Expensive programs are great, but first just calculate the forces involved and workout the protective shell/pod, this is not hard,

while trying to keep a “small” as possible exposed load area and NOT a Damn Room sized sans the friggin couch cockpit! Then take your sample (processed) laminate coupons to the lab for testing, you should be safe if the numbers are in the ball park with your workup.

3000 psi?!! That is incredible!

I'm not saying autoclaves are a waste. They are not. I'm just not a 100% convinced over the cost/benefit ratio? But I'm certainly not an expert in composites.

What about forged composites?

Forged? I prefer longer fibers for the obvious.

I know, and you are probably right. But forged composites are becoming more popular. Usually in high volume applications though.

After reading some off the Class 1 rulebook for cockpit structures, I see they have to have some sort of an indent for rescuers use when in need of a crowbar. That seems to be a big problem, hinges that get bent and do not open, if they stay on at all. In the video of the Victory crash, it looked like the first diver on top of the boat tried the bottom hatch but could not get it open. Did I see that right? He then grabbed his fins and went under. Wouldn't the crow bar indent be just another spot for water to work its way in? Also, the Victory canopy hatch snapped in half, with the one part wedged into the seat back......I don't know how they even got them out.

Your right about Big Thunder. The boat hit at the worst possible angle upside down going backwards and the canopy as designed didn't stand a chance of surviving. Unfortunately neither did Bob or JT. My company has a 12X 32 foot auto clave and a 10X 20 router to build composite parts and tooling and a test lab. We build aerospace stuff but after Bobs death I think it would be OK to build a kick butt safety pod . I also have on staff in engineering the 2010 Alcohol Hydro world champion drag boat racer Joel Weber. His boat owner Bob won this year and Joel took second last week at the worlds. Its a two boat drag race team. We were both great friends with Bob Morgan and mourn his loss as well as JT and Joey. If you guys want to get together as well as some boat manufactures we can take safety to the next level. We have given out some good advice over the last couple of years and in addition to John at Mystic I think Randy at MTI as made some great safety improvements on his own on his last two 48 MTIs . I'm confident that we could build a safety pod that would meet the needs of the boats faster speeds of today. As you may know we already build windows and I raced supper boat with Bob for three years and understand what racers and boats go through. We are a business however and manufacturing of the safety pods will need to be paid for. If anybody wants one lets get together and start working on it.

I had a conversation with Doug Wright today regarding a new design in canopy construction. He has some very good ideas on a pod system. That conversation led to a another about liability. As said many times before, a canopy can be designed to be thought strong enough but there is no real way to test it in every possible situation that could occur while boating. Adding a pod to any existing boat would rely solely on a mechanical bond. If it were to fail, who would carry the responsibility, the pod manufacturer or the installer?

its good to see people actually trying to make something positive out of this great lost.

just wonder about the pod. it dawned on me a few years back that some of the major teams racing today viewed canopy safety from the deck line up. one of the first things i noticed was that the side walls and front and rear bulkheads were built extrememly light. and in some of these boats the side walls sat on a flat piece that extended the floor over the tunnel with no support. so in an impact the force would distribute threw the canopy, down to the deck and down too these "structural panels". the same can be said about the fiberglass roll bars that don't actually make a "hoop", like in race car design. most of the FRP roll bars make reverse curves under the deck and just stop there.

so will these pods be built as seperate, stand alone structures ?

and also what are the ratios from using an autoclave vs glass inpregnator and vacuum bagging?

are we talking 10-30% increase or 2-4 times the strenght ?

is that comparing the same laminate thickness and what would be the difference in materials ? i assume that with an autoclave you would use Pre-Preg laminates and cores that could with stand an autoclave ?

can a chromo-moly roll bar system work with FRP canopy design ?

Technology can always help...

Example... Choose which car you want in a frontal offset crash. 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air VS. 2009 Chevrolet Malibu

And the tale of the tape...

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g[/YOUTUBE]

Good to see you jumped on Dave. I would think a single standardized canopy would be the way to go. Sort of a drop in piece that could be used with maybe a mold insert or set of guidelines for use. I understand the liability issue brought earlier but I think it's largely understood that we use these things at our own risk. New race boats are always being built, how is liability being handled now?

I try to crawl through every boat I can and you are spot on with the observation that much of the safety is from the deck up. The 30 AMT that I raced with Dean was wafer thin all around with very little as far as actual protection in fact I use to joke that if we ever really blew it apart at least there wouldn't be anything heavy hitting us. DW has made light years of progress since those boats (incidentally ours was not built by Doug, not sure who did it)

Steve will have to chime in but the increase in strength from bagged to Autoclave is many times greater.