Canopy performance
 

We have all seen the results of having a canopy on fast boats. Some good, some bad. This comment from Tim caught my eye, and I do not follow it. Pressure? Seems like the pressure was from water coming in and seeking an exit, which doesn't sound good to me. Someone want to elaborate?

Once the canopy is breached in any way water enters, under usually very high pressure. The canopy is stronger than it's occupants so they can easily be crushed until the pressure drops either from the boat stopping or an exit for the pressure forming (another canopy breach).

Steve

Makes sense when you put it that way, thanks!

I would think one would not want the canopy to breach. If you have seen the piks of victory, the canopy breached with fatal results. Not pressure but parts of the canopy taking out the occupants. In my mind, I see a smaller canopy working better. If you have a canopy on a 200+ mph boat, its a race boat not a pleasure boat. It does not need back seats, a back window and a second big hatch on top for passengers. I envision an overbuilt carbon kevlar egg that is placed into the boat, not a cockpit with a roof built onto the deck mold. This way the boat can break apart but the capsule remains intact.

That's the way it should be lets just thank God that they survived and live hopefully make changes to the boats that are trying to go this fast.

I would tend to agree. At those speeds to much can happen to fast. Adding passengers to the mix is a recipe for disaster. And yeah, I am sure the "they made the choice to go for that ride" gang will jump me for this, but the passengers have no choice once in the boat but to sit back and watch someone make a mistake. If you want to go that fast in your boat, leave the passenger seats out, and build a two man capsule for you and your throttle man...

Something along the lines of what drag boats use? Of course that would be very tight and race only.

scotty i think it time to address the elephant in the room, these big cats are ground effect aircraft relying on compression lift by trapping air in the tunnel to lift the hull yet we have no aerodynamic control systems to control pitch or attitude, as far as canopys go to blow those windows out compressed water is an explosive force (the water does not compress but the air inside will) momentary yes but can do increadable damage to structures and humans check out some of the russian ground effect aircraft there huge and pretty wild and fly just a few feet above the water. there is a neat VW commercial that shows a suicide bomber pulling up to a cafe in a new bug and detonating himself theres a flash but nothing happens outside the car bragging on how strong their cabin is we also have to keep that in mind as how to relieve sudden pressure inside the canopy system its going to take some thinking and engineering but it is possable to reduce blowovers and make these boats safer drag boats went thru this soul searching when they were losing an alarming amout of drivers and they came up with the capsul system that has drasticaly made their sport safer we can do it too

Im just not getting where this sudden pressure spike is comming from.... If the canopy remains intact and doesn't seriously deform, where is this pressure comming from???

As for the back seat, I wasn;t taking about taking a couple extra passengers for a 200 mph boat ride, Im talking about the extra space and the big breachable hole in the top above those back seats, not to mention the big flat bulkhead behind the back seat. Ifyou want to talk about water pressure from a wipeout, a big flat bulkhead is not what you want to combat it.

A smaller structure is stronger given the same thickness of material, A round structure will see less psi then a flat one. The canopy is there to protect the occupants, if it breaches allowing a pressure spike it is not doing its job, If it fractures sending shrapnel at the occupants it is not doing its job,

9actually Rob a big flat bulkhead is what you want but within the egg structure of the canopy. I have to confess I cringe at the thought of four seat boat going these speeds. We tend to hope whatever canopy we design stays together but in the event of catastrophic hatch, windscreen or full canopy failure its imparitive that theres a full bulkhead behind the driver. Your body can take a tremendous amount of compression (ask me how I know) but what you cannot take is hyper extension. I tell ya I just cringe when I see these canopies all open inside with these big dual hatches on top.