HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR FIRST RADIO CONTROLLED BOAT

Picking your first radio controlled boat should require a little bit of thought beyond what looks great. Here are some thoughts to consider.

First off. Where will you be operating the boat? Of course, the choices include the swimming pool, a small pond, the lake, a river, or even the ocean. You probably have already ruled out the ocean, it is just too much to handle for a beginner (unless the surface is like glass, but you can't bet on that).

Let's look first at the swimming pool site. This venue can offer hours of fun and is accessible. High speed is not preferable here because of the limits in size. Also high speed boats in the pool can offer a real danger to swimmers, especially if the boats are too big. So, where does that leave us for the person wanting to start with a pool boat. I would suggest a small electric powered radio controlled boat. These boats are usually "ready-to-run", RTR, meaning that you do not have to assemble parts and pieces. You simply put a charged battery in it's box, and start to slowly cruise the boat around the pool, all the time gaining a feel for it's handling qualities. Radio controlled Sail boats, Utility boats (such as Harbor Tugs), Coast Guard Cutters, and small speed boats all make good choices for the pool or pond boat.

Other considerations to think about when operating you RC boat in a small pond; they often have vegetation in the water, and ease of retrieving your boat if it gets stopped for any reason in the pond can be a problem. You may well have to wade out in the muck if the boat gets hung up in the weeds in the pond, or for some reason you battery dies. You probably wont have access to a boat dock while operating you boat in the pond, so, you may have to wade a little to launch and retrieve the boat. Let's leave the large electric and gas/nitro powered boats to the lake, river, or even ocean.

A lake may be the ideal spot for radio controlled boats. You can often find water calm enough to operate freely, you have a large expanse for operation, there may be a convenient boat dock from which too launch, and you are not restricted to size and speed. One may select electric, gas, or nitro power for these locations. However, the electric powered boat may be best for the beginner. They can be set up quickly by insertion of a fully charged battery pack. While we are on the subject of batteries, make sure that the electric boat you order either has the appropriate battery pack included, or order them separately at the same time. You may want to include a charger system as well. The electric R/C boats operate very smoothly with controlled acceleration and deceleration. Again you can quickly become very adept at operating an electric boat. In time you may want to graduate to a gas or nitro powered boat, but, we suggest trying the electric boat first. Since new powerful electric motors and high capacity battery systems are available, speeds of the electrics are approaching those of gas and nitro. You will experience a drop in top speed as the battery system nears the end of it's charge, but, unless you are an avid racing buff this may never be a problem. The gas and nitro's do maintain their top performance throughout a tank full of fuel and can usually operate longer on a tank of fuel than an electric boat.

Hull design is another consideration. The sponson boats can be very fast on very exciting, but the water surface must be smooth to operate them successfully without flipping. For this reason, we believe that for at least the first boat a deep-vee hull offers the best compromise for the conditions you will encounter. Deep-vee hull designs are really your best bet for a starter boat.

I want to emphasize that if you are just starting out in the radio controlled boat hobby you should avoid buying a high powered gas or nitro boat for your first boat. In fact some communities have noise ordinances against running nitro powered boats on waters within the community. After you gain the experience in operating radio controlled boats you might want to add one or more of these larger, higher powered boats to your fleet.