Lee Taylor's Discovery II rocket boat

"what just happened"

This is just my opinion but after watching several different videos of Bluebird it appears to me that the waters surface just helped to loosen the boat up and get it closer to the edge...it stayed on that edge just before it blew over just like every boat Ive ever seen blow over. Most ppl don't see it before it happens but a sharp eye standing on the shoreline at any race can usually see and feel it coming when a boat is on that edge and know when the boat is already past the point of no return. Crazy thing is the driver does not know until its all over. What happened to Taylors boat from what I understand was water surface induced but nothing like a typical blow over. I honestly believe Bluebird was a plain old blow over. jmo


NAD

 

Here I go with my opinion again...when a hull chine walks as you put it or rocks from sponson (pad) to sponson it dumps air from underneath the hull. This is a contolling steering input method sometimes used in an air entrapment hull to get it to settle down usually to get the boat to hook and turn...it can sometimes prevent a blow over but does not cause one. Chopping the throttle on a flying boat depending on CG and thrust trim angles will cause a boat to take flight and blow over. This walking you are talking about is the problem with rigger hulls at high speeds. Hydro's are more of a problem than tunnels, probably the reason Warby's boat has sponsons moved back and longer than typical 3 pointers design. A tunnel walking from pad to pad is typical but a very stable condition. If you are trying to fly the nose to high on a tunnel causing the pad angles to be fairly steep to the surface of the water and this walking begins it causes the nose of the boat to wave back and forth from left to right caused by the braking affect of the pad angles. This may be why flat steeply angled pads like Bluebird's, Miss Stars and Stripes, R/C Riggers etc. have not proven yet to be the way to go. Not to say that it can't be done, obviously Bluebird is an amazing proof to that.

 

Craig Arfons Boat

Craig Arfons boat was possibly going 350 mph when it blew over. The aerodynamic lift forces at those speeds could be quadrupled from what they are at 150 mph.

 

Driver Capsules

Based on my observations of it after the recovery of Craig Arfons boat, as well as the design practices in Unlimited hydroplanes, I favor keeping the cockpit integral with the hull.

 

I have seen drivers ripped through boats in many directions...just the deceleration while going air born in pre capsule, pre break away cowling designs would stuff the driver under the dash only to have him ripped back through it after the boat made contact with the water. One driver I knew of was ejected through the bottom of the boat as it came back down on its nose backwards. He was pitched down course ahead of the boat and walked away..sort of. Had he been strapped in he would have had to sustain the full G force of every impact the boat took. Ask Jimbo McConell if he would have rather been in a break away capsule or an integral capsule rather than a pre capsule boat when his tunnel violantly took a nose dive. Being strapped in and staying with the boat is fine at 100 i guess, but at 350 I'd rather be strapped into a cannonball and ride with it.

 

"Doin the cannonball" into the pool never hurt near as much as a belly smacker did! There used to be an old saying in pre capsule boat racing days. I can remember asking an experienced driver what to do when you know it's too late, when you have passed that point you know there is nothing you can do but time seems to stand still right before you hit. He said "Son, you put your head between your legs and you kiss your *** goodbye". I was being serious when I asked and thought he was just joking with his reply, but he meant you make yourself a tight ball hope for the best. That probably saved my life more than once!

 

Sir, I did not come here to get into a pissing match about which type of boat is better but simply to discuss WWSR past present future. In no way am i or would i ever take any credit away from the sport of top fuel drag racing boats, but in fact I am amazed at how stable they are. It is just my opinion that it is not the way to go for WWSR...It could well be the way to go for a new outright prop record and with a piston engine to boot! So don't bother trying to convince me about the stability of your riggers...go break the record. After you get that done then tell me if you think you would like to try and add another 100mph to your record run. If you think that you can just do your homework and not have anyone get hurt in a boat you are mistaken. Water+Speed=Danger...sooner or later! Try this experiment...Drive down the road with your window down at 50mph hold a pencil out the window by the eraser and see what happens to it as you change the angles a little. If your riggers don't bounce off the water at all maybe you could set the WWSR record with one.

NAD

 

I would just like to add that it is a fact that Hydro designs of one variation or another have set practically every record in kilo runs in history. Bluebird, Spirit of Australia, Miss Budweiser, Mach Propellers, etc. The list is long. I just personally feel they are a dangerous way to go for WWSR's future. Both the American and British concepts seem all wrong as well and Im not sure anyone has the answer.

Riggers fall in to this category so i would not rule them out!

But still, "One HELL of a challenge"!

 

Trust me I'm not just playing with my pencil, I am currently finishing up on some hydrodynamic testing for the front of my new WWSR boat...stay tuned for more in the next 10 years I should have it ready for some water and wind tunnel testing.

NAD

 

First boat to clock 200 mph through the kilo was John Cobb's Crusader. Crusader was 31 feet long and weighed 5,000 lbs, but 3,000 lbs of that was engine so for a 31 foot boat it was lightly constructed. The consensus is the crash was set off by structural failure of the forward planing surface. Who knows what direction WSR boats may have taken had Cobb's boat been successful?

 

Nice pic, where did you find that one? I am sure you have heard it before but the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. I hope you are not actually trying to build that thing in Arvils drawing. If you turn the crusader around and go backwards with it it looks like it might go better. Structural failure is wicked if its under water...Hydraulic effect from a pin hole at those speeds will rip things apart. Could be the fate of many WWSR attempts. Maybe that is what happened to Taylors as well? The last time I rode a three wheeler it threw me off and I ruptured an achilles tendon! But that Big wheel I had as a kid was way cool...you could spin that thing around on a dime without getting thrown off! It was fun until the rear wheels got worn all the way through. Could be the hydrodynamic lift differences that each end go through as well? Snowmobiles skip across the water supper nice but there skis are in the front as is the CG. Guess we will have to leave it up to the computers to design WWSR's future. Have a good one.

NAD

 

Would it be within the rules to use a design that derived lift from ground effect and in which the only contact with the water was with ultra thin (knife thin) wave piercing side walls?

 

Conventional three-pointers

It's easier for the guys running conventional three-pointers to look like geniuses when they don't have to start from scratch in understanding the dynamic behavior of a design and have other boats to compare against.

 

Blowovers

For some years now, Unlimited hydroplanes have been equipped with driver-controlled footpedal-actuated canard wings. Some of the better drivers use it to ride the boat on the edge of a blowover to get more speed.

 

There is some debate on Wing-In-Ground- Effect (WIG's) craft on whether or not canards can be operated fast enough by the operator to avoid crashing.

Unlimited hydroplanes have been equipped with driver-controlled footpedal-actuated canard wings.

Is the footpedal a fly-by-wire, in this I mean is a computer with sensors helping in the final action or actual control of the hydroplane?