Big wreck on the water (pics)

[daviss]

I had a little accident on the water a while back. This is what happens to fiberglass when it hits concrete at 40+ mph. Enjoy

 

[83hurstguy]

ouch! nitro boat? Looks like fun

 

[daviss]

Yeah it's nitro. Lost radio signal in the middle of a pass and hit the inlet structure. A foot to the right and it would have sailed right up on the grassy bank and been fine. Just my luck.

 

[83hurstguy]

That sucks!

I have a traxxas blast from back in my h.s. days... I just bought a chameleon 2 19T for it for dirt cheap, and I already have an upgraded ESC laying around, so I'm gonna see how it does this summer. I'll probably have to buy batteries too. I had to run an electric on the lake by our house at the time...

I keep thinking about a new one (either brushless or nitro), but I don't use it enough to justify the cost...

 

[Vector]

Zoom, BANG!
(now, when you fix it, you can re-paint it to a GN theme.)

 

[TexasT]

I used to have a customer that was into racing those. He had a bunch of them.

Ernie LaFluer was his name, maybe you know him.

 

[daviss]

Enough Nitro hydroplanes for me. I think I'll move up to a big v-hull with a two-stroke. The hydro, while a blast to drive, only turns one diection and if there is ever engine trouble or if it dies in the water, it SINKS. Had to swim after it many times.

A new hull for this one is about $150. I might fix it, or I might pull the insides out and build something else. Motor runs great. Maybe I'll just buy a new t-maxx and stay dry.

Hope you enjoyed my misfortune, I did. I laughed the whole time, even while I was running after it to keep it from sinking.

Steve

 

[turbofabricator]

You should see what happens with the REAL hydros. It's messy! I use to crew on the Miss Budweiser piston boat. 2,240 cid, 4800+hp. 130 in./hg boost (approx. 60 psi) We would go through 65 gallons of 115/145 av gas with an addative, and 150lbs. of nitrous in about 5-6 minutes. When they hit something at 220+ mph., it got ugly. Blow-overs were deadly. In 1985 we built the first enclosed cockpit boat. Since then, there have not been any fatalities in Unlimited Hydroplane racing. It was very difficult to overcome the engineering issues accociated with the enclosed cockpit. How do you supply air to the driver? How do you seal the cockpit? How do you get the driver out? What kind of restraint system? What kind of cockpit/driver cooling? How do you latch the canopy? and on and on..........

Nice looking boat.

 

[daviss]

I've only seen full size hydro carnage on tape, but I'm sure it is an awesome site. If you had a hand in developing the sealed cockpit for these boats, I'm sure there are many drivers/pilots that owe you much gratitude.

 

[turbofabricator]

I've only seen full size hydro carnage on tape, but I'm sure it is an awesome site. If you had a hand in developing the sealed cockpit for these boats, I'm sure there are many drivers/pilots that owe you much gratitude.

It was definately a group effort. I do feel good that it "probably" saved 10-15 people lives. Even if I was just a small part of it. We had to sit around the hull and brainstorm solutions to VAST problems. Just keeping an ample air supply to the driver if he ended up at the bottom of a lake was difficult(some lakes we raced on still have boats sitting at the bottom because they are too deep to recover them, some over 300ft. deep. The new carbon hulls will float for the most part.
Here is one of the Griffon (Rolls-Royce) Buds, Incidentially the driver in this video was killed in that boat Dean Chenowith. His widow (Jenny) was the crew chiefs sister when I crewed. She FREAKED out when the boat caught fire on it's maiden voyage/test. The new 65 gallon fuel cell had a defective fuel cap, and leaked fuel inside the hull. When Jim Kropfeld tried to start it, it fired and pulled away from the dock about 30ft., then died. When he attempted to restart it, it BLEW the deck off the boat, and caught fire. (parts were raining down on everyone and the media/news crews there to record the test session) He was un familiar with the fire suppression system on the new boat (carbon fiber/enclosed cockpit) and couldn't get the halon system to discharge. He realized after a few moments that the boat was on fire and opened the cockpit and climbed out. Harbor patrol put the fire out right after he jumped into the VERY cold lake. We were all standing on the dock, in the POURING rain, yelling at the driver to get out of the boat. There was a good fire raging 1" away from 60+ gallons of 115/145 av gas, and about 4 ft. from 150lbs of N2O The crew chiefs sister had recently lost her husband and wasn't any too happy to watch this event unfold in front of her. Good people, the crew chief (Jeff Neff) and his family.: YouTube - Griffon Miss Budweiser Unlimited Hydroplane Gotta LOVE those 2,240 cid V-12's
Here's a tribute to Dean: YouTube - Dean Chenoweth Tribute - www.hydros.us
. YouTube - Hydroplanes 1983 - visit www.hydros.us Here's the old cool stuff:

 

[daviss]

That's good stuff.