I haven't really taken the time to keep up with this thread. But I absolutely love that ship. I think it has a lot of potential. I have seen from folks that have run one in the past, that they thought they were pretty good boats. But the torque roll was always a problem. So it seems that if one could eliminate the torque roll, then more folks might consider this as a first ship. I recall that years ago some folks ran more shafts on lots of the boats. Those boats would generally start and stop better, but would lose some of their turning ability. That might not be the best solution to the problem in this case. But as the ship has triple shafts, and twin rudders, it could possibly afford to give up a little in the turning, and still be a good boat. I think I would try to install a pair of fairly low voltage motors on the outer shafts, and have them run at a slower speed, and in the same direction, just to counter the torque roll. The building costs, and maintenance would go up some. But the boat has room, and you can change or charge between sorties, so battery power should not be a problem. Just something to think about. Mikey
Brief recap of Saturday: It was pouring rain when we got there. Unloaded my stuff underneath one of the guys pop tents, and prepared for battle. First sortie, I forgot to connect my pump hose before the fighting began, so no pump. Drive was working good until the battle started. Propulsion was only periodic so I got shot up pretty good, sank. Rained really hard after that, and then it started to thunder and lightning so the park ranger asked us to leave until it was over. Second sortie, pump wasn't working for some reason, and sank again. Third sortie, after a little switching around with esc's I had both drive and pump. Ran around, shot at the Axis (not sure to what effect) till the magazines were dry and then called five. Fourth sortie, same as previous except I make Rick Shultz my main objective. Rick has plastered the Suffren on two different occasions now, so I wanted to return the favor. Not sure if I got any bb's in his Nassau, but it sure was fun trying. Fifth sortie, I'm pretty sure I got some good hits on Rick's bow. After all my bb's were shot I called five and got off the water. Then came some interesting I entertainment. Ever see FIVE big allied battleships try to sink one little Nassau? Rick was the only floating Axis boat then, and he made it. Impressive to watch. No wonder the axis have won Nat's for the last ten years. Anyway, conclusion: This hobby is awesome! It was so much fun having a boat that worked (most of the time ). Being able to back up and shoot up the bad guys and then run away when they chased you was excellent. Definitely worth the three years it took to get to this point.
Thanks for the suggestion. I think for now I'm going to leave everything as it is and just run it. Switching from a 1.75 to a 1.5 prop greatly reduced the roll. I think bilge keels will help even more.
Sounds like a blast. I'll definitely have to have the Moggy running next year to run with the Suffren!
Heck, I've been to battles where my boat was so gremlin'ed up I gave up on running it and just hung out and watched for a few days. STILL a fun time. 'Cause the people in the hobby & the concept of the hobby are both that awesome.
Some more photos. Sorry about the image quality, these were all abstracted from video. Lots of stern guns. Lining up on the Nassau. And there were sinks too.
I have a couple of things I want to fix after the last battle. Mainly want to build a better mount for the solenoids and add bilge keels. Time is very limited right know so building\reworking will be slow. Plus I'm devoting much of my free time to a tank project so this is kind of on the back-burner for now.
I spent 45 minutes today building a nice aluminum mount for the soleniods just to find out it won't work because I drilled the countersunk holes on the wrong side, agggg!!! I guess I'll have to try again later. I'm working on angling the guns down a little, too. At Hagerstown, the trajectory was too flat and my bb's were skipping. A quick fix got them down to about five feet off the stern which was much better. A little more height on the rear barrel mount should be all that it needs. ~C~
Well, I think it is time to bring this thread to a close. For the most part Suffren is complete. There will be changes in the future I'm sure, and I'll be sure to post the updates. I'd like to take the time here to thank everybody that helped me get to this point. I won't list everybody because I'm sure I'll forget somebody, but if you think you helped this battler get on the water, give yourself a pat on the back from me. This is a great hobby with a lot of great people, and I'm glad to be part of it. Caleb
Now you must let your anger flow through you embark upon a new project, demonstrate all that you have learnt and rule this galaxy
Regionals went pretty well. Got sunk once. I accidentally ended up being the last allied boat on the water and was being chased by the last few axis boats on the water. Was doing fine when my propulsion quit all of a sudden. After that I got blasted. Thankfully, Tommy pushed me into shore before he performed the Coup de Grace and sunk me. Gotta say though, @Tugboat 's printed pump is a beast. It kept me afloat much longer than a cruiser should with the amount of damage I took. I have photos of the brutal damage I took, but I'll have to post them later since they're on snother computer. Also, my sister filmed the entire day, so as soon as I get it on YouTube y'all can enjoy the carnage. Forgot to mention, the reason I lost propulsion was because the setcrew in the back of my motor's casing came loose off the shaft. So my motor would spin, but wouldn't turn the shaft.
