Devil's Lake Kilos

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Capsule Flatbottoms

Tony,

I'm glad to hear that you are going to capsules in both the SS and the K. After watching your very scary accident in Bakersfield and seeing the number of drivers that have been lost in non-capsuled flatbottoms, I applaud you for taking the initiative to go in this direction.

It will no doubt be a tough sell to get all the present flatbottom drivers in enclosed boats, but as a person in the safety biz (and a member of the APBA Safety Committee) I believe it's a necessary step. No doubt there will be some people who will oppose it and those who will leave the sport if it becomes a requirement. I've noticed big drops in both PRO Outboard and Inboard Hydro class participation when capsules or reinforced cockpits became mandatory, and in both cases I believe we see the numbers starting to come back. At the end of the day, it is worth a temporary decline if in the long run we stop killing racers on an all-too-regular basis. Just one death is too many.

It was great to meet you last weekend, and best of luck in December.

Regards,

Patrick Gleason
R-19

[Loud and Proud]

Tony,

I'm glad to hear that you are going to capsules in both the SS and the K. After watching your very scary accident in Bakersfield and seeing the number of drivers that have been lost in non-capsuled flatbottoms, I applaud you for taking the initiative to go in this direction.

It will no doubt be a tough sell to get all the present flatbottom drivers in enclosed boats, but as a person in the safety biz (and a member of the APBA Safety Committee) I believe it's a necessary step. No doubt there will be some people who will oppose it and those who will leave the sport if it becomes a requirement. I've noticed big drops in both PRO Outboard and Inboard Hydro class participation when capsules or reinforced cockpits became mandatory, and in both cases I believe we see the numbers starting to come back. At the end of the day, it is worth a temporary decline if in the long run we stop killing racers on an all-too-regular basis. Just one death is too many.

It was great to meet you last weekend, and best of luck in December.

Regards,

Patrick Gleason
R-19

Patrick,

thank you for the post. When we lost Stevie Smith a couple weeks ago, I told Jeff Brochheuser that I wanted to move toward the capsule SS and he was right there with me. The Kilos are a different animal and I told him I feel comfortable running alone in a straight line in an open boat since my background was dragboats. Jeff has made the commitment that the open boat will only be a Kilo boat or a fun river boat. He has since sent the capsule boat out to be glassed and prepped to run. We will have it in Parker and the Kilos. I have driven open Ks and now capsule Ks and the capsuled ones give you a sense of security like no other. You are not constantly trying to keep yourself in the boat. You are correct about people going to fight the capsules and that is just the way it is. They will find whatever reason to avoid putting one in and I understand it to a degree.
My crash in Bakersfield would have been much less severe in a capsule and I can say that whole heartedly. It was great meeting all of you guys in Oregon and I want to thank the Hopps Team for aloowing us the use of their engine picker on Sat and Sunday.

[Jerkizoid]

Dearest Tony:

You are such a schmuckenheinie, but lovable at times! congradulations

[jeff55v]

Wartinger's boat?

Did anybody get a picture of Bob Wartinger's OSY boat? I sure would like to see it. The last pic of his I saw was his "Blue earth dragon" in the Propeller mag. about 10 years ago. (Or was it called "RARE earth dragon"?...I forgot)
Thanks.

[ram95]

Awww c'monn guys..say it aint true. Admit it! There's a 66in 6cylinder dockbuster behind the #1 sign on the ron jones 144volt rocket. Elmer... errr ahh Mr Kiekhaefer... SIR ... are you hearing this? Ohhh nooo OHHH NOOOO. And those of you out there who thought we might be threatened by FOUR STROKES.... zzzzzzzzzzaPPPPP! Anybody got a spare 50 amp phuuuuuuzz?? Oh this is terrible. This really sums it all up.

PLUG-N-PLAY.... even the tree-huggers are gonna love this.

Ohh yeah... and it's so so quiet out there.... just a freakin humm!!

GIMME SOME NOISE!!! THANK YOU!

Alex, the Mad Russian, 12A (noisey tohatsu)

[WillieCrear]

Did anybody get a picture of Bob Wartinger's OSY boat?

The first shot, in the shade of the early morning light, is the OSY powered boat.

The second shot is the Rossi/125cc powered hull doing a little sunbathing to get the early morning frost off the Lexan. I was impressed with the effort in both these hulls to give maximum forward viewing for the skipper.

They are both Sorensen hulls; that's Darrell in the first pic standing at the Port quarter of the OSY.

[jeff55v]

YouTube video found!

I bumped into this video online.
Michael Bontoft makes kilo run of 98.253MPH 2 way average for APBA record in battery powered Hydro!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76e19SxVzXE

As I was watching it, I kept turning up the volume. Then I realized it's an electric. *DOH*

Awesome!

[crfabbro2F]

Not bad for some RC boats guys!

[Geezeracer]

Quoting Tony:
"I'm positive Willy would have loved both electric records, totally cool."

No Kidding!...He'd have lashed himself to the motor for the run too. Will still got to ride along with Freddie in his last kilo project though, wearing his "aluminum kevlars".

Thanks to Mike and Denise Johnson for the Picture I was able to flip and modify for the coming UIM certificate.

John