@darkapollo has 2 nice ones on cults. I've printed John Buttery's Liberty Ship from thingiverse. His Dreadnought looks really good. Bensworx's KGV on cgtrader looks good too. I converted his 1:72 Fletcher to 1:96 and am impressed with his work.
Honestly, we might not be the best people to ask. Our ships tend to not be beautiful, because they will get punched in the face.
I mean… I can print and sell the ships I made the files for. You would need to kit them out with the electronics, but getting you a printed lake cruiser isnt difficult.
You still have options and there are people here who can help you. You can buy a fiberglass hull from several manufacturers : Battlers Connection, ModelShipsAhoy, ScaleShipYard, Lollyhanna Dockyards, Dean's Marine, FleetScale, etc. Second hand hulls come up for sale on this and other forums regularly. I've got a few kicking around. You could convert a large scale plastic model to RC. There's always the Lindberg Fletcher, which I have done. There are some 1:200 offerings that are better kits. I'm working on converting a 1:200 Mikasa that I won in an IPMS regional raffle. You could buy the Vacu Fletcher from VacuBoat and just not arm it, which would simplify things considerably. You could build a wooden hull. There are plans in the resource section and and several good build threads here. I've got frames for an Invincible that's close to being a hull kit. Lollyhanna has recently brought back BaD Ship Models laser cut hull kits. You could even waterproof a card model as a starting point. I have a 1:250 Arizona that I'll be doing that with. There are a lot of card models out there and re-scaling them isn't difficult.
Any of my hull kits could be run as a lake cruiser, just omit the combat parts. That being said, they're designed for combat and like @JustinScott said they're not super-dooper pretty. @darkapollo has some wonderful 3d printed "cruiser" style kits, I would definitely consider his offer to produce + ship to you one of them. @Xanthar has provided a number of potential sources of DIY build options. I would direct your attention to the other's comments about BC (Battler's Connection) just as a caution. Profile Morskie sells excellent ship plans for scratch building as well, I would caution you to only order the .pdf electronic plans though. They're based in Poland and it'll take 6+ months for you to get a set of physical plans. Just take the .pdf and have your local staples/kinkos/etc print them off for you.
Alright. Let’s say I want to build a “lake cruiser.” Short of the kit,what do I need to make her a runner? It seems most of these kits come without instructions.
My kits come with instructions, just not a detailed list of every other item you'd need because in IRCWCC every captain is very different in terms of preferred motors and servos and X Y or Z other parts. Let's take an invincible for example. To be just a lake cruiser, since it's a two shaft ship, you'd need two motors (brushed or brushless) and then corresponding speed controls for said motors. You'd need a servo. You'd need a radio with receiver. I'd probably toss a pump in it just for sanity sake because let's face it, boats leak. But that's your call. Obviously you'd need some amount of batteries. From there, everything else is like local hobby store supplies. E6000 or Goop adhesives. CA glue. Contact cement. Electrical wire, solder, soldering iron, something to skin the outside of the hull width since you're not battling it. I'd do like a 1/32 basswood and then fiberglass it but the fiberglass is probably optional if the wood is sealed up. My kits include about 85% of what you need to build the model, just no functional parts or the hobby store stuff listed above. https://www.southjerseyshipyards.com/products/ship-kit-details
This is what I currently have developed. I have a lot more in the works. https://cults3d.com/en/users/SkeeterPondRC/3d-models
