Recent content by Mario Johnston

Appreciate ya, Mike. See you soon

Hey, Mike. Got a confirmation email for me, but not one for Warrick in SS Mono. Just wanted to confirm I got him on the list. Thanks!

Not entirely, Greg. Brian's design for the boat utilized a rear pocket for the entire tank under the deck, behind the motor. (There's actually room under the deck for a tank more than twice the size of what you see in the rear of my boat) Since this was a test mule, we set mine up to run a...

Correct, that's 16" from the motors casing center to the transom. I always think it's fascinating how boats can have such different schools of thought in terms of design and still be equally competitive in the same arenas.

The last piece of this puzzle was a tank set up. For this I ask for John Steltzers help. The boat is now complete. We did some pretty rigorous testing on this hull throughout 2023. We found that it was capable of some serious speed. For a list of final props we settled on, check with Brian...

All of my boats are wood grain/white so this one will fall in line.

At this stage the bost is nearly complete. Fitting hardware while the cowl gets color

Carbon fiber tie-downs for the servos complete the radio box. And since I get this question a lot, yes, there's plenty of room in the box for all 3 servos plus receiver, battery and even a GPS, should you choose to run one. The box extends under the deck, giving you ample space Special thanks...

Sealing up the hand made cherry parts on the interior I wanted to try running more fuel load in the front of this boat. I cut the sponson support that crossed from side to side through the nose, and added a poece of cherry to help distribute the load. this would give me the sufficient space...

Building a stuffing tube support from cherry and using my aluminum alignment tool to be sure everything is squared up

Once all of the skins are in place I add cherry blocks to the fronts of each sponson and bull nose. At this point the boat gets an overall exterior seal. I decided not to clear coat the hull as I'm certain it will be taking a beating over the next year of testing and racing. For this one...

Time to lay down the deck skins. I sealed the underside of the skins 2x prior to laying them on the boat's frame.

Once the hull is framed, I spend the next couple of days cutting and sanding pink foam blocks to slot into the spaces between the bulkheads Once all the blocks are cut, it's back onto the jig to glue them in place

Beginning to fillet corners. Its important to keep the sponson uprights clamped to the jig at all times. Building an inner nose block out a piece of scrap wood. In this image, all of the frames are fitted together and glued except for the transom

Taking the time to build my turn fin bracket. In order to keep the fin lined up with the outside of the sponson ride surface, theres a bit of overhang on the material. Easily sorted with a little machining and a belt sander