Product Review Article ...

  A look at the Genereation 2 Sport Hydro...

Well, long story short, a friend of mine was in the market for a P.I. Hydro for some time now and was having a hard time getting a hold of one. It just so happened that this friend accompanied me to the 2004 Gas Nationals in Celina Ohio, where we had a chance to meet up with Bob Wilson of Accurate Racing. After some discussions, Bob offered to set him up with a Ready To Run (RTR) Generation 2 Sport Hydro. I had a chance to see the boat as delivered from Accurate Racing and decided to do a write up on the product.

Here are a few pictures of the boat as my friend received it. Everything you see in the pictures was supplied and setup by Accurate Racing.

Here you see the front view of the hull.

In these pictures you can see the business end and also the bottom (that’s my friend Stephane holding the boat; he is the new proud owner).

A few pictures of the engine compartment and radio box installation. The engine is a Butchtheboatman full mod Zenoah 260 PUM, the pipe is a 2” band Midwest style pipe. As you can see there is also a Butch Block installed for the stuffing tube support. Nice clean setup.

Here you can see the stuffing tube, nice straight line to the strut, and also the turn fin.

The serial number tag and the rudder control rod inside a carbon fiber reinforcing tube.

Although I cannot give a total review of the RTR P.I. Hydro at this time, I can say that the setup as done by Accurate Racing is a clean and accurate one (no pun intended!). The only thing that worried me a bit was the fact that the control rods were bent, rather than straight line. I personally like to keep them as straight as possible when doing throttle and rudder linkage. I asked Bob about this, and this is what he replied: “The throttle linkage is curved for a reason, if you notice the throttle is not linear and when you bend it the way it is you will notice that this helps it be more precise. The rudder (rod) can’t be bent very much to help this problem because it runs through a carbon fiber shaft to keep from bending it under the extreme pressure when you turn the boat.” I can’t say that this would make me change my old ways, but I am confident in Bob’s setup, and trust it will work just fine. We each have our ways of doing things that’s what makes this hobby fun!

Something interesting to note is that Accurate Racing is now actually building (laying up) these hulls in their new shop. The one pictured here was actually done using the original P.I. molds, and I noticed some ‘spiders’ in the gel coat. I also contacted Bob about this, as for a guy like me such a finish is not what I would consider a top notch finish and not what I expected from Bob. He was very upfront and honest about it. Bob assured me that the ‘spiders’ are from the original P.I. molds that were breaking down, and that Accurate Racing have since done new molds and worked out all the imperfections. A top notch, glossy gel coat can be expected from hulls now in production. I have not seen one of the new ones yet, but hope to see one some time soon.

In resume, I think this is a very nice Ready To Run package that Accurate Racing offers, and is something to consider for someone wanting to get into sport hydro but who might not be comfortable setting one up himself (herself). Bob has setup a lot of these hulls and does a great job at doing so. As you can see from the pictures, everything is done, including the installed floatation. All that is required from the buyer is to install his/her radio gear (receiver and batteries) and add gas. If you would like to purchase the hull and set it up yourself, well Accurate Racing can help you out with that also.

As our winter here up north nears its end, we will be seeing soft water soon. So check back here on www.modelgasboats.com for an update on the performance tests we will be doing with this RTR P.I. Hydro.

Happy Boating!

*** unfortunately Accurate Racing are no longer in business therefor the PI Hydro can no longer be purchased from them. We will advise if we receive news of this hull's availlability in the future. ed.

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