scratch building a 1930's gold cup boat

[El Lagarto G-18]

i am scratch building a 1930's gold cup race boat named "El Lagarto ". i picked up the plans on e-bay a while back. i have built the dumas cabin cruiser, but this is my first scratch build. as far as building the boat, thats no problem, but powering the boat and having it be fast enouph to make me happy.....thats the problem. i want to go electric,but i want it to do more than just push through the water. it's about 2 ft 4 inches long and about 6 1/2 inches wide. the boat has 5 steps built into the hull and i would like to get this thing moving a scale 70 mph if at all possible. can any of you guys send me in the right direction? i will need everything as far as engine, shaft, prop etc.

thanks, scott
El Lagarto g-18 ...gold cup winner 1933,34,35

[BoatDoc]

do you have any pics we can see? sounds like an interesting project. you can get more than a 70mph scale speed if you want. just depends on the power you want to put into it. do you prefer brushed or brushless motors? it all depends on what you want to spend for motor/esc and batteries.

[El Lagarto G-18]

how hard is it to post the pics? let me know and i will post some. if this turns out nice and runs well i plan to enlarge the plans and build a bigger one. i do not have a price in mind so i will do whatever it takes to make this thing move out.

scott

[BoatDoc]

no price in mind? uh oh...there's some bad influences around here...you could end up with a very fast very expensive boat :cool: all kidding aside, IMHO, brushless is your answer. it's more efficient, and less maintenence. you can also run higher speeds, if that's what you want. if you ARE indeed worried about cost maybe a 700 brushed motor would get you what you want. a Fine Design 700 SS1 and Astro speed control might be your ticket. btw...i'm figuring off the top of my head that a boat that size would give decent performance on 12 cells. if a Hacker B50 9XL fits your bill, i may have one for sale (unless it ends up in one of my riggers first)....sorry, got a motor i'm trying to sell, and i could't resist. there's not a whole lot of electric guys around here, and they should feel free to jump in at any time :D

[Fluid]

Your model is approximately 1/12th scale. A true scaled speed of 70 mph is actually 19.5 mph with your model. This is easily and inexpensively achieved - or exceeded if you want - with a good 700 motor and 12 cells. This is foolproof, no maintenance, and can have considerable run times with the right prop. The real boat ran a submerged prop, so something like an Octura x438 would be a place to start with your model. No need to go to the extra expense of brushless unless you want to. :cool:

The El Lagarto was built to a John Hacker design in 1922 as the Miss Mary. It was not a successful racer until it was modified with the multiple steped bottom and raced in the 1930s as the re-named El Lagarto - the Lizard. It then enjoyed considerable success under the then-new APBA Unlimited rules. :D

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[El Lagarto G-18]

thanks for the info on the motor and batterys. nice to see you did your homework on a champion raceboat! i am i hacker boat owner and am very much into the racing end of the classic boats. i go to all of the classic boat races on the east coast. thats what brought me to the point of building this boat. a couple of guys bring gar wood speedster rc boats to some of the events. El Lagarto has always been my all time favorite raceboat and with all of the info i have on her i decided to build her. i have been to the museum in the adirondacks of ny.( and extensivly photographed the boat....closer than the average person would be allowed ;) ...i have also been lucky enough to heve seen george reis's scapbook. ( the owner and driver ) everything on the boat is being scratch built including the rudder assem. if anyone is enterested in learning more about this boat let me know as i have photos and just about every artical ever writen about her.

[BoatDoc]

do it! post a bunch of stuff. i always like to read about boats. a couple of pic's wouldn't hurt either. eye candy is good :D

[El Lagarto G-18]

http://groups.msn.com/ClassicRaceboatHistory/homepage since i'm not very good at posting pics and having them show up you can check out this little site i set up a couple of yrs ago. i dont think anyone has every even looked at it. i have tons more photos of the early gold cup boats up through the 50's that i have not added to the site, just because nobody has ever looked at it. :confused: i have plans for a couple of the other big named racers like baby bootlegger, miss england etc.

[BoatDoc]

mmmmm...old school horsepower. :D :D :D i think hydrojunkie would like to see that.

[El Lagarto G-18]

once this boat is done i have a dumas miss unlimited that i want to do. i picked up some miss thriftway decals for it. i am just getting into the rc side of this, so i know nothing about powering these things...lol. i have i real hacker boat and i also collect lionel toy trains and i drag race.....oh and i have 2 boys, 7 and 4 ...and coach soccer for one of them :eek: i am doing this little boat building here and there when i have the time....ie....not in a rush....lol. so you guys think a 700? will do the trick? driveshaft , batterypack, prop? any advice on brands and places to buy these parts?

thanks, scott

[BoatDoc]

fine design has some 700 motors and astro speed controls. climate models has scale hardware for the "miss supertest" but it's for a larger kit, 33inches i think.

climate: http://welasercut.com/lasercart/index.php
fine design: http://www.finedesignrc.com/default.htm

there's more out there, but that's all i know off the top of my head right now.

[Hydro Junkie]

Doc, you know me too well. I've got one for you, however:)
In the pic of the 1949 Gold Cup is the Skip-A-Long. This was the FIRST ALL ALUMINUM HYDROPLANE. It sank to the bottom of Lake Mead within a year or two after that shot was taken. Last I heard, the boat was the property of someone here in Seattle after it was recovered a few years back from 600 feet down

[Fluid]

I'm not certain it was the very first all aluminum hydro - the Italians played with aluminum on their boats in the 30s and 40s - but it may be. I've seen the boat at the HARM in Seattle and it survived its years of submersion pretty well - even some of the original paint is visible. It will eventually be fully restored.

[Hydro Junkie]

Nice pic Jay, taken in the HARM's old home in South Park. Don't know how close you looked, but even the batteries were still in their rack. One thing that made this boat very different for the era was the engine BEHIND the driver and mechanic like the later cab-overs. The only difference is the Skip-A-Long used a V-drive with a gear box mounted in front of the crew. If anyone is interested, I could make a few calls and see what's up with this boat, as a crew at the HARM is presently rebuilding the Hurricane, hopefully to be on the water in August

[El Lagarto G-18]

very cool! do you have any other pics of the boat since being brought back up? if so , i would love to see them.

scott

[briansmith]

http://groups.msn.com/ClassicRaceboatHistory/homepage since i'm not very good at posting pics and having them show up you can check out this little site i set up a couple of yrs ago. i dont think anyone has every even looked at it. i have tons more photos of the early gold cup boats up through the 50's that i have not added to the site, just because nobody has ever looked at it. :confused: i have plans for a couple of the other big named racers like baby bootlegger, miss england etc.

I have been searching out plans for the types of boats you mention. How did your build turn out? What plans do you have?

I am currently building a 54" Model of the "Flyer5" for a gas engine.