FPV Twin-Hull RC Air Boat

With RC sailboats I have always been paranoid about losing radio contact and watching one drift away. My solution is this twin-hull airboat that can be maneuvered to retrieve a disabled sailboat. It also combines FPV.

It's printed in two halves, front and rear, on a Creality CR10 V3, 300mm X 300mm bed. I made it as large as possible to corral an RC sailboat, but it should be possible to scale the STL files down to fit an Ender 3.

It uses a cheap motor/ESC combination from Amazon, around $20. Photo #1 is the first prototype. The other photos are the revised version. The hulls are filled with construction foam foam rather than relying on them being water tight.

The prototype I printed the hulls complete with the decks. I glued the front and back halves together and left a hole in the back of each side for the foam. The foam dried up at the holes but kept expanding for several days, splitting some of the seams. Then it shrank for a few days pulling the skins the other way, until it settled back to almost right.

The new design has the decks printed separately. They are then epoxyed on after the foam settles down to its final state and is trimmed off flush.

There are no holes in the servo box or cabin. Those are custom to what gear you will use. The photo shows a 22 gram servo. The FPV camera mount is just one example.

The hatch uses a bent wire for the latch. The round latch boss is a bearing/seal. Put it on the wire then make the sharp bends. When it looks right glue the boss to the hatch. To seal the hatch use foam tape or similar as a gasket.

For the rudder there is a slot for the 3mm shaft to be secured with two wire clips or a single longer bent wire. I wanted it removeable to avoid damaging it or to the servo while packing it back and forth to the water.

Creality C10 V3, PLA, 200C, 50C bed. Note that Cura puts a waste line of filament on the left side of the bed. I didn't notice it is actually in the print. It melted in OK but there is room to move the part 10mm or so to the right.

The two halves are each printed upside down.