GLH

Those seas leave marks. Glad you made it out. Yahh know to contribute to the tax base!!!

Neverfastenuf

Shane, I figured you would be out sledding!!!! What gives, not enough snow out of that storm??? Sam

Shane

AHH! Sam, I WILL be out sledding Friday...I feel a cold coming on about midnight tomorrow night... how much snow out by you?

T2x

Great question.....Here's my only verifiable answer.

1992....

Ocean City, Maryland Race.... Coast Guard holds approval to start until last minute due to monstrous sea conditions..... legit 6 footers and the occasional 9 footer rolling in. A large portion of the fleet cannot get out the inlet and most spectator boats as well. Stormy windy conditions...grey sky overhead.

Top open class boat is "Spirit of Norway" 40' canopied Skater .....twin naturally aspirated engines.

Top Super Boat is "Tweet's Revenge"..... 47 foot Apache with triple engines (supercharged)....

After one lap the big Apache is in the lead....as expected
......big air....... running on the edge. Then The Norway "hooked up" ...Jim Dyke got her trimmed perfectly....and he and Kjell caught and passed the big vee on the outside leg in huge seas........

Since they were in separate classes...The Norway crew settled in and ran with the Apache for the remainder of the storm shortened race....but they made their point..... As the announcer for that race flying over head in a Jet Ranger...I had the best seat in the house to witness the advantage Dyke showed in catching up after being well over a 1/4 mile back at the start.

Now an Apache is not an OL (an Apache is better in rough water in my opinion...and OL's rarely actually race)..but no one should compare a 42 OL to a 47 Apache in rough water...... so.......... do the math.

A (good)cat is generally the equal of a 20% longer vee. I am not a fan of west coast cats.....so I'll leave them specifically out of this comparison.

T2x

T2x

Shane:

I love ya.... but every time I see that picture.... on here...I wanna gag.

Reason....... That boat (The Pennzoil)....is/was the old Black Duck Shadow (see picture below)...... After a 10 year career, during which it won multiple World and National championships in the roughest seas imaginable.... The boat caught fire in a race in Michigan....and burned the deck off while subjecting the hull laminates to horrendous heat......... The repaired boat with a new .....non monococque deck installed....not by the original builders and without benefit of any inspection by the designer, George Linder, re-emerged as the Pennzoil seen above. IMHO the boat you were in bore little structural resemblance to the boat we christened years before..........and the damage that occurred was the result of hideous abuse and patching...followed by running a boat that should have been retired or junked but definitely not raced. The damage in that photo was definitely not caused by either the water you were in nor the design of the boat.

T2x............ Remembering the boat below...which laughed at rough water.

GLH

Good description of events. Thanks.

Downtown42

Tx: makes sense to me

Neverfastenuf

T2x, thanks for the reply. Very few are able to make a factual comparison and back it up with facts. It looks as though we can draw the conclusion the Cat is the more effective boat in that scenario. Shane, we have had an awesome year so far. It turned off real warm this past week though. It is 70* in town now. The mountains still have anywhere from 7-11 feet. It has unfortunately turned into "HERO" snow, very easy to ride on, no challange whatsoever. Should have a few more 2-3 foot dumps before the end of the year. Sam

T2x

Simply send your donations to the T2x School of Narrative....... Coed scholarship fund.... P O box 999
Loosacannon, Calif.

T2x

Sandisk

Cat's vs. V-bottoms

My only comment having driven both is they are both lots of fun and both have a time, place and purpose as does most everything on earth.

Which is a potential "widow maker"?

The boat with the person at the helm having the mentality of "Trying to fool Mother Nature" for certain but not all cases.

Remember:

2/3's of most adventures are preparation if not more and 1/3 is execution.

Boats obey the laws of physics to a tee. Which is great if you know your boat and the conditions at large much is gained.

Ever watch a hydroplane race and see a boat flip, and hopefully the driver get out ok , he stands on the boat smiling and waving?

Ask the driver what happened and he usually has an explanation. In other words "things" don't just happen.

There is always a reason. Once in a while the "reason" can not be foreseen. That's where it get's "dicey".

Every boat has a built in limiter. It's called the driver.

I don't worry about "what if's" they happen on their own enough anyways.