Question for experienced Cat drivers
 

After viewing the Outerlimits video it really shows the beginning of the blowover in detail.

I hope all is well with the men involved in the accident and that no more of these accidents happen the rest of the trials.and I don't want to seem cold hearted at all . I am not assuming by any means there was operating error.I am very familiar with how quickly a small quick change of wind can affect you much more when you are traveling at these speeds .

I assume that the beginning of any nose up condition is taken much more seriously than in a Vee bottom because of the increased lift.

It appears that there was about 1 and 1/2 seconds before the nose started to climb and the beginning of the flip began.

My question is can you feel this change in attitude quick enough to get out of the throttles and if you did chop the throttles would it make any difference once the boat has gotten beyond 20 to 30 degrees. It appears once past 30 degrees the flip progresses very quickly.

if any one takes offense to this thread mods please remove it.

you can definitely feel them start to rise (at least in my experience in smaller cats) but at that point and speed its no longer about reaction, its pure physics. When the nose starts to rise its not only being blow back (or slowed actually) by the increase in frontal area but the mass of everything in the bilge continues forward and kind of "flicks" the boat (for lack of a better term)

That makes total sense Dave I left out that part of the Equation of all the weight from the motors being the controlling inertia..when i was thinking about the flip.

I guess you have a 1/2 a second at best when the attitude changes 5 or 10 degrees to chop the throttles to save it?

Would chopping them at that early point make any difference ? Or even at that low level of attack is there simply to much air already in the tunnel that the drag of the decelerated props would have no effect?

Slamming the throttles forward, the torque pushes the bow down.
If a boat it running opened up and trimmed out with no throttle left, there is nothing left to do. If you pull back on the throttles you lose the torque that is pushing you forward and you kite.

never thought of it that way Gino.

So chopping the throttles will just speed up the climb of the bow and the drag of the props have no effect what soever.

Interesting this is why I am asking about cats from you guys that know and run em

Very informative conversation. Thanks for exposing aspects that might not have been considered.

from a fixed frame of reference it visually looks like the nose of a boat is being blown back but at the moment or point of no return in a moving frame of reference i think you'd find the nose of the boat is doing (for arguments sake) 165 and dropping while the stern comes underneath at say 175 with disproportionate deceleration.

just my .02 cents . . . .

Remember having that exact discussion with Brownie a few years back. Sure takes some serious practice and training to get yourself to do that...

Holy Crap I can barely wrap my head around what you are trying to describe Dave.

From here on out no more watching old Two and a Half Men reruns and start watching more Big Bang:D

[QUOTE=glassdave;4176587]

Dave modified your post so I could understand it a little clearer . Is this correct?


from a fixed frame of reference it visually looks like the nose of a boat is being blown back but at the moment or point of no return in a moving frame of reference i think you'd find the nose of the boat is doing 165 and slowing while the stern comes underneath at say 175 with
disproportionate deceleration.because the bulk of the inertia is contained in the stern of the boat.