OT: RC boat info wanted

Jul 23, 2006 2 Replies

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Captain Dondo 20 years ago

OK, I know this is a bit OT, but I hope someone can point me to a group or forum that's more appropriate....

My soon-to-be 6 year old wants an RC boat for his birthday. I've been looking around and it seems that there are lots and lots of boats out there aimed at the more serious adult hobbyist and then there are the wal-mart toys.

Long ago we realized that the cheap toys aren't worth it, but I don't want to plunk down $100 for a RC boat quite yet...

Can someone make some recommendations? Requirements are that it be reasonably fast, fun to control, and run for a while on ordinary NiMH rechargables. I've read some of these boats have runtimes of 3 minutes on a charge....

I'd like something with at least 10 or 15 minutes on a charge...

I'd appreciate any info...

--Yan

o__ ,>/\'_ o__ (_)\\(_) ,>/\'_ o__ Yan Seiner, PE (_)\\(_) ,>/\'_ o__ Certified Personal Trainer (_)\\(_) ,>/\'_ o__ Licensed Professional Engineer (_)\\(_) ,>/\'_ Who says engineers have to be pencil necked geeks? (_)\\(_)

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Rich Grise 20 years ago

Does he like to do stuff with his hands, or does he just want to sit and be entertained? You could look into kits - where he could actually build the boat - that might save some money. IIRC, my brother did that when I was very young, but he was about 10 or 12, so 6 might be a little young for kitbuilding.

Otherwise, if it's just a thing to keep a 6-y-o amused, just shop around.

Good Luck! Rich

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Tom Biasi 20 years ago

Believe it or not there is a group called rec.models.rc.boats but nobody posts anymore. For a six year old I would get a battery powered slow moving boat with minimum controls. Let him steer the boat. Make sure you have a retrieval method in case of dead batteries.

Regards, Tom

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