Fixed water leaking in and all is running exceptionally well 
I need to adjust the camera lens, it seems it got out of focus somewhere in the past.
Also, the usb input of the telemetry radio to my laptop has intermitted connection problems. Probably took a hit during transport.
Edit* nope, boat is still taking in water via an unknown route. Im gonna need more epoxy.
interesting project… what kind of waterproof prop do you have mount on it?
I also did a ‘Follow me’ test today, running Mission Planner on an Android phone & Sik-radio but I got a message something like ‘Flight mode failed’ and the boat didn’t respond whatsoever. I need to dig into the wiki to get this working.
So, another testrun to see where water was coming in the hull. But now, nothing, not a drop entered the boat. Weird.
And the last (early) run before going back to work.
To do:
More waterproofing before I do longer runs.
Smear more epoxy on the inside to protect the wood when water does enter the hull.
Great job… with good specs
Thanks!
Early yesterday morning at around 6:00 AM I took my bigger boat out for a long range maiden. And despite it being terribly tuned, it got home safe after traveling more than 2km. It swerves a lot, and oscillates a lot after a turn. Hopefully I can get a log file while doing some testruns later and see what’s going on. It is a chonker though, 1.2mtr/4ft and heavy. somewhere between 12-14kg I guesstimate.
Simple edit & parts sped up. At around 450mtr/500mtr TBS CRSF Radio connection was lost:
Ground station hide out, Telemetry on a 3mtr lightstand. So far 1km out and no loss of Telemetry signal. My Radiomaster Radio with TBS crsf where it stood on the table and had connection up to around +450mtr:
Almost home:
Back safe on the table at around 6:30AM:
whats with the rudder design? it doesn’t look very effective with holes in it.
It’s a stabilizer (flybar?) from a large RC helicopter, bought in a fire sale at Hobbyking. Although it might look like it has holes in it, it’s closed up with epoxy 
ok lol that makes more sense, other than that its looking good. have you thought about installing a water sensor and pump in case it starts to leak ?
I have one ready to be installed, triggered with an Arduino sensor. The only way water could come in (unless the hull rips open on an iceberg) would be through the prop shaft hole. The prop shaft and keel are completely submerged in epoxy up to almost motor-level. The hatches on top are rubber sealed and will be more securely fixed in the near future.
I’m not planning to conquer any storms soon, but the boat is built almost submersible.
I installed mine after watching rctestflights video of his solar boat filling with water as even a small leak will sink a boat with enough time. I want to send my boat out to sea so a pump is essential.
Well, I messed up. I tried tuning the boat and it went from terrible to uncontrolable. Stupid me forgot to save the parameters used for the long range run earlier and I ended up with the boat getting stuck under a deck. Got it back by going full throttle backwards, scraping the antenna under the deck and almost capsizing. From there I tried all I could think of and ended with nothing. I’ll have to reset all parameters and start all over again. Which unfortunately won’t be for at least two months. Bummer.
On a positive note, the boat that I started this thread with is navigating almost perfectly. So I do have a back up to play with.
Which frame kit do you suggest for begin with a boat?
Honestly I don’t know. The Bellina is large enough for all electronics if you’re into building your own boat with wood and epoxy so for me the Bellina checks all the marks. I’ve googled many times for an affordable ready-to-go customizable boat/hull but never really found one. Perhaps check your local online market place for someone selling a decent size RC tugboat for cheap?
That large orange boat of mine is an uncut ‘Happy Hunter’ hull. Large, more than enough room for hours of battery power. But it needs approx. 10Kg of balast…
