Where can I research oxygen systems?
 

I cant find anything online about oxygen systems in raceboats. Does anyone have a dealers website that I can browse?

The only kits i can find are the portable emergency air systems that divers use..

are the oxygen canisters mounted to the boat or to the driver?

oxygen tanks mounted to the boat (pretty much just scuba tanks), lines run up to the occupants with a regulator on the end. that is the part time air system, as in you use the regulator only when you need it.

full time air is rigged up pretty much the same way, you just have a full time mask, think fighter pilot.

out of morbid curiousity, how long can the air last on a tank that size with two regulators? Looks like only minutes!

and what happens if you get knocked out and have part-time air? and a lifejacket?

i think you can get 20 minutes out of that ( i believe that is the minumum in the rules as well) some teams run a tank for each person, so 40 or so minutes. but remember, in a race, there is a helo overhead with diver waiting to jump in if you don't surface pretty quick. so really needing more than a few minutes probably isn't a real concern (especially in cats with escape hatches on top and bottom). if you ran full time air you would need more obviously.

if you get knocked out without full time air (and you are upside down) you are hoping your partner didnt and finds your regulator for you, or that your canopy doesn't fill that fast. and usually, if there was no failure, they take a while to get that much water in them.

you have to use canopy jackets, designed to let you get out then inflate it. inflating your jacket while you are still in the cockpit or wearing the wrong style would be a very poor choice.

So a lifeline style jacket wouldnt work? I assume you have to use the auto-inflate style suspender jackets.. What about when you're running in a poker run and theres no helos or safety divers, what setup do you use then?

For canopy style cockpits, a 'switlik' manual inflate jacket is required. As far as air supply, the scuba 'manual' type is less expensive as compared to 'full time'. Check 'tigerperformance.com' for equipment.

thanks richard, thats just what i was looking for.. and thanks sean for the PM's..

Also believe they would be air systems as opposed to straight oxygen.

I realize that..


i doubt anyone had the idea they were feeding the drivers pure oxygen..

Some new raceboats have a connection on the outside of the hull that allows the divers to attach an additional tank to supplement the system when a boat finds itself upside down.

any of these boats have a bilge pump on the ceiling for when
they turn over, sounds like a good idea to me.

i think you can get 20 minutes out of that

Does that count for fat guys to A - Z:rolleyes:

maybe a litte less.... :drink:

just keep it right side up and you won't have to worry about it... :party-smiley-004:

I'm sure there are a couple systems out there, but all function about the same way. being ex-fire, our scba systems gave us 20-30 minutes air time. They functioned with a 'demand valve' where high pressure air is fed into the regulator, then only into the mask as it sensed you breathing in. it also had a purge feature that allowed you to manually open a valve on the regulator allowing additional air in. The system had positive pressure in the mask preventing anything from seeping in past the face seal. the system also had an extra hose so that you could use a buddies air or they could use yours in the event of depletion or malfunction as well as an air powered low pressure alarm. The bottles were fairly small and the alum/kevlar bottles were light. I would think you could easily get 1/2 hour out of a standard bottle racing, as I was able to get close to that wearing full turnout gear (which isn't light) and working pretty hard.

as far as researching systems, basic google of scott and msa scba systems as well as scuba systems should give you a lot of info.

Most Canopy race boats are still using a standard scuba system hard installed in the boat with 20' of hose. The boat you are looking at would almost certainly have this type of system. One large scuba tank with a pressure gage and 2 lines running to the seats with standard mouth regulators. It is by far the least expensive system and many prefer not to wear the "Fighter" mask for comfort.

You should understand that that boat was built with only one goal in mind, to race. They do not make great pleasure boats. No room for 5 babes or coolers.

Yep, pretty basic, safe and cheap.

No one is trying to shoot your idea down 222...but ask most any racer and he will tell ya a "pleasure" canopy boat in an oxymoron.

You should rent a BAT BOAT at worlds...get your feet wet. No better opportunity to do so at a fraction of the cost or investment! You can even get a few sponsors to help offset the cost. The boat looks cool as hell and is a riot in the KW waters!!!! I had my current wife race a bat boat so she would understand more about what we do.

uhmmmm Rick, not to sound like a diss or anything, but after seeing so many different types of vehicles involved in violent crashes, you might mount that a little more securely than 2 hose clamps. the clamping strength is good, but the attachment point has little mass and a lot of shearing potential...

i would never want the bottles where we are at...they break off in a crah(they will) and they will kill you like right now if they hit you! the damage bottles do to boats is nuts.

even these were scrapped and new ones designed and fabricated by turbine marine for our boat.