Serious Safety Question?
 

With the fact that there will soon be more than one turbine boat on the course, and there are already several Extreme class boats running well over 150 MPH, why do the crew need inflatable life jackets, I ask this coming from a Hydroplane race where the driver in a capsule does not wear one, (hydroplane's hit speed in the 200's) and their turns are just short of violent. They do however wear the Hans device, has this been looked at??
Knowing most Cats that go over the occupants egress form the bottom hatch. would this not make more sense for the racer's.?? I will add that the one piece driver's suit they wear from SRP has some floatation sewed in so I am told. Thought's and opinion please.

Not sure bout the vest but I have already had conversations with PoPs from stars and anybody that will be in one of my boats will be using a hans device. Vinny is on the same page as me and we're gonna have them as soon as possible
Jimmy

There really isnt a need for a vest, you wont be floating at sea for hours or days, this really needs some discussion. hopefully they will never be tested.
I hope to see more input from other canopied racers on this very serious subject. I hope pops will share his insight with the board as well.

i've been beat up in boats no doubt. i'm shorter, dumber, and uglyer because it.

you gota have inflatable...as you come out of the boat under the water you have know idea how deap you are. so you use that as a trasport to the top. if you have an auto inflate device it will pin you to the top of the boat. hydros bust apart and the crew will bring up just the capsule you are in. very hard to do this with 2 seats and more so with 4.

jbs racing helmets are set up for hanns devices. we also will have a state of the art breathing system where we can wait to be released from the boat by outside support. there are air supply connections on the outside for the crew to supply us air as long as it takes.

geico uses custom built nascar seats and not the hanns...this may be the way to go but WE need to test it as well.

trust me...everyone is looking at all we can when it comes to safety in this class!

why wouldn't you wear a vest. When we rolled, I inflated the vest because I was tired from getting out, had gas in my mouth and eyes, and had a long swim to the rescue boat.

Are you able to easily release the hans device alone and upside down?

it stays with you.

[QUOTE]you gota have inflatable...as you come out of the boat under the water you have know idea how deap you are./QUOTE]

Disagree no matter the depth if the boat is floating which they normally do,
why would you not egress from the tunnel hatch???

it maybe just like wearing a leatt brace for MX...just something you have to get used to...till then it sucks and it's in your way.

while the nose of our boat was floating. we had no idea where we were at. we could have been on the bottom upside down or on the moon for that matter. as it HAD to fill prior to opening the hatch. when you crash things bend and tweek! that hatch may not open so good.

Joe there is no reason not to use both I raced open wheel mods and had no option but to whear the hans & like u said after 3or4 races u dont even know its there. I'm also pulling my custom lajoy seat out of the car to see how it will fit in the boat

Would it still not be better to come through the tunnel hatch whether its bent tweaked what ever, seems this would be better than underneath, I understand with a VEE.

By the way how did crashing make you shorter, everyone told me you were just vertically challenged!

We have the Nascar seats and we will be wearing the Hans in Point Pleasant

If one goes back and looks at all recent wrecks, spinouts, and ejections, the common denominator is they happen in the turns.
Last year (in a turn) the Joker crew was ejected and were barely missed by Outrageous. The Joker crew were not seriously hurt. This year, Papa Dukes ejected it's crew in a turn, luckily no serious injuries. During the same race, another boat barrel rolled in a turn. I'm sure I could come up with more examples if I thought about it for a couple of minutes.
Perhaps simpley widening of the turns would make the course safer-and it would NOT COST ANYTHING. Most race sites could easily accomodate wider turns. What do you think??

Top 2 in my neck are crushed. Having a boat run over you head may do that. They would like to do my jaw, neck, nose, and teeth all at once. Yeah I'll get right on that.

Which ever one will let us out. If either is under water is will not open till the pressure equalizes.

Scott, does your hanns engauge running in rough water? They adjustable? I'm not sure if ours are set up correctly? We have questioned some of the numbers. How does it feel to have you head knocking against those seats in rough water?

turns are as wide as the ocean in some cases...and most racers are going to leave a foot!

crash'n is definatly not limited to the turns...seen(been in) crazy stuff happen go'n streight!

It took the NASCAR racers a little while to get used to the HANS device.

I'm not saying crashes are limited to turns. However, most accidents happen in the turns!
Although the Hanns device works well in Nascar where one can use a mirror, the Hanns device also has it's faults, one can't "turn your head around" to see if a lane is clear. This can cause other saftey issues....

Whether or not the turns are widen won't change the need to advance safety.
I think the Hanns is a great idea for boats especially those high powered ones. I am curious to see what advances you guys will make.

[QUOTE]one can't "turn your head around/QUOTE]

In a canopy boat there really isnt a need to turn around, But at speed approaching 180 MPH, there certainly need to be more safe guards in place for crew.

our team has a full time person looking at 3 computer screens looking at our data aqusition system in real time. as well as our camers that will have live feed to shore..something we are calling live 360...the fan will be able to watch too, live from his/her computer. we want the fans in our pits watching the race from one of the many flat screens.

Joe, I had read up on them in 04. I recall being able to adjust free movement in the device. I can't image you would want your head locked down. Just limit the extremes of movement.

Awesome idea.

Great for the sport.

This ladies and gents is the best post I've seen on this. No team can afford to go 180mph unless u can pay for the proper support like real time telemetry and a bird in the air so any restriction ur safety devices cause ur vision ur spotter can take car of. I also know that when I'm doing 180mph ( which is in the near future so I can romp on all u dudes that think ur as good as me ) LOL I'm going to be looking straight ahead.

they are designed to keep your head from detaching from c1&c2 with the corresponding brainstem injuries. it takes a lot of articulation/ hyperextension for this injury so the device can be adjusted for you to be able to look around. the helmet is attached to whats basically an overgrown collar held in place by the sholuder belts. when the belts are released it would not hamper your egress.

Contrary to what I've read here, Hydros do not "bust apart and the capsule retrieved by the crew". The capsule is an integral structure to the hull. Our capsules and roll bar structures are "unibond" so deflection is minimal and rigidity is maximized. Since 1988 the Unlimited Hydro class has had in excess 120 blowovers over 175 MPH and one loss of life. (year 2000 in San Diego). Statistically we land upside down about 90% of the time, and escape and/or pulled out by the bottom hatch. We all wear HANS devices. The HANS is not adjustable while underway. Generally there is about 1 1/2 inches +/- of slack between the actual device and the helmet connection. Peripheral restriction is minimal, mirrors are mandatory. The reality is your vision under a capsule is restricted by it's very nature and the HANS makes little impact on an already restricted site environment.
In your cases with races in excess of 40 minutes, you'll need to continually tighten your belts. The belts are the sole aspect making the HANS work as they go over the shoulder hoops of the HANS and restrain the neck from forward hyper extension.
Our driving suits have NO flotation nor padding of any nature.
For those of you near Indiana, you're welcome to visit our shop off season and inspect any safety aspect of the capsules and associated peripherals at your leisure.

Be safe,
Steve David
U-6 O Boy Oberto

Thank you, Steve For your insight. I believe Joey was thinking of Drag boats. But you have first hand info of this equipment, and it's use.


http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...9/7Z0X0402.jpg

Drag Boat, Top fuel Hydro, The whole driving pod detaches

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m...FHRound1-2.jpg

i was thinking of drag boats and irresponsibly stated hydros.

SD, you are actually on my list of people to call next week for questions about safety gear and w/o doubt, turbines. the people going over 200mph on water is a very short list!

Steve, please call me at SC Bicycles 810 326 0600...

Steve,
Thanks for clearing that up for the boys, they need to know how far the unlimiteds and ul's have come in safty mandates.
The best recently had to be David Bryant's flip at Seafair.
He was parked right next to me, and he was out so quick, his shoes weren't even wet.

It was great riding in the parade boat with you and David at Tri-cites.

Mike Sadlon
UL 89

Our wreck in Key West last year happened at full speed on the back straight. Something snaps in the back of the boat and a great run turns into a cartwheel. At 100+ the violence involved is stunning. At 150+ it's compounded exponentially.

Most of the 100+ tunnel boats use the Hans. I have worn them. Think of a neck brace with a short wire attached to your helmet. Uncomfortable the first time, not an issue the third. If Lee decides to drop a turbine into our boat, I will be wearing one.
SQ

i have had bottoms come apart, drives fail, and crash boxes, all fail at speed not turning...loosing a crash box at 140 is nuts...jeff really saved the day on that one. i just think if were in an open pleasure cat we would have been ejected and part of history.

put a turbine in and come on out! just think, you don't even have to flush the engines after let alone pull them for fresh ones!

when you run in salt water you better be washing those turbines, or you will have some serious issues in the future.

we have no water pick ups! the new air intakes separate the water and we have fresh water injection real time for a bump in power or just to clean it out after.

everyone really has to thank geico and turbine marine for working out a lot of the obstacles running turbines in a salt water marine environment.