"........there isn’t a huge amount of swivel on the buckets, was thinking of putting a mixer in rather than a rudder?, I suppose it’s just trial and error.... ...."

If you put a small 'dagger plate' on the keel, like the power racers do, that will improve the turning no end....

"....There were plans for a noodle boat in a fairly recent model boats mag..."

Several years ago I drafted up an EeZeBilt RIB. This used foam pipe insulation (ready-split!) for the inflatable section, had a standard brushless prop and used a servo hidden in a dummy outboard to swing the outboard for use as a rudder.

I never completed the boat, and did not publish the plans, but if there is some interest I will look at revisiting the idea. Here are a few pics of what the boat was to look like:

Hi John, yes, there isn’t a huge amount of swivel on the buckets, was thinking of putting a mixer in rather than a rudder?, I suppose it’s just trial and error....

Looks good, you may need a rudder if you have problems turning! I had a similar boat which was fine in straight lines 😁

There were plans for a noodle boat in a fairly recent model boats mag ,though not jet propelled,can't find the issue as the wife has "cleaned up my corner"👍it's here somewhere.

Looks good so far!
Let see where you end up at!

Cheers, Ed