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My Lambertville Sidewinder BSH Ride
I would like to thank Ron Selewach and Ed Runne for giving me the oportunity to try out one of the new Sidewinders out on Sunday at Lambertville.
Here is the way it went down;
On Saturday I jokingly asked Ed if I could run it. He told me he had planned on running it on a runnabout on Sunday so it would not be available to run. Well Sunday came and one runnabout went home leaving only two boats for the class. I asked Ed again if he would let me run it and he agreed. This was about 15 minutes prior to the scheduled heats. Ed brought the engine over to my trailer and with three people the engine was rigged and completely adjusted on the boat in about 5 minutes. What a piece of cake to get it rigged! The throttle linkage is Sweeeet. The engine fired up on one pull.
Without any testing I had no clue what prop to throw on. To keep it simple we decided to put on the BSH Giles' wheel that looked to be the the smallest (I had never run it).
We put the boat in the water - the green flag went up and the engine started in the water on one pull, planned well immediately. It felt a little boggy until it got up into the approximate 5,000-6,000 RPM range and then pulled well just like my Hot Rods on top end.
We ran a total of three heats (two being one day of racing and one being one day of racing). In the first heat I was early and had to back off slightly
at the start due to being a bit early. On the run to the first turn I was a bit behind the other three Hot Rod powered but did not loose much ground by the time the engine came up in RPM's. In the turn, the engine dropped in RPM considerably when the boat came off of the air. Out of the turn it took a bit longer than my Hot Rod for the engine to start pulling strong again.
After the heat Ed leaned down the metering rod on the Electron carb one turn.
Second heat the engine came on plane better. I was able to get a lead pipe start and made it to the first turn in the front of the pack. The other boats (Febe, George S and Matt D) only had between .5 and 2 MPH on my top end. The engine, (prop?) dropped RPM again in the turn but not nearly as noticeable as in the first heat.
For the third heat Ed leaned it down another half turn. Good start - again, the engine(prop?) lost RPM in the turn, but was better than the previous two heats.
All-in-all I am very pleased with the performance of the engine. It was a pleasure to rig - my three year old grandson could do it safely. It started very well -in the water (without my new electric starter I bought for the Hot Rods). AND - it was not that far off in speed to warrant any negativity as far as eventually becoming an equally competitive or better performing engine than the Hot Rod. I 'm convinced that Ed and Ron will be able to work out the minor problems with the performance in the very near future.
I would have ordered a couple of powerheads yesterday had I not shot this year's budget on the motor home.
Thanks again Ron and Ed!
Here is the way it went down;
On Saturday I jokingly asked Ed if I could run it. He told me he had planned on running it on a runnabout on Sunday so it would not be available to run. Well Sunday came and one runnabout went home leaving only two boats for the class. I asked Ed again if he would let me run it and he agreed. This was about 15 minutes prior to the scheduled heats. Ed brought the engine over to my trailer and with three people the engine was rigged and completely adjusted on the boat in about 5 minutes. What a piece of cake to get it rigged! The throttle linkage is Sweeeet. The engine fired up on one pull.
Without any testing I had no clue what prop to throw on. To keep it simple we decided to put on the BSH Giles' wheel that looked to be the the smallest (I had never run it).
We put the boat in the water - the green flag went up and the engine started in the water on one pull, planned well immediately. It felt a little boggy until it got up into the approximate 5,000-6,000 RPM range and then pulled well just like my Hot Rods on top end.
We ran a total of three heats (two being one day of racing and one being one day of racing). In the first heat I was early and had to back off slightly
at the start due to being a bit early. On the run to the first turn I was a bit behind the other three Hot Rod powered but did not loose much ground by the time the engine came up in RPM's. In the turn, the engine dropped in RPM considerably when the boat came off of the air. Out of the turn it took a bit longer than my Hot Rod for the engine to start pulling strong again.
After the heat Ed leaned down the metering rod on the Electron carb one turn.
Second heat the engine came on plane better. I was able to get a lead pipe start and made it to the first turn in the front of the pack. The other boats (Febe, George S and Matt D) only had between .5 and 2 MPH on my top end. The engine, (prop?) dropped RPM again in the turn but not nearly as noticeable as in the first heat.
For the third heat Ed leaned it down another half turn. Good start - again, the engine(prop?) lost RPM in the turn, but was better than the previous two heats.
All-in-all I am very pleased with the performance of the engine. It was a pleasure to rig - my three year old grandson could do it safely. It started very well -in the water (without my new electric starter I bought for the Hot Rods). AND - it was not that far off in speed to warrant any negativity as far as eventually becoming an equally competitive or better performing engine than the Hot Rod. I 'm convinced that Ed and Ron will be able to work out the minor problems with the performance in the very near future.
I would have ordered a couple of powerheads yesterday had I not shot this year's budget on the motor home.
Thanks again Ron and Ed!
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