rouxsterre

Yikes

skaterw24s

Remember this boat blew apart!there were five more full bulkheads that went from the bottom of the boat tied into the deck above.Starting in the bow there were three bulkheads spaced 2 1/2 feet apart then one 4' from them then one right where you see the aluminum bracketes that used to go to the four point harness and as you can see multiple checkered board smalll bulkheads,this boat was extreamly well built and a full fledge race boat,not something converted.It also was not that light weighing in at 8750pds.All the new boats are much lighter.

CigDaze

After judging that picture, this hull has very little longitudinal stiffness. The The bulkhead to stringer ratio is also eye-catching. The stringers and hull sides didn't fail due to inadequate strength, rather they failed due to compressive buckling stresses, which is evidenced by the distinct waviness along the length of the stringers, after failure. Additional lateral stiffeners would have helped, so would additional stringers. Of course, the onset of these failures is exacerbated by fatigue.

Ron P

I just saw Larry Wehrlen, he's OK, a black eye and a sore wrist, but in great spirits. He came by to drop off his GPS that had been attached to his bowrail.

Panther

I just racing!!!

I remember seeing a particular "Fountian" (I think it was Firewater maybe?) at Pt. Pleasant a few years ago. The whole side was cracked wide open and that was a brand new boat!

Rippem

GTO in the background?

T2x

I saw the Sutphen family on Saturday at Doug Lewis' memorial service. The subject of Buckshot came up briefly. She's 20 years old and , in fact, has no business on a race course at that age. Everytime some guy with a 1980-82 Shadow Cat tells me how fast he's running, I have to cringe for the same reason.

Overall, Sutphens have had a LOT less failures than many other designs, and Richie never compromised strength for any reason. That having been said, it is also fortunate that the bow area did not land in the cockpit. I'm assuming that the posting of Warpath's picture somehow means that the same scenario cannot happen to an Apache......... While that is a nice tribute to Bobby S., this type of thing can, and will, happen to older hulls when placed in maximum stress situations.

T2x

T2x

As an additional Aside when we rebuilt our 1967 20' Switzer Wing...we cut out every bit of original wood and added new balsa core, stringers and bulkheads. We also glassed the hull to the deck to create a monococque unit, which was unheard of back then.

The debris filled a dumpster........

T2x

T2x

We ended up with this

Ron P

"fortunate that the bow area did not land in the cockpit"

Nope, it torn clean off and flew in the opposite direction.

So, how old is Too Old....for a boat to race? 10 years?