fast human powered paddlewheel?

Hello! Once a year people come to race cardboard boats in the Ohio river. I always do the paddlewheeler heat. Last year we thought extending my paddles would work (we just put plexiglass on the ends to extend) but it just made it slower. This year I wanna make a new boat. Does anyone know of a good design of a human powered boat? Any tips on making the boat faster and easy to control would be appreciated

 

tell us more about the rules - what are the constraints and what do typical boats look like?

propeller or kayak paddle will give you better performance than paddle wheel.

 

We had a dedicated human power guru on this forum for a long time Rick Willoughy - and there are lots of threads about human powered boats with his and a lot of other usefull posts.

Paddlewheelers used to hold speed records for human powered boats a few years ago, but now its all down to prop based multihulls.

I personally saw ricks pedal powered boat in action, and it was really quick.

 

If you want to go faster, you have to increase relative float speed, which means the wheel has to get bigger in diameter, not increase float area (which gives more power, not speed).

For a fixed power like you have, you first have to decide how fast you want to go (Va) and how fast you want to turn the wheel (omega..radians/sec). Generally, 1.2*Va = omega*r, where r is the radius of the wheel at the center of the float. So then thrust, T, equals 0.2*1/2*rho*0.04*Va*A where rho is the mass density of water (1.990 slugs/ft^3) and A is the submerged area of the float/s. Torque, Q, is then T*r and therefore minimum power required is Q*omega/550 for hp. On the flip side, T is your thrust at Va so therefore, the maximum drag the boat can have at Va is identically to T.

 

Kerosene, the paddlewheelers mechanical stuff can be made with anything, but the rest can only be paint duct tape and cardboard. They can look like anything. I can't use a kayak paddle if I do the paddlewheel heat.

 

As an engineer I have been responsible for the design and construction of many human powered vehicles, including assisting designing the bicycles used in the Olympics by the US team. And what is best is entirely depending on the rules and your skills. Simple for build-and-race type events is almost always the best way to go. If you can build ahead of time where the time to build is not part of your score gives you a lot more flexibility.

I would suggest a catamaran type hull and use a prop rather than a paddle wheel. but building two hulls and a frame is going to be more time consuming than a monohull boat. Paddles wheels are very inefficient and heavy. A kayak paddle is far better because of simplicity and efficiency as well. But either of these options depends on the rules.

Tell us more about the rules please

 

This one is lightweight, with essentially no windage, and simple parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFS1ZJ2x41s&feature=related

How to construct one, though? It would be even faster if the hull were streamlined.

Porta

 

You could pump up the volume and go Full Hamster.

http://

 

So, you're staying in the paddle wheel heat?

What, exactly, are the rules for this year, not last year?

Do you have any footage of past races?

The fastest design thus far is a hydrofoil called the DECAVITATOR.

Have you seen it?

What is your budget both monetarily and chronologically?

What did your boat look like last year?

Do you have a picture?

When is the race?

 

Michael,

That is too funny.

Too bad he's getting swamped by the photo boat!

 

Michaels picture is proof that humans are enormously creative and ingenious. It also suggests that we may be nuts, especially so with boaty types. Let a good time be had by all.

 

This thread would be of interest if you go for the prop power.

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/pedal-boat-propeller-specifications-data-31674.html

 

I agree, Petros. Bob Clifford (owner of Incat at the time) won the 1st solar
boat challenge in a cat. Another interesting boat was a fairly slender dinghy
filled with the maximum number of batteries. The operator of that vessel (a
former navy commander) added a canoe stern to eliminate the transom and
won his category easily. So, yes, keep it simple and light!

 

Some ideas here perhaps

 

more inspiration

http://www.autocanoe.com/