Sea Urchin - ESC - advice please

Apologies for what may seem a daft question but I’m new to the hobby and this is my first attempt at building a boat.
 
I’m building a Sea Urchin and in no small measure relying on the advice of Roadrunner from his build log for the same vessel. I have acquired an Overlander Thumper 2822/27 1200kv Brushless out runner; in fact the same motor as used by Roadrunner. What I now need is a suitable speed controller. As I understand the ESC should have reverse capability. So far, the ESCs that I can find on the web for a brushless motor all have a water-cooling feature. To my mind, I cannot see that I would require to use water-cooling for an ESC for this small vessel – am I right? If I am correct in this thought, then can I use an ESC without hooking up the water cooling? If by any chance Roadrunner views this post – could you please tell me what ESC you utilised for the Urchin. Many thanks in advance!

Firstly welcome to the site. 

This is RR's site, so I am sure he will respond, but you can indeed use the ESC without the water cooling provided it doesn't get hot. I have used one in this way in the past. I know people do run brushless in boats without reverse, but I prefer to be able to at least try to avoid  collisions.

Barrie

I use a sea king 30 amp water cooled with reverse esc with most of my overlander motors. They are a good solid brand, don’t require program cards. 

You can pick them up from hobby king or eBay usually around £25.

Sorry for the later reply.. kids keeping me busy! 

If you can’t fit water cooling to your boat I believe the smaller 1200kv used 20 amp, although you may not get reverse the boat isn’t the best at reversing, so any standard 20amp cheap esc will work fine, again hobby king or eBay usually under £10.

I have found the urchin isn’t really good at turning tightly slow either, so reversing it is a bit pointless, just give it a hard right and throttle flick, it will turn pretty sharp like that. 

The urchin was originally designed to take the baby bee 2 stroke mini nitro engine. So reverse wasn’t planned for that boat anyway!

Good luck share your photos, I really enjoyed the urchin build and have a 2nd kit waiting under the desk but love to see others takes on the kit!

Aron

Thank you both Barrie and Aron for your kind advice and apologies for not acknowledging earlier.
 
So, I can use a water-cooled ESC and so long as it does not get too hot and I don’t need to hook up the water cooling.  In terms of reverse; it’s not crucial and in the case of the Sea Urchin unnecessary. That’s all clear. What I don’t understand is this – a standard ESC does not have a water cooling feature but a marine ESC (with reverse) does. I take it that one gets hotter than the other or at least may do. Is that right or am I misunderstanding?
 
Really appreciate the advice gents ... very helpful to a novice!
John

A 'normal' ESV is designed for use in aircraft and does not need reverse and is probably situated in a good airflow for cooling. An ESC will get hot if used at or near its maximum rating (amps). In a boat there is usually no airflow, but an alternative to water cooling is to fit the ESC to the hull walls under the water line. This will give additional cooling, but not as much as  a water jacket. It all really depends on how 'hard' you drive your boat. I have used brushless motors and ESCs in scale models and not used water cooling.

Barrie

Truth is with much of this water cooling lark is down to use and preference, flat out outrunner type motors do not require any water cooling at all! Providing they are not being overloaded or pushed the limits constantly they will and do run perfectly well without.

If you were running an inrunner motor then water cooling is a must not just the esc but the motor too, that’s why those systems have cooling jackets and such.

Personally I use water cooling on most of my boats, i personally  like the feature of water cooling as a form of realism to a boat, sometimes I add it and just connect the input and output with a tube and don’t use as intended just for effect.

With the urchin I didn’t even fit cooling system there simply wasn’t enough space to do it!

All is clear - thank you both, much appreciated!