I know that Nigel Hook experimented with water pickups and found speed in his Lucas race boat. In his case, he not only trimmed them way down to get to the right water pressure, but he also moved it to the bottom of the rudder (of course not many boats have a rudder). It was found that the pickup in front of the drives was also aerating the water causing just the slightest amount of additional slip. I am not surprised it made a difference in the Cigarette. Drag has a multiplying effect as speed increases, so a tiny change at big speeds can make a huge difference on the top end (just like planes and cars). Just think how much investment would need to be made in power to pick up that kind of speed.

Great post.... to a well crafted article. Thanks

[QUOTE=HabanaJoe;3858896]Your question was "what do you think?"
2) the people at Cigarette at that time had no experience rigging boats, have no history of how to install the simpliest of things like pick-up tubes and as manufactures of fast boat they are not very good at making them go as fast as they can

Agreed....but, I dont think Cigarette actually ever claimed to make fast boats. Stylish and sexy claims? yes. Now if Reggie worked there...that would be a different story!

[QUOTE=kreed;3858938]You have a point, I stand corrected :)

One more point, if we all concede the 1 1/5" made a 12 mph increase. If you wanted a great marketing peice and you know the tubes make a tremenedous difference, Phil being a very smart guy (he really is a smart guy) would have a customers boat shipped to him with uncut pick-ups and being the dealer he is, would take the boat out, run it and get every ounce of speed he can get from it for his customer - because he is a good dealer that goes the extra mile for his customers!

When we tested at the old Lake X we found about 8 mph with the speedo pick up removed on our 32' Skater. :ernaehrung004: I cant tell you how many wins that may have cost us against the AGITATOR. :party-smiley-004:

We just never put one on Wits End :whistle: :lolhit:

[QUOTE=HabanaJoe;3858940]Agreed about Phil. And not for nothing, as a Cig owner, it would be nice to have Cigarette be able to make some speed claims....Theyve done a nice job with rigging, bling, and such....they need a speedster!

How to some people 100+ MPH boats are no longer speedsters is strange to me. I know what you're referring to but it just came off strange to me.

good info! as i redo my old ill play with the pickups.

didnt cig make a kelo run with a maxmis hull? it fell a few short but the bottom was a true cig V no pad?

also i dont think the guys who set out to buy a cig are looking to be the fastes. its style, ride and the name.

I don't think it was a Maximus hull. Iirc I read skater suggested a pad and cig insisted on a true v. And it was too sketchy over 150 or so? I may be completely wrong I've inhaled a lot of dust lately.