mmb

This thread is beyond hilarious!!! I guess modern technology has no role in today’s boats.... Just hoped up old fishing boats with steps WOW

Keith Atlanta

Is this why I have a strange obsession to put a tuna tower on my boat?

bluellama

Nobody was talking about the role technology has in today's boats. We were having a great discussion about whether old racers like DA, Jim Wynne, Brownie and the rest of the pioneers, who stuffed the biggest engines they could into proven OFFSHORE hulls, had a bigger influence on today's go fast boats than the square grouper fishermen of later years.....

Interceptor

But those offshore fishermen spend a lot more time offshore in wave conditions we only B.S. about being in.

HabanaJoe

For you doubters out there read this story http://www.americancustomyachts.com/...-edge-2009.pdf that has a man in it like Don Aronow but earlier in the evolution of offshore named Jim Smith whose ideas from fishing went directly into performance boating.

I will recant and say sportfishing and offshore racing feed each other in the early days, technology was swapped shared etc for the good of evolving the boats that were selling. Remember early on there was no market for performance boats other than little lake type boats, offshore was not a sport in the 50's. Read how Dick Bertram, Sam Griffin were in awe as the lost 8 straight what was called a "Bimini Start" or today a shotgun start to a larger boat built by Smith in their 31' Bertram.

So before you fall off your chair laughing, technology was pushed in fishing boats before it was in offshore pleasure boats.

Can some one tell me of a boat construction technology that was first used in an offshore boat before it was used in any other type of boat? I think you will find carbon fiber and a bunch of things like that came from sailboats first, but I could be wrong?

Interceptor

I's consider the sterndrive as probably one of the worst designs for power transmission available.

pullmytrigger

That is debatable and I never said it was the best, But you cant argue with the numbers.

Keith Atlanta

Thats true, but not exactly correct. They are carbon fiber hulls, but Americas Cup boats use Nomex as the core. You would never think of using Nomex in our hulls - its hygroscopic. It actually absorbs moisture.

A lot of enthusiasts buy former "cup" boats only to have a slower and slower boat after the years. Its no surprise "cup" boats actually get SIGNIFICANTLY heavier year after year since the Nomex absorbs water and moisture. Aircraft control surfaces and trailing edges do the same thing.

Its a good example... but kinda not a good example technically.

HabanaJoe

From efficiency sense yes but from a practical matter it was one of the best innovations until this generation of high Hp outboard came along for being able to get performance from any larger hull. The ability to trim the boat has had a greater effect on the speeds at which boats can go I bet than any other single product. Until then you could only ever trim the bow of a large boat that had inboards down - you now could raise the bow lifting the boat out of the water and keep the line of thrust parallel to the surface - huge leap forward.

HabanaJoe

Agreed, but you know my point and that is there is not enough money spent on high performance pleasure boats to drive "lots" of innovations hence they are borrowed from elsewhere.

Look at safety after the crashes at Key West last year (RIP) how much money has been sunk into preventing that in the future, who is researching better canopies or pods - offshore takes technology from other venues and evolves it into whatever it needs it to be, I would still bet very little "new" anything is pioneered in this sport for either high performance pleasure or racing?

ps - here is the larger problem it's 1:00 pm on a great Saturday, I just came home from one son's batting practice, have a double header starting at 4 today and I'm not out on the water!!!! That is really the problem who cares what came first or last - enjoy it while you can! I spent yesterday in the hospital with my father, who failed his stress test with a major blockage and then had to do the stint thing right away - life is short enjoy it now!!!