Tim Thanks .

I would have liked to have had more photos of my Hydra Tech Cat builds, but the owner of the company was very protective of his lamination schedules...

He recently called to have me shoot his latest boat, but once I told him how "in depth" my photo shoots go, I haven't heard from him since.... :drink:

I know trying to be careful here as well, I do want show too much of Danny's systems.

Powerplay 38 Hull Plug Right after we flipped over working on the bottom


http://i45.tinypic.com/scqgkx.jpg

Hi Steve,
Thanks for one of, if not the most informative threads I have ever read on OSO. Your experience building and designing hulls is truly remarkable.
An OSO friend and I recently got into a debate over the value of performance improvements with vee step hulls. He thinks they are marketing driven designs than that are more hype than substance. I disagree. I have seen the average speed of production vees rise 15 to 20MPH in the last 20 years. No doubt some of this is also attributal to better engines and drives, but I also think step hulls are more efficient. Why would nearly every high performance and race boat manufacturer spend hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars developing step hulls if they weren't seeing objective increases in performance with them?
I would appreciate your opinion on this, as I know you have been involved in developing steps hulls, and your expertise speaks for itself.
Thanks again for a very informative thread.
Best Regards,
Steve

Hello;

Sorry for this offtopic:


Compare Tuff 28, Progression or Velocity or... with boats which have step hulls. If they have same power and weight, they have almost same end speed.
Wery heavy hulls are for sure better with steps, but fast boats?
I am not expert, but I agree with your OSO friend.





bye
Saso

Sir First Off thanks you for the very nice comment. There are a lot of strategies on this, I myself control the boats attitude and try to have a minimum wetted surface using the step size and placement along with step angles these are Key here, it takes an experienced designer with a critical eye to realize their full benefits.

Remember you pay a heavy price for every square inch of wetted surface on a performance boat so why not arrange
the bottom so as faster the boat travels less it's bottom is exposed in a “predictable” manner with support, not that half a pyramid shape you get from airing out a straight Vee.

Sorry, you are inside in industry and I have questions for you:

- Tuff, Velocity and Progression I am mentioned becouse of pad kell. They have no pyramid shape of wetted sufrace when go fast. What do you think round of compare with steeped bottom, if it is boat build lighter?
- every square inch of wetted surface cost a lot of performance, this is more than true! Why than boat builders do not build lighter boats? Technology for this it is known and it is not so expensive. Infusion and good core for example.
- when will boating industry start to use lighter and modern engines? Existing engines like big block... are 50 years old mastodonst, which cost lot of weight, fuell and money for service.

Sorry for bad english. I fight with words, but...



p.s.
Nice thread Steve1!


bye
Saso

When lighter and more "modern" engines can make the torque that the big blocks do.

Easy.
Power it is "maded" from rpm and torque. If you want additionall power you need for example:

- 4.000 rpm and 400 lbft torque
- 12.000 rpm and 133 lbft torque

If you reduce 12.000 to 4.000 you have on the shaft 400 lbft torque and much better efficiency-les fuell consumption and lighter engine.
(Dodge viper do not have better acceleration than new Ferarri with same power...)

I do not know, but two valve engine in year of 2010?



p.s.
Sorry "Steve1" for this interruption of your thread, I am only want to ask few things which I would like to know.




bye
Saso