we're all very interested in hearing about your Nats experience, if the Lutzow made it on day 1, how you fared, lessons learned, etc!
Apologies for lack of photos/updates. There were many lessons learned and I'm really glad I went. I ended up taking best in Class 3 with my build which is quite an honor. I had the boat ready for sheeting first thing Sunday morning.....but then realized I had forgotten my balsa at home. Thanks to Tim Beckett, he got me sorted out with that so I could get to work. Got the sheeting done and paint on it that day. Stuck on the waterline, got drop and speed tested early Monday morning, and was ready for battle. I struggled with my solenoids sticking open the first day expelling all my gas. I had one that was functioning so I disconnected the others and was down to one cannon for 3/4 sorties. This was my fault. BC sent me the correct stainless retaining nuts and I failed to install those. Another issue was caused by my rushed build as I did not make the time to balance my pump impeller. This eventually ruined the motor and shook the mount loose from the hull. That led to most of the damage seen in the photo. Kevin's Missouri got to take advantage of my mistake there haha! I missed the battle on Thursday morning due to a Hitec servo. I didn't notice it wasn't functioning until I was just about to put in for battle. Haven't found a cause but I didn't see any obvious cause. I made a few strategic mistakes that definitely led to penetration points but overall learned a great deal of how to battle this cruiser. I had a blast and can't wait for next year. In the meantime I plan to improve the rudder shape for better turning and design a new pump mount to better hold it in place.
What pump were you using? The impeller must have been really off balance to ruin the motor and break the mount.
Small BC. Yeah it hogged out the shaft bushing and eventually let go of the set screw on the impeller. It worked the mount loose from the rushed e6000 glue joint.
Even if he was running at 12v or higher, the measly 0.8gpm those pumps put out is hardly worthy of a ship this large. You want at least 1gpm (1.5gpm is even better) for a ship this large. And that kind of output is totally possible through a 1/2 unit restrictor, I get over 2gpm through my King Edward's pump.
