Construction and Set-Up of a Climate Blizzard Rigger By Ralph von Eppinghoven Metro Marine Modelers Toronto, Canada
Photo 1: 6 Cell Rigger with Lehner Brushless Power SECTION 1: BOAT DESCRIPTION 1.1 Boat Specifications: Hull: Climate Blizzard Rigger Motor: Lehner Basic 4200 or 5200 Speed Control: LMT Warrior 7018/3 Hardware: Climate/Fullers Rigger Hardware Shaft: Octura 0.130” flex with 1/8” stub Propeller: Octura X435 Radio System: Hitec Lynx FM Power: 6 Cell, Sanyo RC 2400s
1.2 Project Description: Riggers, powered by brushless motor and controllers, are generally the fastest RC boats, but also can be the most delicate and difficult to set up. This makes it hard to find a good “first rigger” project that the RC boat racer will enjoy building and racing. This article describes the construction and set-up of a simple and reliable rigger and brushless motor and controller combination that works great on 6 cells. The ease of construction, simplicity of set up, reliability of the motor and controller, and modest cost, make this a great “first rigger” project. The speed, and reliability of this set up allowed this rigger to win 1st place in the N2 Hydro class at the 2003 Canadian Fast Electric Nationals in Toronto. 
Photo 2: Interior Layout of the 6 Cell Rigger SECTION 2: BLIZZARD RIGGER CONSTRUCTION TIPSThis article will not cover the construction details of the Climate Blizzard Rigger since a detailed construction manual is supplied with the kit. The kit includes all of the pre-cut materials required to build the boat, and the construction is made simple by following the kit instructions. There are a few general wooden, rigger, construction tips that may be worth considering. Firstly, waterproof the interior of the hull to prevent wood warping or water damage during the life of the boat. The easiest way to do this is to seal the interior of the hull during the construction phase. Doing this during the construction phase, rather than at the end, ensures that all of the wood panels, joints and corners are thoroughly sealed. The wood can be sealed using common exterior, “Spar” varnish, or sealers such as Industrial Formulators S1 sealer. Two coats of sealer should applied to ensure proper waterproofing. Photo 3 shows a good stage at which the boat should be sealed – the top panels are not installed so it is easy to seal the entire interior. The exterior of the hull should also be sealed, with the same varnish or epoxy prior to painting. 
Photo 3: Hull Ready to be Sealed with Varnish In order to eliminate seams and ensure a watertight hull, use putty to fill in seams and joints. A number of different products can be used for this – one that works well is Squadron putty. Make sure that the putty seams and joints are sanded smooth and them sealed with varnish or epoxy to ensure a good waterproof joint. Photo 4 shows a typical seam along the nose of the rigger. 
Photo 4: Nose of Rigger Showing Finished Seams and Joints Another suggested tip is to install the rear sponsons on small riggers, such as 6 cell boats. The sponsons help to prevent the “tail from dragging” and they help the boat to track straight. Photo 5 shows the rear sponsons installed on the hull. 
Photo 5: Rear Sponsons Glued in Place SECTION 3: HARDWARE AND TURN FIN INSTALLATION 3.1 Bracket, Strut and Rudder Installation: The bracket and strut are installed as shown in Photo 6. In this case, the Fuller’s/Climate hardware is used which has the strut and rudder integrated into one unit. The bracket is screwed into the hull such that the centerline of the strut is 7/8” below the bottom of the rigger hull and the rudder assembly is simply screwed into the bracket. When the correctly installed at 7/8” below the hull, the centre line of the stuffing tube should be even with the bottom of the rear sponsons. In order to lift the tail of the boat, it is suggested that the strut have a slight angle (about 4 or 5 degrees) so that the back of the prop sits slightly lower than the front. 
Photo 6: Running hardware installed on hull (rear and side view) In this case, a 3/16” stub shaft, that is stepped down to a 1/8” prop shaft, is used with a .130” flex shaft. The 1/8” prop shaft is required since the 6 cell rigger uses small props that have 1/8” hubs. 3.2 Turn Fin Installation: The turn fin is screwed to the back of the right sponson as shown in Photo 7. An extra plywood doubler is glued to the sponson at the turn fin to provide extra strength for the mounting screws. The photo shows the small plywood doubler mounted on the exterior of the sponson, but this could also be glued to the interior of the sponson during the “wood over foam” sponson construction. The turn fin can be angled (bottom of fin is closer to the hull than the top) about 15 degrees to prevent the rigger from flipping during oval racing. This size of turn fin works for both 6 cell and 8 cell set ups. If the rigger is only run as 6 cell boat, a 30% smaller turn fin can be used. 
Photo 7: Installed rigger turn fin SECTION 4: SURFACE DRIVE INSTALLATION 4.1 Motor Mount Installation: Install the motor mount in the position shown in the Blizzard rigger kit instructions. In this case, the motor is installed 7-1/8” forward of the transom. The motor is installed on a slight angle upwards so that the motor shaft is angled downwards as shown in Photo 2. This allows the stuffing tube and flex shaft to be easily installed with a simple, smooth, bend. Be careful to ensure that the top of the motor does not protrude above the top of the rigger body – otherwise a bulb hatch cover will be required instead of the simple, flat, plastic sheet hatch cover. 4.2 Stuffing Tube: The 7/32” brass stuffing tube, with a Teflon liner, is installed as shown in Photo 8. The stuffing tube slot in the hull bottom is 3/4” long and is located 3-1/2” from the transom. The slot should be cut 3/16” wide then carefully filed to snugly fit the stuffing tube. The brass tube is carefully bent to form a smooth curve between the motor shaft and the strut. Once the brass stuffing tube has been bent to the correct shape (see Photo 8), “tack” glue the brass tube in place in the slot in the hull bottom using medium CA glue. Glue the stuffing tube from both the inside and outside of the hull. Once the CA has dried, apply epoxy glue to the stuffing tube and hull joint on the inside and outside of the hull. This layer of epoxy glue is critical to provide waterproofing and strength on this key joint. It is best to carefully test fit the stuffing tube prior to gluing to ensure that it is lined up “dead straight” with the motor and strut. The length of the brass stuffing tube should be such that a gap of approximately 3/16” exists between the motor coupler and stuffing tube, and that the tube ends approximately 5/8” in front of the strut. 
Photo 8: Stuffing tube on bottom of hull SECTION 5: INTERIOR COMPONENT LAYOUT 5.1 Layout: The batteries, speed control, servo, receiver and receiver battery pack, are placed in the hull as shown in Photo 9. This layout results in a Centre of Gravity (C of G) of approximately 1-3/4” behind the back of the sponson (near the end of the turn fin). This is the balance point that results in good speed and handling for this boat. It should be noted that in this case, the batteries are located as far forward as possible in the hull in order to get the C of G as far forward as possible. 
Photo 9: Interior layout of the R.C. components The receiver location may vary from what is shown. In this case, the receiver location was limited by the lengths of the control wires for the speed control and servo. In all cases, Velcro is used to hold the batteries, receiver, and receiver pack in place in the hull. 5.2 Motor and Speed Control Installation: Photo 10 shows the motor and speed control installed in the hull. The speed control is laying on the hull bottom and is held in place with Velcro. The Warrior controller requires no special programming to set up, and can be run with or without the Battery Eliminator Circuit (BEC). In this case BEC is disabled and a separate receiver battery pack is used. A Lehner Basic 4200 motor is used in this rigger since the motor is swapped between a 6-cell mono hull and the rigger. Normally, the Lehner Basic 5200 motor is recommended for hydroplanes. Note the black heat shrink tubing that is used to cover the gold connectors on the motor side of the speed control, thereby reducing the chance of short circuit connections. 
Photo 10: Motor and Controller installed in hull 5.3 Servo Installation: Photo 11 shows the servo installed in the hull. Due to the limited space in the rigger hull, it is recommended that a “mini” servo be used to provide steering control. The servo should have approximately 40 oz-inches of torque to handle both 6 and 8 cell rigger operation. The servo is screwed into two, small, wooden blocks that are glued to the side of the hull. The servo is mounted between these blocks. In this case, the rearmost edge of the servo was mounted 1-3/4” forward of the transom. The pushrod and pushrod boot are installed as shown in Photo 6. 
Photo 11: Steering Servo installed in hull It should be noted that the servo installation as shown in photo 11 requires the radio system steering control (on the transmitter) to be set to the “reverse” setting for the boat to turn in the expected direction. 5.4 Water Cooling Installation: The Blizzard rigger is a relatively large boat for 6-cell operation. Even with careful prop selection, the motor and controller can get warm during racing so it is recommended to water cool the motor and controller. Photos 10 and 11 show the water cooling coil installed on the motor and the silicone tubing feeding the speed control. The cooling coil can be made using 5/32” aluminum tubing. The tube is first filled with sand or salt (to prevent kinking) and then the tube is tightly coiled around a “D” size battery to form the coil. The D-cell is just the right size to give the aluminum coil a tight fit when installed on the motor. A piece of 5/32” aluminum tube is also used to “pipe” the water from outside the transom up to the motor. A small piece of silicone tubing is then connected from the “pipe” to the input of the motor coil and silicone tubing is again used to connect output of the coil to the input of the speed control heat sink. Finally, silicone tubing is run from the output of the speed control heat sink to an exit spout tube on the side of the hull. In this case, Aerotrend Blueline #1005 tubing is used as the water cooling tubing. SECTION 6: RADIO RECEIVER INSTALLATION 6.1 Receiver Installation: The receiver is mounted between the servo and the receiver batteries as shown in Photo 11. Velcro straps hold the receiver in place. In order to ensure reliable operation, the receiver is protected by a waterproof bag or “balloon”. 6.2 Receiver Battery: In order to ensure reliable operation of the radio system, it is recommended to power the radio receiver using a separate battery pack. In this case, five small 300 mAhr NiCd batteries are connected in series to make a rechargeable 6 volt battery pack. This pack has enough capacity to last an entire day with 4 or 5 heats of 5 lap oval racing. The receiver battery pack is attached to the hull using Velcro as shown in photo 11. 6.3 Receiver Power Switch Installation: The standard on/off switch supplied with most radio systems is not waterproof and awkward to install such that it can be accessed from the outside of the hull. One simple solution is to use the Du-bro Kwik Switch Mount which makes it easy to install the on/off switch such that it remains dry, yet can be accessed when the boat hatch is sealed. The installed Kwik Switch can be seen on the right side of the transom in Photo 6. Follow the instructions supplied with the Du-bro Kwik Switch in order to install it in the hull. As shown in photo 11, the on/off switch assembly is installed vertically at the rear of the hull. Deans 2-pin Micro Plugs (part number 1225) are used to connect the receiver battery pack to the switch. This allows the receiver battery to be easily removed and charged up. SECTION 7: PAINTING AND DECALSAfter the boat has been built, the wood sealed, and the test runs successfully completed, it is time to paint the boat. In this case, the hull, sponsons, and hatches have been primed and painted with Krylon paints. A primer plus two final coats are required for good coverage. In order to aid in visibility in the event of a flipped boat, the bottom of the hull and sponson have been painted white (see photo 8). Once the paint is dry, decals can be applied as desired. In this case, decals and numbers from AutoGraphics Decals have been used. SECTION 8: SET UP AND RUNNING 8.1 Sealing the Hatches: The easiest and most reliable method of securing the hatch to the deck, is to tape the hatch with electrical tape. Good results have been obtained using the 3M Colourflex brand of electrical tape, which is available in white. Before taping up the hatch, it is beneficial to insert a small (approximately “2” X 2”) piece of kitchen sponge in the back of the rigger near the transom (see photo 11) to absorb any water that may happen to enter the hull. The sponge absorbs the water and prevents it from sloshing around in the hull. 8.2 Balance and Trim: The boat, as configured in this example, will have a C of G of approximately 1-3/4” behind the back of the sponson. This is the balance point that results in good speed and handling for this boat. It is critical to get the strut bullet at the correct depth below the hull as described in section 3.1. In fact, when this boat was first set up, it was “dragging its tail” and running very wet. In order to push the strut a little deeper, and thereby get the tail out of the water, it was necessary to file the slot in the strut to make it longer and allow the strut bullet to be at the correct depth. As well, the strut needed to be angled, slightly higher at the front than the back – about 4 or 5 degrees. That is, the back of the prop is lower than the front of the prop so that the tail of the boat is being pushed up off the water slightly. Make only slight changes when “dialing in” the rigger – small adjustments make a big difference. I have had good results with the Octura X435 for 5 lap oval racing. When the rigger is set up correctly, the motor and speed control run just warm – not hot, and the cells are slightly warm. If the motor is running hot, then it is likely the boat is still running too wet. This boat has been timed at 25 mph, averaged over 5 laps of oval racing, when set up as described and using an Octura X435 prop. Straightline speeds will of course be much higher. 
Photo 12: The finished 6 Cell Blizzard Rigger with Lehner B/L power ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The layout and set up of this 6-cell rigger was based on information provided to me by Peter Richards at Climate Boatworks, Donnie Wollard at Rum Runner Hobbies, and my fellow Fast Electric boat racers at Metro Marine Modelers in Toronto, Ontario. I wish to thank all those that helped me build this great first rigger.
 This article originally appeared on the Rum Runner Racing website and is published here with permission. It is Copyright © 1997 - 2003 Sea-Lark Technologies, LLC., ET AL. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Rum Runner ® is a Registered Trademark owned by Sea-Lark Boats, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Worldwide. Reuse Strictly Prohibited.
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