FSR-H3.5 Eksjö May 29

The first Swedish hydro nationals of 2010 was held in Eksjö May 29-30. On Saturday we raced the 3.5 cc classes as in OTA tunnels and hydro. The most popular hydro class in Sweden is 3.5 cc and has (according to me) had the closest hydro racing the last few years and this year it was no difference.

The weather was good with some showers and a few of the heats had some rough water. But it was raceable anyway and most of the heats had almost smooth water.

At this nats we had the pleasure to see a small comeback from former NAVIGA FSR-H 3.5 world champ Jörgen Andersson in 3.5 and he was really fast of course. Jörgen brought two .21 riggers and he raced one of them - let me come back with more pics of booth of them tomorrow. The race boat was his trusted 2006 world champ Eagle rigger but with a gearbox! The sound was special and the big prop was even more so... ;)

Personally I had a good race and won most of my heats except the two times I had to meet Jörgen... The last heat was the decider as either me or Jörgen had to win it to win overall. But it was the roughest water all day and my Kep's was good but not as good as Jörgen's Eagle in that heat. But it was very good and fun racing - some of the heats where very good and fast even though we had to make the oval slightly shorter due to the narrow space in the lake.

Sad to say it but this was the last hydro / tunnel race ever in this lake. The club have been booted from the location after this summer...

FSR-H 3.5 final results:
1. Jörgen Andersson / 1600p / Eagle 21
2. Niklas Edlund / 1500p / Kep's 21
3. Mikael Sundgren / 1300p / Kep's 21
4. Christer Gustafsson / 894p / Road Runner 21
5. Bo Sandström / 694p / Bootleg Eagle 21
6. Mikael Gartne / 675p / Eagle 21
7. Fredrik Lundahl / 0p / JAE 21G2

Some pics are borrowed from Nilac Adolfsson/Munter webpics album - click HERE.

Sune Persson had outdone himself BIG time when he had custom made these tiny riggers as prices of all three rigger classes... They are hand-molded and made out of 7 pieces I think. Its by far the coolest prices I have ever got at a race.

The riggers even had rudders and carbon sponson rods... Speachless.

My Kep's 21 was that good... LOL

Jörgen in lane 1 and me in lane 2.


My Kep's 21 RACE 2010 in testing after the race was over (no number sign on it). Same set-up as in the race but a Sholund H7 3.75 prop on it and with Jörgen behind the 4PK wheel (so I could check radar the speed and snap a few photos) it topped 106 kmh (65.8 mph) but the course is a little short and the pipe was a little long (for only doing top speed trials). In race set-up I would think it does about 95 kmh which is way more raceable at least on this side of the pond. But not too shabby for a propped-up race set-up even though I would not race that prop on a Kep's 21. The Sholund H6 with 3.46 or 3.6 cup is better suited race props for a well tuned Kep's 21 RACE 2010 rigger I think. Overall I was very happy how the boat handled and its easy to drive and even can turn left a little!

Wanna scratch build a fast .21 - rigger? If so, click HERE.

My race stuff: Kep's 21 / CMB Valvola "Gold head" / O'Donnell OD-9 or Blue plug / Zoom 21 carb / Fat pipe @ 200 mm / Futaba 4PK / 2 x S9650 & S9551 servos / Sholund ABC H6 with 3.46 cup / 60% nitro & 14% Klotz Super TechniPlate.









Mikael Sundgren with his Kep's 21 - he finished third. Mattias is co-driving and Mattias girlfriend Linda is watching on the pontoon. It wasn't too warm on Saturday...

Gartne runs close to the shore...

Jörgen towards #1 buoy.

Mikael's Kep's 21 - this one is the earlier "freebie" design - not the one I have down-loadable now.

Mikael again.

More Micke shots...

Here we go.

Gartne's Eagle seems to run too wet.

It was not smooth waters but not that rough either (most of the time).

Close to the shore turn #2.



Christer Gustafsson's Road Runner .21 seemed to have lost some speed during the winter brake...

OTA Tunnels Eksjö May 29

Saturday May 29 the outboard tunnel season began with the first nats of 2010 in Eksjö. We had good weather but there was some rain showers and a little bit of wind in some heats, but generally very good race weather. Local outboard racer Mattias "Benke" Bengtsson was TQ with his VS1 tunnel but somebody accidentally kicked it on the pontoon before the 8-lap final so he had to use his HTB290 instead! But his HTB was equally good so he could almost cruise to victory.

I was third in qualifying but had the inside lane at the start of the 8-lap final and its a 1-buoy-180-deg-turn at the start = VERY tight. My VS1 doesn't really like the tight turns so I was slightly wide there at corner exit and crashed when somebody wanted my lane-space from the outside and I DNF:ed...

OTA Stock 3.5 final results:
1. Mattias Bengtsson / VS1 / HTB290 / OS
2. Sven Mundhenke
3. Stefan Adolfsson / HTB290 / OS
4. Sune Persson / Bandit 3.5 / TT
5. Niklas Ericksson / TS2
6. Freedik Karlsson / VS1 / OS
7. Niklas Edlund / VS1 / OS
8. Bo Sandström / VS1 / KB
9. Anders Enblom / HTB / OS
10. Mikael Sundgren / VS1 / KB

For more pics from Saturday, click HERE.

Sune Persson is now my hero - check these prices for the top-3! Awesome to say the least. Sune has handmade all parts including the box they came in himself... Speechless...

Mattias VS1 in practice/qualifying. Quickest this day.

Mundhenke's tunnel.

Another picture of Mattias VS1.

The start is a stand-still one and all are released at "0" time. The track is a 3-leg course and the start is always towards the top buoy.

Stefan Adolfsson's HTB290 in qualifying.

Start fast and turn right. The other buoy to the right is not included in the tunnel course, thats buoy 4 in the hydro oval...

Next nats is in Ludvika July 3-4. Click HERE and HERE for a reminder of last years race.

FSR-H7.5 Eksjö May 30

Swedish Hydro Nats 1 2010 in Ekjsö May 30, here's the results from the 7.5 cc class.

FSR-H 7.5 final results
1. Anders Martinell / 1600p / Eagle 45
2. Fredrik Lundahl / 950p / Taipan 45
3. Mikael Gartne / 788p / Eagle 45
4. Ellert Ohlzon / 625p / Nyström 45 Special
5. Micke Sundgren / 575p / Eagle SGX2

Ellert is blowing over when he runs through Fredrik's rooster... Update: looking more closely, I just noticed that Fredriks boom tubes are broken on the right hand side so there have most likely been some physical contact between the two.



Ellert in the red/wood rigger and Anders Martinelle in his pig-colored Eagle.

Fredrik Lundahl's Taipan 45.

Mikael Gartne's Eagle 45.

Fredrik's Taipan 45.

FSR-H15 Eksjö May 30

This past Sunday we raced the first Swedish Nats round of 2010 in hydro and OTA (Outboard Stock Tunnel - 21 size). The race lake was in Eksjö and we had good to very good weather. On Sunday they raced the H7.5 and H15 classes and it was sunny all day and smooth water. I had to be the race judge for H15 so I have no race pics from this class...

FSR-H15 final results
1. Anders Martinell / 1600p / Eagle 90
2. Niklas Ericksson / 1150p / Bootleg Eagle
3. Mats Aldell / 1125p / Eagle 90
4. Ellert Ohlzon / 300p / Eagle 90

CMB .21 VAC "gear drive"

Here are a couple of new pics on the counter rotating CMB .21 VAC gear drive engine. The exterior look (except the new VAC intake and color of the cooling head) looks visually exactly the same as the earlier RSV 07 engine but the internals are almost all new.




Ps, if you are a CMB distributor/shop (or if you're Mauro Braghieri) and want to use my studio photo pictures of the new CMB .21 VAC engines without any logos in the background etc, send me and e-mail with a suggestion and I can send you them in any size you want including high-res psd/tif for print with separate shadows that will blend in in the background in like Indesign. You're free to use them as they are though (including the graphics)... :) / Niklas

Swedish Rugby

Today I was at my second Rugby match ever in gorgeous weather in Enköping - flipflops on for the first time in 2010! It was Enköping Rugby Klubb vs Stockholm Exiles booth men and women teams from each club. The women match started first and hometown ERK played good for like 20 minutes then Exiles took over and won comfortably...

The ERK guys are the Swedish Champions but had not an easy game by any means. It was very close but they won in the end...

ERK = White dresses
Exiles = Black and yellow dresses

















A couple of weeks ago I was at my first Rugby match ever. It just happens that the Uppsala team have their home field about 350 meters from where I live. The women teams where Uppsala RFC (blue dresses) vs Enköping RK (white). Uppsala won with one try (5p) against zero for ERK... The Uppsala RFC guys played against Södertälje and Uppsala won...


My appartment is about 350 meters straight ahead in this picture.

CMB .21 VAC "direct drive"

Update: I have tested my own VAC engine but have failed to get it to work "at all"... After being at the NAVIGA worlds in Hungary and seeing and hearing about peoples experiences of their VAC engines I do feel needed to come with a suggestion. If you buy one of these 21 engines, make sure you get the buyers insurance that if you wont make it to work you can either get your money back or a warranty that he will exchange it or modify until it works. Please take this the right way - but I have not seen a VAC 21 direct drive engine work at all right out of the box...

The new CMB .21 VAC engines are in production and the first batch has been delivered to the CMB distributors now. Here is a first side-profile picture of the direct drive version. I will update the blog with more views of it and also the gear-drive version later on as soon as I have time to Photoshop those pictures. Stay tuned for more info and pics...



Ps, if you are a CMB distributor/shop (or if you're Mauro Braghieri) and want to use my studio photo pictures of the new CMB .21 VAC engines without any logos in the background etc, send me and e-mail with a suggestion and I can send you them in any size you want including high-res psd/tif for print with separate shadows that will blend in in the background in like Indesign. You're free to use them as they are though (including the graphics)... :) / Niklas

Kep's .21 RACE 2010 Outrigger

Update (October 2012):  I'm happy to announce that Friday November 2 2012 I will publish a completely new PDF template freebie design - the KEP's T2 .21. So welcome back soon and download the next generation racing outrigger hydroplane freebie!

Update (October 2012): I have published a presentation of the new KEP's T2 .21 here.

I have updated the Kep's 21 PDF drawing to "2010" spec now. The base for this latest version of my Kep's .21 design is based on the boats me and Mikael Sundgren has raced in 2009. But do note, I have included some features on the new PDF that we have not actually used on our boats (yet) but we would build it like this if we would build a new boat right now...

Some of these features (not used by us so far) are:
1. The turn fin mount is finally changed from the 3-hole pattern that is originally from the Eagle SG .21. I made them like that because it was easier to get hold of an Eagle turn fin but that seems not exactly the case today... The new mount is way better with 4 mounts in the sponson and multiple holes in the turn fin to allow for a broad adjustment front to back.

2. The turn fin itself is also changed due to the fact that it now can be mounted further to the front.

3. Up until now I have also made my front sponsons with a pointy trailing edge but I think it will look better with a cut-off look instead.

No more "freebie" design - this is the race boat!
The original Kep's "freebie" I published in 2008 (downloaded more then 1000 times) was at that time an earlier design I had used... But I raced an slightly different version myself due to the fact I wanted the "freebie" to be tested etc. Most of the time here also the season is so short so when I have a design that I have tested and raced with it all becomes "last" years design so to speak. But the Kep's .21 RACE2010 rigger is actually a mix of the boat I race with myself including a couple of features that I have yet to put into my boat. This is up until today the best .21 rigger design I can publish as its the closest to my own 2010 race boat(s).

Here are some basic Kep's .21 RACE2010 specs:
After plane length: 530 mm (from rear tip of rear sponsons to trailing edge on front sponsons)

Sponson inside-to-inside width: 365 mm

Tub belly height (under motor): 17 mm

Tub inside width: 74 mm

Tub outside width: 86 mm

Tub sides height: 44 mm

Tub length: 707 mm

Total length: 749 mm (excluding strut and rudder)

Total width front sponsons: 43 mm (including 1 mm overhangs)

Front sponsons AoA: Left: 3.5 deg / Right: 4 deg

Rear sponsons AoA: 1.5 deg

Strut AoA: max 1.3 deg negative

Tank volume: aprox 250 ml

Motor axis: 5 mm off-set to the right

RTR weight (if you build it like me) aprox: 1750 gr

As my earlier Kep's boats the RACE2010 is prepared for the CMD engine mount bolt spacing and if you can get hold of them, the CMD hardware in general is among the best also.

As with most "engine-forward-with-exposed-running-gear-and-rear-sponsons" 21-sized rigger designs - the rear end needs to be quite light! You need to pay attention to not using heavy hardware and make the hardware you choose to use as light as possible also, especially the items that are the most rearwards... Use light servos, 5-cell hump-style AAA battery pack and in general - build it light!

As you can see I have designed it around the MAC .21 / CMB .21 Valvola type of in-line engine. If you want to you can of course use an car-engine based marine motor with a 180 deg header. The boat will work equally good of course. But as I like to build my boats quite tight (I dont like to waste space etc) this boat is not really that well suitable for the new CMB .21 VAC engine. See further down the page for and closer look on how tight it will be with that motor...

Happy building!

/Niklas Edlund

Click HERE for PDF download of the main drawing. The drawing is in A1 size (594 mm high and 880 mm wide/long). Save the pdf to your favorite portable memory (as a USB-stick) and go to a print shop and have them print it at 1:1 / 100% scale and it should come out in the right size. If you're in doubt, I have included a "control length" part that should measure 740 mm / 29.133" if the print shop has made it right. But the paper normally shrink a little of some reason so if the control length box is like 738 mm its all good anyway.

This is the fuel-cell PDF drawing. Click......... HERE for download. This design is borrowed from Mike "Grimracer" Zaborowski that used to have an RC boat business of his own where he among other things built fuel-cells for people (he now works for Hobbico/Aquacraft). Personally I have always built my tanks with an internal hopper tank but they are a bitch to build... Mike's way of building them seems to be way less hard to make. There is also an excellent video that the ME Time Production guys have on their live site that is an must to see if you want to build one yourself. You need an premium upgraded membership there to be able to see it but the tank building video is well worth the 25 bucks if you ask me.

And finally, here's a close up of how tight the CMB .21 VAC motor carb placement and the fuel tank in front of it in a Kep's .21 RACE2010 rigger would be... As soon as I get my new CMB .21 VAC engine I will put it in my boat and take a picture of it.


Update May 6: The new CMB .21 VAC hydro engine has arrived now. The pics here below show the space between the end of the carb and the fuel tank. Its not too bad I think. I think it will work, especially if you make the tank's upper rear edge with an 45 deg angle as seen in my illustration here above... The tank in the pictures here below is for my normal CMB "green" head motor.

Update 2011: I would strongly advice you to not use a VAC .21 engine in your KEP's .21 or any other .21 rigger really. Its simply not a good engine (at least not for this type of application)...

Good looking VAC .21 but it does not work so good...

Good looking VAC .21 but it does not work so good...

Good looking VAC .21 but it does not work so good...

Good looking VAC .21 but it does not work so good...

ME Time Live

Since 2007, Me Time Productions Inc have been covering quite a few of the US RC boat races. They started with making DVD's out of them but now you can also sign up for a bargain 25 USD for a 12 month premium membership (paid through Paypal) to get streaming live coverage of RC boat racing! After the race they archive the live feed broadcast and make it viewable 24-7 on their servers so you can look at them afterwards... Sweet.

For those of you that also like (or dislike but like to know how to make one) to build your own fuel cells they also made an "friday night" special in February with Mike "Grimracer" Zaborowski where he showed how to build a tin-sheet metal fuel cell. The 25 bucks is worth that film if you ask me...

This weekend (now) they are showing the 2010 World Tunnel Champs in Charleston, South Carolina - LIVE. Support a good cause and sign up now!