Flash steam hydrofoil in UK

[sbwhart]

Came across this thought you'd like to see.



Enjoy

Stew

[bogstandard]

Very nice indeed Stew, good find.

Is there anyone here who now doubts the speed of steam?


Bogs

[sbwhart]

What amazes me is the fact that the tether and the tether being pulled through the water must be taking a lot of the energy out of the system if you look you can see a whurl pool being created in the water. I just wonder what those beast could do running free.

Stew

[GrahamC]

That is cool.

However, as the title at the beginning of the video states, it is a Hydroplane not a Hydrofoil.

rather than try and explain the difference,

here for hydrofoil:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofoil

here for hydroplane: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroplane

If you want to see some other really neat vehicles, do a search on tether cars  or tethered cars - small IC powered cars also run round a track on a tether with the fastest classes exceeding 200mph.

Incidentally, the tethered boat in the video is not dragging it's tether through the water, it will held above the water by the pole around which it rotates and it's connection the boat. If it was dragging in the water it would tend to drag the boat into the center of the circle.

cheers, Graham in Ottawa

[Stilldrillin]

Not steam, of course..... But this little thing shifts!  

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David D

[dsquire]

Stew

Are you sure that this is powered by steam. It appears to me that at about the 27 second mark there is a rapid movement like someone pulling a starter cord and then the engine noise starts. That is exactly the way my Radio Control .61 Merco water cooled used to sound when I started it 35 years ago. either I am missing something or someone is trying to pull a funny one on us as I didn't realize that Steam engines required a pull start to get them going.

Cheers 

Don

[sbwhart]

Hi Don

This is where I picked the link up from, http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=34163

they claim it to be flash steam, see no reason to doubt it.

Enjoy the link

Stew

[dsquire]

Stew

I went to the site and this is what I found. I don't entirely understand it but this is how he explained the starting procedure so I guess that I learned something today .

"This is my procedure for a flash steam hydro run.

 Warm up on the bench, check water and fuel, fit starter cord, make sure bridle wires are clear, wade out and fasten to attachment wire, fasten bungee to front sponson hook, bungee and hydro supported by helper while I pressurise burner, when hot enough close steam release valve, pump water to generator till you feel pressure then pull starter cord.

When engine starts helper steps back and I load the engine with the propeller in the water, as the power builds you give a push to the boat and pray.

Speed builds up on every lap, when I think it’s fast enough my hand goes up for 5 100 metre timed laps.

It was going very fast and did over 107 mph but if timed 2 laps earlier 113 mph plus would have been achieved.

Checking video of run with stopwatch 2 laps before timed laps verified 113mph speed. The flash steam record is 120+mph held by Bob Kirtley. See him go on a fast run and my hydro seems slow.

Timing is done by 3 stopwatches and the average taken.

H/S is an issue we take very seriously e.g. all bridle wires can only be bought from one source and are tested, there are rules for the various classes.

Hope this rekindles interest in a very old side of Model Power Boat Racing."

Cheers 

Don

[sbwhart]

Hi Don

That makes sense, what you could see was him giving the start cord a pull  , its amazing that they are getting 100mph plus out of them things. 

Pleased you found the  link interesting.

Have fun

Stew