Matt Hench, you say rediculous price to pay for a .21 hydro?? I dont know how long you have been in the hobby, but have you priced 80- 90% finished kits that include all the hardware and stainless fuel tank? The flat kit concept is nothing new. Been around for along time, but how many of those kits were built straight and true? Very easy for a novice builder to end up with junk for the trash barrel. Thats the reason Andy Brown, Ralph Almirola, Stu Barr, Chris Wood, and others dont sell flat kits. When you start with a 80-90% completed kit, you at least start with a straight and true center section, and have a better chance at success. Richard D
AMEN to THAT!
The whole "mission" of the JAE's was to get people building boats again, Rod and crew did a magnificent job with the boat and that concept. However, that doesn't in any shape, manner or form guarantee the boat will be right every time, THAT is up to whoever is building it and I've known people who couldn't put a 50 cent Guillow's rubber band airplane together correctly. I have owned boats from every builder Richard mentioned and then some over the years and they are all great boats. I have also built a couple JAE's from a 21 to a twin and in that it still takes TIME to build a flat kit and time is worth money. Using $25 an hour (which is LOW by today's standards) figure out how many hours you will honestly spend getting a JAE kit to a 85-90% built state. Then add in the cost of the hardware, the tank, a cowling ...... all part of Chris' kit and hey .... all of a sudden that cost of a G2 Blackbird ain't so "ridiculous" anymore is it?? Plus having had the chance to build one of the original Blackbirds I can tell you first hand the quality found in that boat kit is absolutely FIRST RATE. I like to build and spent many hours in the shop this past winter scratch building new record trial boats and will be starting on a new wood 1/8 scale soon as well but at the same time I didn't mind strokin' the check for my new Crapshooter twin and that was a whole lot more than the cost of G2.............
yes thats true about them putting there boats together,but also they got there reputation on the line too keep.. But to me is you got a good jig to build from and building skills,I say why not make all these riggers into kits... Some Of US Dont have Deep Pockets like you other guys have..Ecpessially todays economy.. That Why some like to do budget build./we build on a budget. Our last to JAE.12 light weight were scratch built.. Had the first JAE kit to use as a templates...All of these riggers were built with trials and errors ..I'm not trying to start a fight,just stating my opinion...everyone has one.
I think the outrigger hydro section already has an abundance of .12JAE threads, you don't need to rant about them in a Blackbird G2 .21 thread.
I have built probably close to 200 outriggers. All of them scratch built except two of them which were from kits. One kit was a Jaguar .45 @ 80 somethin' %, and the other was a Tidewater Young blood 80 fiberglass. Those boats were alright, but the satisfaction level of building them was next to nothing. I guess it depends on what you're after in this hobby. Also, if you believe that building from scratch is cheap, it isn't. But, as far as building a good raceable rigger, it isn't rocket science. I don't think anyone should be shunned from giving it a shot. There are only a handful of tolerances that you have to stay within to make a rigger perform well. Then again, some people don't have the patience or the facilities to build good riggers, so SGX's, JAGs, and Blackbirds, are the way to go. I think You did a really nice job with that blackbird. It looks like great boat.
Oh! What's up with you Larry? If you don't like some of the threads, don't read them. Why do you have to be so negative? If .12s aren't your gig, so be it. They just happen to be popular if you haven' t figured that out, yet. This forum wasn't designed for you specifically. Give us a break!
My 12 cents
