Dirty Laundry!!

[propnuts]

Tony ... is this an inside joke or do you really mean what you said?


If so, then I guess both of us are in this very special club.

It was sort of a musical reference, but I was also serious. We raced at Bridgeprot this weekend and had probably over 100 people there, of those 5 or so have ever posted on here, and another 5 may read stuff here. That means tells me that around 90% of the folks in and around boat racing just want to go racing.

[Dave M]

I Don't Know

Question? Just how strong do they want the cockpit sides anyway? So strong and stiff that when a driver goes out of the boat and hits his/hers hip on the sides that they suffer a broken hip?

I am only on the receiving end of the rules. I just build them to what is required. I imagine the ultimate goal is to have sides strong enough to stop a boat from coming through them on the outside, yet weak enough to break away when impacted from the inside.

[Al Peffley]

Reinforced Cockpits

I messed up my right rib cage at Silver Lake in Everett, WA, by spinning out and busting through the right side of my CSH Flyer after hitting a huge roller and "sticking" the right sponson after a race in 1994. My next CSH hull had the right side of my cockpit reinforced with a GrEp and nomex core panel mounted on the inside of the cockpit. I decided to reinforce the cockpit of my new boat after talking with Wartinger about a series UIM fatality accidents in 1992-3 due to overly aggressive driver moves into nearby boats during UIM races. My panel has worked out great so far (10 years of racing), especially for planting my hind end into the cockpit side to lean out and corner quickly in a tight race.

Unless you are running in Europe or the Middle/Far East on UIM courses (they use different race course layouts than most US racing organizations), stengthening the left (port) cockpit side adds weight and provides marginal safety features to the US circuit racers, in my opinion (since we always turn left on a circular course.) Since most UIM hydos are laydowns and the drivers are virtually "encased" in their cockpits, reinforcing the cockpit sides definitely adds safety for UIM drivers (they can't easily relocate themselves in their tight-fitting cockpits to avoid the hit, the cowling further restricts them, and they usually lay down really low into the belly of their hydro hulls -- see the picture of O-125 UIM racer in his laydown on the home page of this website.)

As far as the impact of negative comments on boat racing from this website,

To avoid criticism:
Do nothing;
Say nothing;
Be nothing.

This is the ONLY website in boat racing that has great forums for the "little people" in boat racing to express their varied views and ideas! True diversity in action... Thanks, Dan.

Thanks for the great thread post subject, Dave.

Regards,
Al Peffley