Having sold our R-25 I'm ready to launch our 360HP 44-footer

[baz]

I've been working on this 360 HP twin engine 44-footer for awhile now, and it's nearing the final touches. It's not a Ranger Tug but nonetheless should be seaworthy. :roll: :lol:

Oh... and BTW it's all-electric and no back-breaking stinking raw water impeller to maintain...Oh, and it's trailerable as well. :lol:

Now if Jeff Messmer or Andrew can loan me a R-31 maybe I can construct an all-electric version... :lol: 😀

Columbia Bar trials

 

[Andrew Custis]

Hey there Barry,

I don't think this is quite in our wheel house but I would love to show you how easy the impeller change is on the new 29S or 31. :shock:

Hope you're doing well.

 

[Brian B]

Awesome project, I hope you post a pic when she's finished. When I was in the USCG stationed at Race Point, Provincetown MA in '72 that was our premier rescue boat. Not as fast as the 41' but what a sea worthy boat that was self righting and protected its crew. We never rolled it over but we had the antenna in the water once. A real adrenaline rush when you are 20 years old. Now I like white water coming over the bow of my Ranger Tug.

 

[baz]

Brian: Sure will post a pic of it when finished.

This USCG 44' Motor Lifeboat (MLB), rapid self-righting (in approximately 3 seconds) and self-bailing and semi-displacement hull had twin 186 HP diesels and could push the boat along at around 14 to 15 kts... at around 20 gallons per hour. It cost $115,000 (1967); $225,000 (1972) according to the archives. 😱 According to the archives the boat always saw very hard duty, including episodes of going end-over-end (pitch-poling) and rolling over completely several times.

For me, this 44' MLB is the best looking USCG Lifeboat I've come across... awesome. 🙂

Quote... "Now I like white water coming over the bow of my Ranger Tug." Me too. 😀

 

[baz]

Awesome project, I hope you post a pic when she's finished. When I was in the USCG stationed at Race Point, Provincetown MA in '72 that was our premier rescue boat. Not as fast as the 41' but what a sea worthy boat that was self righting and protected its crew. We never rolled it over but we had the antenna in the water once. A real adrenaline rush when you are 20 years old. Now I like white water coming over the bow of my Ranger Tug.

Brian: Here's the finished project. It shows the final tank test in the bath tub. :lol: I was so surprised to find the boat sits in the water with the water line exactly lined up with the painted water line... 😱

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/hygsyisp0v9e5c3/AADOSeuAOMGc7W7VoJS6kdmma

It's powered by two 6v motors driving two props in same direction. The radio controls adjust the speed in forward and reverse and has a neutral position and has full steerage via two rudders. I can't wait for its sea trials. :lol:

I can't believe I bought this boat kit in 1979... so its taken only 35 years to complete. Mind you it sat up in the attic twice for several years unfinished collecting dust. My 7 yr old grandson caught sight of it and pleaded with me to finish it.

 

[Brian B]

Barry,
She looks beautiful and real nice detail. The boat I was on was 44397, your model brought back some memories.
Now you need to build a Ranger Tug and the CG boat can tow it around the bathtub 😀 😀

 

[baz]

Brian:

Well, the challenge is which Ranger Tug model to build (there are so many now: R-21, R-25, R-25SC, R-27, R-29, R-29S, R-31S, R-31CB, R-44 😱 ). I need to suggest to John/Jeff/Andrew/Kenny to release the model blueprints without any loss of IP... then they might get to be honored by being in the Model Boat's Hall Of Fame. 😎 :idea:

Actually, a Ranger Tug model should be quite easy to build as it has little superstructure... the cantilever cockpit seats on the R-29S and R-31 would be fun to design, develop and construct. 🙂

 

[baz]

Barry,
She looks beautiful and real nice detail. The boat I was on was 44397, your model brought back some memories.
Now you need to build a Ranger Tug and the CG boat can tow it around the bathtub 😀 😀

Brian: I know you aren't in the PNW area, but I've found the ideal spot to sail the 44' CG Motor Lifeboat model in south Lake Union, Seattle... just a hop skip and jump from where I live.

It's a large round pond (ideal) that other sail their R/C sailboats.

I tested the large 6v battery in the model yesterday to find out how long it would last driving the two 6v motors. I fully charged the battery and then in 'dry dock' started the motors running at half speed and kept them there and at times pulsed the motors up to WOT for some 5 seconds to simulate reality some. The motors were still running after 1 hour.

I really want to see how this boat performs on the water at low and high speeds along with some hard over maneuvers.

Given many R/C sailboats use this round pond it will be interesting motoring about and having to give way to the sailboats, and just maybe my CG Lifeboat will get called for a rescue mission if one of the sailboats flounders with a failed R/C controller or simply becomes becalmed and sitting for ever in the middle of the pond. 😉

See here for where the round pond is...

 

[baz]

Well, it was a blistering hot day yesterday at this Round Pond (some 100' in diameter). I placed the 44' USCG MLB model into the water for first time and off it went to join several other sailboats gliding about. I had to watch out as the sailboats were flying along in a fairly strong breeze.

After a few runs back and forth the boat slowed down considerably and I got concerned that something was wrong so had it turned about and heading back to me ASAP. It was going very very slow, but it made it back. Pulled it out of the water and noted the forward and reverse was not working at all. Boo hiss... what could be wrong? After a bit I noticed the props had crud and upon close inspection found the crud to be the remnants of bird feathers. It had wound tightly around the front side of both props. I used my small penknife to untangle the mess. Having done this the props rotated freely.... sigh of relief.

However, using the forward and reverse controls there was no action whatsoever... maybe the battery simply was all wore down... but this did not make sense as I know the 6v sealed lead acid battery should last at least 1 hr with both motors running at half speed continuously.

My grandson was disappointed to say the least.

• 1)After getting home I applied 6v to both motors directly from the battery charger and they both ran without issues.
  2) I then connected both motors directly to the onboard 6v battery and the motors ran just fine.
  3) Thus, the only other thing that needed testing was the motor speed controller that controlled forward & reverse speeds as well as neutral. I pulled the motor speed controller box out and removed its cover..... Yikes... the 7.5 amp fuse had blown. Better for the fuse to blow than for the electronics to melt down, right? 🙂 So I rush off to Radio Shack to buy a small pack of 4 fuses. Replaced the failed fuse in the speed controller and reconnected wires and YES.... the motors now ran forward/back/neutral via the speed control box. 😀

Will now pick another day to test drive and regain my standing with my grandson. :lol:

 

[SGIDAVE]

Hello Barry,

Glad to hear you got the nice model in the water. And that you got it back home in good shape.

If I understand correctly, your estimate of 1 hour run time is based upon the boat running in 'air.' Whilst I'm not expert in this matter, I think a realistic test would be to run the props in water as this represents a more normal 'load' and would stress the battery same as when run in the round pond...less the bird feathers 😉

Please pardon me if I've misunderstood your battery testing method.

dave

 

[baz]

Dave:

You are of course absolutely right about me needing a more realistic test for how long the 6v battery should last driving the twin 6v motors and prop shafts/propellers etc.

My test was simplistic, I agree. I just wanted to have some estimate and testing 'in air' was the simplest for me... running motors at half speed with the occasional WOT blips several times. At the end of 1 hour the motors were still running at half speed with no sign of slowing. Now that you peeked my interest and curiosity I will perform same test in the bath tub, except this will mean the model boat will be pushing constantly against the end of the tub so does not really represent real world conditions... but will produce a more conservative battery life presumably. I will certainly avoid throwing any bird feathers into the tub. :lol:

Unfortunately, there are always a flock of Canadian Geese pecking at the ground nearby the Seattle Round Pond and make the occasional flight to the Pond. In fact one did this yesterday and it immediately made a beeline for my model boat. I reversed the boat quickly and steered it away and the bird seemed to get the message. Maybe I need a Ranger Tug horn on the model boat to scare the darn birds away... :twisted:

I'm not sure how to protect the model boat from weeds and floating bird feathers. I do believe the feathers got tangled into the props yesterday due to me testing the steering astern mechanism of the model's speed controller. This quite likely was the reason as I noticed the props running in reverse created a big sucking effect of surface water. :roll:

 

[baz]

OK.... so I had the boat in the tub with the motors running at half speed. The boat was obviously blocked from moving forward as it pushed up against the tub's wall. Given that the wall's reaction force would be equal to the thrust of the propellers the effect IMO would be close to the motors running at full speed.

Let's assume the boat's friction to forward motion in the water to be 20% of the full generated thrust of the propellers.

The fully charged 6v battery lasted for 75 minutes driving the boat as described above.

Thus with zero water friction the battery should last for 2.5 hours driving the motors at full speed. Using the 20% water friction into account then the fully charged battery should be capable of lasting 0.8 x 2.5 or some 2 hours running the motors at full speed. Of course there's no account for 'bird feathers' tangling the props. :lol:

The battery charger is a very low average charger and takes around 4 to 6 hours to fully charge the battery. I'm actually pretty amazed with this 6v battery as I bought it at least 20 years ago and has never been used until recently. It was fully charged at the time it was placed in the attic along with the unfinished model. 😉

 

[baz]

Sea Trails... for the USCG MLB model... The Round Pond next to the Wooden Boat museum at South Lake Union in Seattle was used... along with the Blue Angles flying noisily overhead as a salute. :lol:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86512138/44-foot USCG Life Boat model/IMG_0098.m4v

Safari and Chrome play the video AOK. For Firefox you should enable Quicktime otherwise it will not play. It's some 290 MB in size for those with a slow download service. 🙂

Here's a YouTube version as Dropbox can easily suspend my downloads for over taxing my account limits... sigh

https://youtu.be/x1uiT6LgkuA

I gave final control to my 7 yr old grandson who was delighted... and he docked perfectly.

I purposely rolled the boat severely several times by quickly going full over to starboard and then to port several times. The boat handled this well and with the roll attitude causing the gunwales to be awash the boat righted and became stable very quickly. I had place around 16 oz of lead shot as extra ballast to provide a bit more stability.