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Radio Controlled Boats- It's the Hull Shape Stupid!
The hull shape of radio controlled boats is critically important as it impacts the speed, stability, and maneuverability of the RC boat. This will determine to a great extent how easy the boat is to control when you get it out on the water. This will affect how much fun you can have with you boat. Nobody wants to out of control with their radio controlled boat. There are three basic designs: monohull, flat bottom and hydroplane. Let's look at each.
Monohull Boats. Monohull or monoplane hulls come in several different styles but the most popular is the vee-shaped hull. This design maintains a single unbroken surface in contact with the water. The design known as deep-vee is generally used on sport boats for stability at speed. Basically the deeper it cuts into the water the more stability it has especially at speed. Some sport shallow-vee hull design put less hull surface in contact with the water which increase speed but losing some of the stability of the deep-vee design. It all comes down to ease of handling and the faster you go the harder it gets.
Flat-bottom boats. The two main types of this hull design are airboats or hovercraft. These have a flat or near flat bottom design. They float on a cushion of air and are propelled by a propeller or propellers that push them forward. On of the issues people have is that they can move around a lot and take some getting use to wit regard to handling. The lack of a hull means it requires the control you exercise to be more precise. On the other side of the coin they can go fast as there is little surface friction slowing the boat down.
Hydroplane Boats. There are several styles: the 3-point hydro, catamaran, tunnel hull, and outrigger are designs of radio controlled boats well known for speed. In this design the hull has more than one surface in contact with the water. This feature creates space for trapped air under the boat, this trapped air helps to lift the boat partially out of the water so that there is less drag because less hull is touching the water) and as a result the boat can go faster - and are pretty stable as well. Outriggers are the fastest of the hydroplane hull designs but the trickiest to handle. Catamarans and tunnel hulls provide a better balance of speed and handling for the beginning racer.
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