MrSneakAttack

a little off track but we all know the speeds "pleasure" cats are running these day and its like every monday morning in the summer i check the oso forum for that dreadful crash that happened over the weekend with 6 passengers in the boat. these boats are faster and lighter than ever and the law of average says that a crash can and will happen...i understand a crash can happen to anyone/boat at anytime. but at the end of the day are you really surprised that a cat blew over in a boat race. it is truly sad for the boating community family and friends of these two guys that have done so much for the sport...RIP

Smarty

Here it is the video you were referring to of the Cat Can Do boat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W_MslE5ntE

PhantomChaos

No.....this one.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LQYv_NSlZU[/YOUTUBE]

iamjoe

To the contrary Sneak........... Exactly on track; in my opinion, the big, fast pleasure Cats are more at risk than the racers. I would think that the racers have more experience at going at full throttle in varying conditions for longer times than the recreational guy; which would explain why blow-overs are not that common in racing while it is a lot more common in the recreational side.

iamjoe

Smarty- this vid is the perfect illustration of what I'm describing. The boat reaches the point of no return, and its all over. A tunnel flap would deploy just before the angle of no return and then retract as the boat comes back to less of an angle...............

RunninHotRacing163.1

cool would'nt download for me either on the post



ROCK ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ITS A SKATER NATION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RunninHotRacing163.1

and where are all these recreational blow-overs taking place ????





ROCK ON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ITS A SKATER NATION !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Smarty

The idea has merit and utilility. Get a programmer and get to work. I would think at the 24 second mark of the video (point of no return begins at the 25 second mark) would be that point which you point out (in the Cat Can Do video).

iamjoe

RHR- Seriously? Well lets see; in this thread alone there are 4 videos, 2 of which occured within the last year in which 4 people were killed. I don't know if the "cat can do" people were hurt but they and the other did blow over. In terms of the recreational side, I know that there have been other incidents involving other air entrapment hulls including dozens of tunnel boats and many other non-offshore sport boats. I personally have wittnessed two- one was a 23 eliminator with outboards and one was a tunnel jet; both happened a long time ago.

I'm not saying, nor have I said that this is a common occurance.
The point is not if these are common incidents. The idea is to reduce the risk of this happening, before it happens. Whats the old saying; "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". There is no reason to limit the device to offshore race boats or giant recreational boats. This idea is adaptable to any boat that packs air.

Or I guess the other option is to think nothing can be done to improve saftey while we sit on our recliners and drink our beer. If that was the approach that everyone took, you and I wouldn't be belting ourselves into our cars when we drive them or have the protection of the crush zones that are engineered into our cars.

RickSE

Why not put blow out panels in the center of the boat? When the boat stands up the air pressure on the bottom of the hull significantly increases, the panels blow out and take a way surface area, possibily allowing the bow to drop back down. Top fuel cars have been running blow out pannels years over 300-MPH.

My concern with capsuls is that a small 2-man capsul may not have time to get out from under a 10-15K lb hull in a nose over roll. The capsul is gonna have to be really stout if the hull comes down on top of it. The drag boat capsuls work because they get away from the hull quick. The small drag boat hulls break up pretty easy and don't have as much mass as an offshore hull. I'm sure it can be done though.