upside down boats are quite the norm. The 1/8th mile course was adopted and helped quite a bit on the carnage. There was another upside to the longer course, it was easier on the components because the boats had more time to wind up before entering a corner.

Race day: Fe races consist of 3 rounds per class all run on the same day. It is not uncommon to see an FE racer running 4 to 8 classes A DAY. Now, if your a nitro or gas racer think about that one for a minute. If you were going to a 2 or 3 day race you could end up running 10 to 20 classes! Even though some of the boats would cross over classes you still had quite a few boats in your pit with the support equipment to go along with it. The average race time per heat in the faster classes (including 6 cells) is roughly 70 seconds or less. To run those type of times/speeds you need to pull big amps out of the cells, on average a fast boat will pull 2200 to about 2600mAh out of the batteries in that short period of time. Cell temps of 150 degrees plus is the norm, the fastest guys in the 180 degree range. Simply put the batteries suffer greatly from that abuse and need to be replaced on a regular basis.

I can count on both hands the number of racers nationally that can support the equipment needed to run at the top. Roughly the same number of people actually spend what it takes to travel to the half dozen or so races spread across the country that are held annually. A big race consists of 15 to 30 racers, I would say 22 people being the average attendance. The FE community is so small I can pretty much pick the winners from the sign up sheet before the race even starts. To figure this for yourself all you need to do is look at the last 3 or 4 years of the NAMBA FE Nats, it's the big one for FE and other than 1 Nats held in MI they were smaller than a good club race. District racing or any kind of points series are unheard off. NAMBA is were you go if you want to race FE boats, FE racing in IMPBA is pretty much non existent. These aren't my opinions, this is the way it is.

With the introduction of lipo batteries the game started to change. When the IMPBA allowed FE boats to run in the open classes I and about 6 others jumped on the chance. Granted running a FE powered open class boat is not for everyone cost wise but there were enough guys to make an impact. It didn't take me long to realize the FE community was going about things the wrong way. After attending and racing over 20 nitro/gas events the last couple years I've gained a great respect for the way you guys do things. Nitro and gas racers/events have it together. Things are very organized, run smoothly and have a bunch of competition. Not to say that there haven't been problems at a few races but overall things run good. Oddly enough the nitro and gas crowd accepted and gave more respect to FE racers than we do ourselves. We've been running the lipo batteries "unrestricted" over the last two years. Nothing has got out of control and there haven't been any problems. If some of the fears that the FE community has about lipos we're going to happen I think we would have at least seen something by now. Funny thing is we've self-regulated ourselves, nothing over the top has happened. The other interesting thing that has happened is several nitro/gas clubs have added FE only classes to their regular races, that's above and beyond open class racing. To me that's huge. It tells me there's acceptance and a willingness to allow and or combine fe classes into more racing venues. If you truly are a boat racer how can this be bad? If your District had an active FE club in it and within the district you had a point series, would the nitro/gas clubs be willing to add a couple FE classes to the series? Can you see where this is going now?

For this to actually work it will take a few things. The biggest of which needs to come from the FE side. WE NEED TO QUIT ACTING LIKE WE PLAY WITH BATHTUB TOYS!! The biggest resistance to lipo power is coming from guys that don't even come out of their own back yards. If your one of them and your club want's to run 21 inch boats on 6 cheap sub-C cells who's stopping you? You can do what your club wants but please don't come out and say lipos are the death of FE and you'll quit if lipos are allowed. To me that's a sign that you really aren't an avid boat racer, your more of backyard basher.

Next thing is we need to change the way we race. Run 1 mile races and have full course mills. I don't care if your run a small 10th mile course, do 10 laps, 1/8th mile 8 laps and of course 6 laps on the 1/6th mile course. Also adopt the 5 rounds of racing spread over 2 days like our nitro and gas counterparts. Think about that for a minute. The way FE races are run now if a guy could only afford to run say two classes and both those classes fell on the same day. He would get to race 6 rounds for a total of what, maybe 10 minutes total on water time? He traveled how far and spent what to get there? Is that what you call budget racing? On a two day race why would he bother? Are you starting to understand where this is going? Now if that same guy knew he could race over 2 days and get ten rounds of racing in and the on water time was over doubled it gets a bit more attractive.

Lipo cells give us the opportunity to do these things. A nitro or gas club holding a race doesn't have to change a thing to accommodate a couple FE classes. The club holding the event benefits by more participants. FE racers benefit by having more race venues which right now is a major drawback for an electric boat racer. (the lack of races locally) Running a mile with more rounds also reduces the number of classes a guy has to run to make it worth the while to attend a FE race. Someone could actually run two or three boats and get good at tuning and driving them, have fun and be more competitive WITH LESS CASH OUTLAY. The other benefit of lipos is you can run a bigger boat than what is the norm now. A bigger boat finishes more heats and is easier to drive. Cost wise it's roughly the same. Speeds with lipos will increase, no argument there. But what racer wouldn't want more speed?

Classes need to change. We have WAY too many classes right now. Several are redundant. Right now we have M, N, O, P, Q, S and T plus some specialty classes. Within those classes we have, mono, hydro, sport hydro, OPC tunnel and offshore. Several of the classes run almost identical speeds with similar sized boats, why?

In IMPBA lipos are now legal to run. The rule IS NOT PERFECT but racing in IMPBA is not really happening so my suggestion is this.

For simplicity sake I'll call it class A, B and C and break it down by voltage.

Class A is up to 7.4 nominal volts. Parallel up to 2 packs 10KmAh limit

Class B is up to 18.5 nominal volts. Parallel up to 2 packs 10K limit

Class C is up to 37 volts nominal. Parallel up to 2 packs unlimited capacity.

Obviously motor specs and hull length rules need to be implemented and I think following the basic nitro guidelines for those lengths is appropriate. The idea is to narrow the gap between FE, nitro and to an extent gas powered boats. If we can all run basically the same boats at around the same speeds nobody has to make an special accommodations to run what ever power source at any given race. It's not about combining all power sources in one heat, it's about combing all power sources at one race. There will be a certain amount of give and take but if we can all get on the same page nothing but good can become of it. We all benefit as a whole and there are no losers. The RC boating community becomes stronger and resources can be better pooled together.

This is the general idea I have, it's a vision that could be reality if we just take a moment and think about it. Yes, it will be a bit tough at first but with all of us working together it can be done. It's already happening in some areas so I know it's possible if only we could quit whining about it and see the big picture.

Paul.

Keyboard Warriors

Hi Everyone,

First off, to all of you that have sent e-mails and called the shop a big THANK YOU! I really appreciate the overwhelming support of my writings and y'all keep me going.

You know, the Internet is a wonderful thing. Used properly it's a valuable tool for research and "hooking up" with the rest of the world. But alas it's not without it's fair share of mental midgets. Yep, I'm talking about the keyboard warriors. You know the types, they sit behind their keyboards and type things they would never say to you in person. I've had the privilege to actually come face to face with a few of these types and I gotta tell ya, the personal satisfaction I receive when they cower in the shadows is well worth the ticket.

Most of these keyboard warriors are just punks. But some of them are adults. And personally I really feel sorry for the adult type. It seems to me that when I come across an adult that's a keyboard warrior they have "little man syndrome" or low self esteem that needs bolstering from the "group". If they don't get the recognition they "think" they deserve they go on the attack. Maybe it's just a case of them not taking their meds or their psychoanalyst was on vacation for the week. Either way it's pretty sad indeed. As for the punks, those teen to 20 something big mouths with no balls, I like sparing with them the best.

Unfortunately it's all to easy to to win a war of words with them and after a while it gets boring. It's like inviting them to a gun fight and they show up with a butter knife, lol. Inevitably their lack of education comes right to the surface in a keyboard war. In my latest bout with one of these low life trolls I never got the opportunity to finish him off but I was well on my way to doing so. If you're up for a good laugh you just have to check out this link:

http://www.intlwaters.com/index.php?showtopic=20366

There you have it. A glaring example of a couple of Rump Rammer cronies. Personal attacks and insults, misinformation and flat out lies. So if you're ever in the position to do some sparring with one of these small pieces of human garbage do like I do, beat them at their own game.

Keep the wet side down,

Paul.

The Truth About Lipos?

Hi Everyone,

I gotta say I've read some real piss poor info when it comes to using lipo cells in boats. Having used lipos in boats over the last three years I've seen them go from 12C to 30C discharge rates and capacity rise to a point where things are getting very interesting now.

One of my big problems with the info out there is much of it is coming from theory and paper. The latest rounds of "bench testing" I've read about suggest that preheating cells to undesirable levels (imo) is an acceptable way to increase a lipo cells output. DANGER WILL ROBINSON!

We've known for quite some time that as the cells reach the 110 to 115 degree mark they come to life, nothing new there. What I like to see is my cells going into the boat when they are 75 plus degrees up to what ever the ambient is at the time. Because I race/run all year long I've been out when the ambient is 50 and at times like that I try and keep my cells warm but nowhere near the suggested temps from the bench test report I read.

Posting test results like that is really irresponsible. Can you imagine what could happen if a new user of lipo cells took that info to heart and preheated a set of cells to 140 degrees?

To me, the only test reports that matter are of the practical type. I've got 100s of cycles on packs and more on water time than just about anyone I know in the FE boating community. I have pushed cells to their limits, collected data and I'm here to tell you that following advice from someone that is a paper pusher is a disaster waiting to happen.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Take what you read online with a grain of salt. Do yourself a favor and do a little background check of anybody that posts info on setups or makes claims like the ones I've been reading. Ask yourself "is this person racing/running like I do?"

I'll be giving more info on lipo use in the next post. Until then...

Keep the wet side down,

Paul

Rump Rammer Racing Antics

Hi All,

Well I must admit that if I need a dose of twisted humor I visit a FE boat site that has quite the cast of characters. For the sake of this post and to "protect the innocent" I'll refer to it as Rump Rammer Racing.

There was a time, and not to long ago, that this was a great site for sharing info and learning. Alas, times and people change and the one popular site is now a place where the pissing matches outweigh any decent info. It's really clear that a core group of moderators and "experts" (lmao) have their heads so far up their asses they need a navel lens too see. Posts magically disappear when it's not in the "core's" best interest. Go figure. Don't get me wrong though, there are great mods and contributors also but they are far and few between.

It's like anything else one would find online, take what you read with a grain of salt. I find it interesting (and funny) that people from overseas post what I would call mis-information and it's taken to heart by the less experienced FE boater here in the states. PROBLEM! This will cost people money. I would put merit to what these guys say IF they raced here like we do but they DON'T! My suggestion to these types is crawl back under the rocks you came from or come on over and show us how it's done. In other words, put up or shut up and do it on our courses under our rules.

If you find this offensive, TO FRIGGIN' BAD! You must be one of "them". Take your ball and bat and go home. If you find it funny, then you must be one of the people that know exactly what I'm talking about. You're the experienced and/or sensible boaters that are dropping from that board like flies and taking valuable info with you. The good part is that valuable info is still being shared, just elsewhere.

Rump Rammers is a privately owned site, or so I've been told. I'm okay with that, just like my works are privately owned. (or so they've been told, lol) It's just like a little saying I once heard, "it's all good" LMFAO!!

Keep the wet side down,

Paul

More Time Trial Records

Hi Everyone,

Ya, I know, I need to do this more often. I've got a bunch of things going on right now and I'll try and get up to speed and let everyone know whats coming.

I attended another time trial in Huntsville, AL and had some sucsess at setting a couple more records. My good friend and team mate Kelly came down from Ohio to take his first crack at some records, lucky SOB got a couple too. I gotta say I went to this time trials with spoiler boats. Stuff I just don't run but since there's Little Willies and Capt.Crunches lighting fires under my ass I figured why not take some records away before the ink drys on their paper.

Records set:
N1 Mono SAW, 7.548 sec. 29.809 MPH average. (fastest one way 31 MPH)
N2 Sport Hydro SAW, 3.344 sec. 67.284 MPH average. (fastest one way 73 MPH)

These were tough records to grab because the boats are small and we had some wind and choppy water fighting us all three days. N1 mono is a stock brush motor class, I built a 21 inch H&M No-Step 1 mono a week before the event. My buddy Kelly had to pick me up a motor from his local hobby shop to run in the boat. I told him to just get me what ever motor they said was the "hot" one, lol. So, at the event I had to take the motor out of it's package and wire it up in the boat. Ha! No pond time dialing in this one and I set a record with a "box stock" motor! That's right, no fancy tricked out motor from some guy claiming to have the "magic bullet".

N2 Sport Hydro is an open motor class so I took the motor I set the N2 mono record with a month before and dropped it in a 25 inch shovel nose. Talk about a wild ride, that little boat was screaming across the water at speeds she just wasn't designed for. There was one tiny set back though, I got greedy and wanted to up my record. Duh, cost me a stinky boat when I fried a speed control with a WAY to big prop.

One cool thing though, all my records were set with American made motors and speed controls. My old RC-Hydros ESC was in the N1 boat and a Neu motor and Castle Barracuda 125 were in my N2 Sport. Solid preformers all the way.

My Buddy Kelly had his fair share of luck also. In his first ever time trials he grabbed 2 records.

T-Sport Hydro SAW, 2.581 sec. 87.175 MPH
S Tunnel SAW, 3.628 sec. 62.017 MPH

Both boats left allot on the table, Kelly had what was needed to run 100 MPH plus in T-Sport Hydro but we ran out of time and water. That's okay though, there's always next time.

One of these days I'll get serious about the time trials and build boats for speed only. Right now I get a kick out of beating records with my oval racing boats. Nothing better than taking a record from a big mouth with a boat I just tossed together, LMAO!!

Keeping the wet side down,

Paul.

PS: Check out this cool banner Kelly made for me, thanks Dude!

The Proof is in The Pudding

Hi All,

Well, I just got back from the IMPBA Time Trials in Valdosta, GA. Time trials are events that test your metal, you try and set records for fast straight line and oval racing speeds. Simply put it's you against the clock and you either put up or shut up. Did I say that, "put up or shut up"? Yes, I did, and you know what, some guys just don't understand that -- and after an event the "excuses" fly. More on that later.

My personal accomplishments at this International Model Power Boater Association event were;

T-Mono Straight Line, record set at 72.092 MPH.
T-Mono 1/3rd mile 2 lap, record set at 23.929 seconds.

T-Tunnel Straight Line, record set at 75.55 MPH.
T-Tunnel 1/3rd mile 2 lap, record set at 25.722 seconds.

N2 Mono Straight Line, record set at 52.398 MPH.

The T classes are the big boys, you can run 32 cells or 10S Lipo systems. The N2 class is 6 cells or 2S Lipo systems.

My main goal for this event was to prove what I've been saying for the last couple years. My heat racing boats are every bit as fast as any purpose built straight line record holding boat. The T mono and T cat I used to set records with had no changes or mods done to them; I used my heat racing props and batteries. The mono weighs 20 pounds and the cat weighs 22 pounds. The N2 mono I put together was 4 pounds 7 ounces when it hit the water, almost twice the weight of the competition.

The weather was pretty nice although there was some wind and chop on the water. Funny thing is while other competitors sat around waiting for "good" water I ran my boats and set records. Even in N2 with a 25 inch boat I was able to set records when the competition couldn't put one run together without flipping his boat. Not that it much mattered because the other competing N2 boat had nothing for me, he wasn't in the same league. While I've heard the competition's excuses "I have something for that" and my favorite "the water wouldn't let me" already being tossed around, they forget I had the same water to run in that "they" did.

So, in conclusion, I've backed up my statements with records set, the proof was in the pudding and once again the naysayers only have excuses. If it was the other way around I would keep my pie hole shut and take my lumps -- but that's just me.

Keepin' the wet side down,
Paul

Cultural Differences and the Wimps

Hi Folks,

First off, to the thousands of loyal readers of my blog (lol) I apologize. I have been lax in posting and your calls for updates will be answered. I hope all of you had a fantastic Holiday season be it late in coming.

There's been something that's bothered me for a very long time. It's a "us vs them" type of thing. Across the globe racing and running fast electric boats has been a niche in model boating. The Nitro powered boats really taking the lions share of participants, followed in recent years by gas powered models. Things are changing though and FE powered rigs are now some of the fastest powered boats there are. As a matter of fact a FE powered Hydro holds the world record for speed at over 140 miles per hour.

The gentleman that built and developed the boat was from Germany, he and his team came to the U.S. last year and set the record in LA. The Germans have brought some huge technical advances to FE racing, mainly speed controls and motors. They are among the best in the world when it comes to speed and that is what this post is about. Being on the top of the heap in any sport puts a bullseye on your back and by human nature someone's going to be gunnin' for ya.

Don't think for a minute that we here in the States have been sitting on our ass, oh no, we have some big guns coming that in some ways are better than anything that has come from overseas. The Germans have seen it first hand and I believe they're very concerned because their reign at the top is quickly closing. We do things differently and quite frankly they don't care for our direction. I say too friggin' bad! I'm really sick and tired of hearing about how we should put limits on what we do. You hear stuff like "someone will get hurt", "it will raise the cost" and my favorite "you won't get my respect".

To put it in an analogy it's like Republicans vs Democrats, or Top Fuel vs F1, Nascar vs Rally so on so forth. In America we like horsepower and heads up racing; overseas they like finesse racing on equal footing. It's the same in FE boat racing and we do it here way way different than they do overseas and they just don't get it.

Stay tuned, much more to come.

See ya,

Paul.