A topic to think about

[Jerry Dunlap]

Well, after designing a few tunnel tunnel boats nothing new will be coming out of JD Designs. And, for the first time since K&B introduced the 3.5 out board I won't be racing a tunnel boat. I will, however, race my 20 Stock Kneeler,
Merry Christmas,
JD

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Dang...no way JD. Why not?

 

[Kris Flynn]

62 Carl? Dammm lol

 

[Carl Van Houten]

LOL...yep. Still kicking though.

 

[Mike Luszcz]

Carl, The reason I was curious about a SAW tunnel coming out soon, and if it was FE, I was going to pull out the notes, pencil and paper and design something for SAW if the records were beat.. I was recently thinking of Dick Loeb, and told myself if our team FE P and Q records were broken, I was gonna have to regroup and give it another try for him. I do enjoy tunnels, but just don't have the drive to try and design something else, especially not in 20 size. I actually enjoy drawing up the old 80's Veldens and Seebolds, and have been working on a couple in 50" versions for fun. This day and age, it seems the wind always blows, and the ponds are rough, and watching 20 tunnel at 10mph try to stay above it for the win is tough, lol. I will let others with more time and travel money take on the racing part of it, my home here lately is the garage laying up hulls and cowlings, and that is still fun to me, especially spraying flake jobs. I will be on the lookout if you guys break any tunnel records down the road!

 

[RonShaw]

Hopefully things will change for Nova Rossi and they will return and be able to once again provide engines

Carl,
My first lot of engines will be here next week including 50 or so outboard engines!!! Things looking up!!! They are still catching up on my orders.

 

[Mike Luszcz]

Thats great news!

 

[Jerry Dunlap]

Dang...no way JD. Why not?

You are 62. I will be 79 in March. I am beginning to prioritize what I want to spend my hobby time on. In the last 5 years, I have enjoyed building/racing 1/10 Scale Unlimited Hydroplanes. It is so much easier to plug in a battery than start a nitro engine. And no one has ever complained about the noise my 1/10 Scale Unlimiteds make.
JD

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Then let me be the first, JD:
THAT BOAT LOOKS GREAT BUT IT'S TOO DAMM QUIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Carl Van Houten]

JD, You should post pictures of what you are doing. If it has an outboard on it it then we need to see it. LOL

We have been working on a heavily revised Sun Downer O/B hydro just to see what we could do with it. I drew up some sponsons for Mike and had them burned and they seem to be doing a fairly good job on the boat because they are helping to hold the front end down a little better. Those boats do okay until you get them really rolling and then it will pop off the water in rough conditions with no warning. The new sponsons made a huge improvement plus Mike made some revised rear sponsons for it that work well too. With both of these changes the boat runs better over all. I will get some pictures of it the next time we go test it.

Ron,
Hopefully NR can come back because you had a lot invested in that company and you did a lot for outboards.

 

[Grimracer]

Carl, What would you be willing to pay for a factory production Glow Engine Outboard motor?

Its always good to ponder that kind of stuff.. what would you pay for a gallon of fuel?

What would you be willing to pay for a wood tunnel kit or a glass built tunnel.

No need to answer that here.. just good to ask yourself the question from time to time..

then.. what if it were hard to get those goods.. or in some cases it might take weeks, or MONTHS!

A bank account is easer to build then patience!

I suspect cost has had less impact then availability on the health of the hobby. Ron has worked hard to help fill the product void. (thanks Ron) and without people like Ron, Gary, Jerry, Stu, Gabe and many MANY others, we would ALL be staring down at cell phones 24 hours a day.

Merry Christmas All!

Grim

 

[Hydro Junkie]

I suspect cost has had less impact then availability on the health of the hobby. Ron has worked hard to help fill the product void. (thanks Ron) and without people like Ron, Gary, Jerry, Stu, Gabe and many MANY others, we would ALL be staring down at cell phones 24 hours a day.

Merry Christmas All!

Grim

Not all of us would be. Neither the wife or I have games or internet access on our phones so they get used for two things, a phone and alarm clock. We both work at computers all shift and, after 8 or so hours of that, we don't want to have the eye strain or extra cost of internet access to deal with. It also doesn't help to have phones like this one:

 

[Wasted wages]

The bane of the downfall of society....life was so much better before smartphones.... ( jmho )

****....see even I get sucked into the new "language" ...

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Grim,

You are right that there is credit due to other engine manufacturers for supplying engines. I did not mean to discredit other manufacturing efforts. I was mostly referring to "outboards" but I have to be careful what I say because I think mostly about outboards since that is what I have done for 40+ years.

It's a fact that some people buy bargain deals when others spend the big bucks for everything they have but when something is not available to buy at any price what is it worth then? Maybe that is what your point is... if so, I get that.

The "what is a reasonable price for model stuff" question (as we know from past threads on here) will blow everybody up trying to discuss that subject because everybody has a different opinion about what they are okay with spending.

I have built a lot of boats for this hobby to be left off your list of contributors... ?

Availability is front page now. Who is going to step up and provide new products in the middle of the pandemic and lack of funds to spend on hobby related items?

New products will be available soon that will help fill these resent voids. It has been done by pulling talent together and working together. This upcoming year should be exciting and if the races are held for us to attend then new products will be there.

That's all I can say for now.

 

[Grimracer]

Is Ron not selling your products?..

let me update this.. (Edit)..

Vans Racing Products too!

Grim

 

[Carl Van Houten]

Grim, you are so nice! Thanks for thinking about me.

 

[Kris Flynn]

Its OK Carl, I did not get a mention either, neither did Mike L, but I don't dwell on these things lol

Mike you forgot to mentione yourself too hehe

 

[Grimracer]

I sit here and........... i am at a loss for words... I dont know what to type........... other then typing.. I dont know what to type..

I was speaking to the post carl started.. in saying this would have thought he was in on the conversation. So.. him.. me.. just never came to mind.

Kris on the other hand.. what can I say... he talks funny so I could not include him......... KIDDING!

Merry Christmas

Grim

 

[Carl Van Houten]

I was just messing with Grim. LOL

-Carl

 

[Mike Luszcz]

All good over here! I offer the Vision tunnel and the THX305 kit, and some scale tunnel kits and hulls. I guess that is what I was suppose to say? Lol