Hickman Sea Sled Information

It's some fascinating reading.

 

Man, that Swift Swoose must the most suicidally inept design since the sea knife.

 

Years ago i saw a a story about a 13ft sea sled that won some sort of offshore powerboat race back in Hickmans day, but after spending hours perusing the internet i have not been able to find it so i was hoping someone on here can point me in the right direction. I do have the lines drawing and offsets for a newer 1945 version with the anti trip chines which i obtained from Mystic years ago that i am looking to modify a bit to make a suitable yacht tender. I would actually prefer to find the design for something more like 10.5ft x 4.5 - 5ft that i could use without modification but have not found anything thus far.

 

Hi @Steve W . I don't know of anything that small. @baeckmo discussed the difficulty in modeling a small sled for the towing tank because the low reynolds and froude number really change how it all behaves. Maybe a ten foot boat would be large enough to avoid those issues, but maybe not. I'm barely an amateur fluid dynamics guy. My opinion there is worthless. On the plus side, that's a tiny boat. Quick and cheap to make a prototype.

Now that I've disengaged the wood-butcher hemisphere of my geranium I recall something about a fellow making a ten foot version of the TX-18. @fallguy will know more about it.

 

Right. Took a look. The GV10 From boat builder central does what you want. They also sell the TX18 plans. With a set of each a clever fellow should be able to get where you want to go.

 

Thanks Dog, as i said, i actually have a set of actual Hickman lines drawings for the 13ft sled at 1 1/2": ft as well as the table of offsets. This model has the no trip chines and i also have an older version of just the table of offsets and body plan of the same boat but without the no trip chines. I believe that this is the model that won the race i mentioned. I have come across pictures of a dinghy size sled that was built by the Knapps, it looks smaller than the drawings i have so it would be nice to find those drawings. I will probably try to reduce the drawings i have and see what that looks like.

 

Ok, so i did find the article on the 13 ft sea sled named Corker which won the race i mentioned. It was from Boston to Manhattan in 1928, a distance of 260 miles. Corker was a standard 13ft model built by Knapp. She has apparently been restored recently. I would really like to find out details of what hp outboard she ran and what sort of speeds she ran at if anyone has this info. I also saw a photo of another 13ft sled towing 3 people on some kind of boogie boards, not water skis, and the outboard does not look large by today's standards.

 

That's very cool @Steve W .

 

@Steve W most outboards prior to 1986 were HP rated at the crankshaft, whilst since then they have been rated at the propshaft after all those power sucking devices like bevel gears, displacement water pump and various seals.

The 70hp Evinrude went to 60hp overnight, and the 2hp didn't get a number, just a title, "Junior". The old ones weren't very honest about what they put on the lid.

 

Has anyone built or attempted to build a catamaran with inverted V hulls? The Hickman design had narrow beam compared to length. I'm contemplating two narrow inverted V hulls for a cat. Any thoughts?

 

Why?

They can be flat bottomed and get free displacement. Start a new thread if you want it discussed.

 

An interesting experiment. The sea sled bottom pushes less water out to the sides than regular V hulls. It generates much less surface wave wake, so maybe interference between the hulls would be less.

Never heard of it being done. Go man go! Tell us all how it works out.

 

Scroll down, waaaaay down, the text is one thing but the videos are telling:
And Now For Something Different, Sea Sled Brochure – Classic Boats | Woody Boater https://www.woodyboater.com/classic-boat-art/and-now-for-something-different-sea-sled-brochure/

 

Is there any drawings of these Sleds? They look like a catamaran at the bows but couldn't see anywhere else underneath.

 

Start at the beginning of this thread. There's lots.