pm203

Please help me out here. When the Dragon first came out, all reports said that it was a high 80,s low 90,s boat for top speed. I know 100 was the goal, but at the time, with a stock 525 boat, it was unattainable. What has changed?

MANITIE

From what I was told....the first one seen 94 and there was still more prop....the 2 that hit 100 with stock 525's are staggered....we have found some changes that made it faster and handle better....we had to change the X a number of times....and then we found a sweet spot....the boat dose not need any stern lift from propping...when we first rigged the boat our slip was at 18%....and even after making a number of changes we only got it down to 14%....we made more changes to our curent set up and its down to 9%....we can get it even lower but with the current class we are running in....we are right were we need to be.....
We played with the CG for 2 years....and now have it balanced....even with 40 lbs to far foward and we will loose 2 to 3 mph...

Thats why we are being very carefull when we drop the bigger HP in......with the weigth of the #6's and the eninges we want to keep the balance we have now....

i really want to drop in 1050's to see what she is capible of but its working on sponsorship to get the money to get them....

The 2 newest Dragons, I have not heard what type of power thats being put in and if they will be staggered....

CIG3

From talking to Craig, one of the new Dragon's will have 700's.

pm203

I do remember that when the boats were initally set up at Lake X by Mercury, they considered the Dragon hull to be one of the most efficient hulls that they had ever tested. And, at that time, Mercury claimed more effiecient than Fountain, OL or Cig.

MANITIE

Its pretty amazing......I wounder if the 700's will be stagered...either way she will be well over 100.....

From the numbers we have run.....we are thinking with the 850's we should see 125+.....
With the 1050's....we have no idea....we don't know how much running surface we will have....plus we don't know how she will track at those speeds.....

I wounder if Mercury wants to do a test with there 1050's in her.....

boonville1963

what is a 1050 motor

MANITIE

Sorry.....1075's.....I'm doing 3 things at once.....I was looking at the 1050's from Potters Engine Performance.....

customryder

Do you ever bump your head on that roof?.. is that why they have seat-belts.. being strapped into a boat just don't seem safe to me..am I missing something?

MANITIE

We have the 5 point seatbelts as required for racing in a closed cockpit.....the roof sits up pretty high.....if we were not seat belt in....for us to hit the top we would have to come completely out of the seat to hit it.....in there pleasure version they also have seats belts....personally even in there pleasure version I would feel very good in that boat in a seat belt.....If you were to go over in any performance boat....there is nothig to that boat to get out....

In the Elizabeth City race in 2006 we went into a hair pin turn at 96 mph....in the appex of the turn I crancked down on her becasue we did not know at what speed she would brake away....the last speed we seen was 94 and she spon-out....she slid completely flat...we did not even lean to the starboard side at all in a left hand turn.....if we were not seat belt in we would have been thrown so vilently it would not have had a good result in any performance boat....I have seen Vee bottoms role at 50 mph in a turn.....
In Point Pleasent we had the boat completely on its side to aviod a accident....its the furthest I have ever had the boat on its side and she righted out of it.....if done in any other pleasure boat with out a seat belt there would be no way we could have stayed in.....

Plus you are seeing more and more performance boats have seat belts in them....in the 42 Fountain Poker Run edition it has seat belts and along with a number of Cats now have optional seat belts in them....

At the speeds that adverage guy is running there peformance boats today....I would not want to be thrown out if a boat hooks or stuffs at 90 to 120 mph.....

And again...I'm not trashing any other boat manufacture......I'm just saying take a ride in a dragon in 3 to 5 footers....the boat has the ride of a 12,000 to 14,000 lbs boat but with only 525's she can still run with boats with that weight and has to have twin 1000's or bigger to run the same speed....

There were pics of our spin out in the E.C. race....I will try to find them and post them.....

Wally

iTrader: (1)

Maybe its somew hat quiet cause Craig Barrie went to Donzi....just got this in the email....

http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsd...32ibinews.html