Hi all, I need to find a better way than screws to attach my Moomiya's deck to her hull, with a narrow ship like her I need to be able to shift weights around on the water. The deck also needs to support the batteries in case she flips. How do you attach your decks to your hulls? P.S. 100th post-thanks to the RCWC staff wor their dedication to the site
After picking Montana I noticed Sparky use small magnets to hold the deck in place and it works very well. They are 1/4" wide and 1/8" thick, so drill a 1/4" hole and glue them in.
Do you think that they are strong enough to retain the deck underwater? I don't want to lose any batteries, or my whole deck if it doesn't float.
flip-tabs are always nice and quick. You can see effective examples on the VU. Put a tongue on one end that slides beneath a structural cross-brace, then a flip-tab or two on the other end, and you're set. Alternatively, one flip-tab in each corner. Not ideal for ultra-tight deck seals, but Big Gun ships generally need less of that anyway. Another option is to use magnets. Embed some magnets in the deck, stick some more in the sub-deck, and let the magic happen. You may also opt for a combination of deck-screws and other methods. If you know that you only need rapid access to one portion of the deck, you can put tabs or magnets on that specific portion, and screw down all the other decks. That's what I do on my PDNs: the forward and aft decks are screwed down, and the midships deck/superstructure is held on with magnets. Also, you shouldn't *need* to shift weights around on the water. All of your weights, batteries, hardware, etc. should fit into the boat in only one orientation, so that the ship is properly ballasted whenever you load it up. There shouldn't be any fiddling or adjusting needed. What specifically keeps shifting that requires re-adjustment each time?
I guess I don’t really need it, but it sure would be nice. The flip tabs would be nice but I’m not sure how I would do them because the deck is flush with the sides, not leaving any good spots to put them. The main concern is preventing things from spilling out, I have my batteries Velcroed in but the batteries arnt cheap, but are heavy.
Velcro is pretty strong. I'm guessing you're using SLA batteries... if you cover one side with velcro, it will not fall out. The trick is locking it down so it goes in exactly the same place every time. Here you can see a battery that is securely locked down. A strip of velcro on the bottom keeps it in place, and the two wooden blocks ensure the battery always ends up on the centerline. A third block up forward secures it forward and aft. I routinely see Fast Gun ships with huge sections cut out of their water channels to fit batteries. Not only does this lock the batteries down, it sets them lower in the boat for better stability. I also have seen L-shaped brackets doing the same job. The other question is how does your ship sink? does it like to capsize, or does it prefer a bow-first prop-and-rudder-flailing technique? A tippy boat requires more effort to secure its internals against spillage, while a boat that sinks upright tends to be much safer.
