When we lightened up Ted Toleman's 38' wooden Cougar cat to set the 122mph world UIM record at Windermere, with Arnesons, it was impossible to slow the boat with it trimmed for top speed. When you backed off the throttles, it felt like the throttles were hooked to the boat. When you pulled them back, the nose came up (Waaaay up), and when you pused them forward, it went back down. Only way to slow down was to trim the drives down and/or give it some tab. Had they blown an engine or whatever, they would would have had a face full of splinters or worse.

Brownie:

Was that before or after World War II?......Isn't getting old a drag?

T2x

Brownie...Part 2:

By the way Darren has the actual record certificate from that run you mention....... Smitty gave it to him.

Happy Thanksgiving buddy.

T2x............... still breathing after all those beers

What were we talking about? Oh, yeah! Happy turkey to you and Darren.

I could definitely be wrong (and it wouldn't be the first time).

I wasn't at the kilos or the race, and I have only seen the video one time. I thought there was mention of a crab pot being snagged by the boat, and I thought the TNN production showed the cage.

I think in any event, the boat behaved uncharacterically, and once the angle of attack of the wide tunnel increased, recovery would have been very difficult. I'm not sure what caused the initial nose lift, but it seemed to be pretty sudden from what I remember of the video. Not exactly sure how to stop a 12 foot wide by 40 foot long wing, but from what you and Brownie describe, the throttleman may have had the right idea by pegging the throttles and attempting to push it out of the lift.

Didn't one of the other wide 40 footers flip during practice the summer before?

Sam.....guilty of not believing my eyes or my ears.

Backing off the throttles shouldn't change the air in the tunnel dramatically. Certainly, it shouldn't increase pressure forward.

Perhaps the props were creating a good deal of stern lift that helped fly the tunnel level. When throttle decreased (if it did) lift would quickly decrease giving the sensation that the bow was lifting. If you require that much lift from the props to fly the tunnel level the setup is dangerous...

Crab nets should not be a problem at LOTO. I think the W.P. had them all removed.

T2x, Who was the crazy throttleman that climbed out on the bow of the boat to tape down a loose hatch with duct tape with out slowing down. If you recall it was the first race that this boat and crew ever won. I have a feeling that you will remember it because you were the one in the chopper over head filiming the whole thing. Otto

To me the words "crazy" and "throttleman" are redundant.

T2x

I think the other Cat that flipped was Pat Patel's boat. I heard it was their first time out in the boat and that the switch for the tunnel tab was put in backwards. At least that's what I remember hearing about the incident.