Wednesday, September 30, 2009

JAE hydros at Indy Masters at Hobart

The development of the new JAE outriggers is continuing in the US. Here's a picture of some development boats taken at the Indy Masters Race @ Hobart Indiana recently. It's a JAE 45 and a couple of JAE 21's... And NO, they aren't ready yet. Rod Geraghty will publish any news about that at the International Waters forums when (if) plans/drawings can be sent out and when they will go into production at zippkits.com. The JAE 21 size is the next one that will hit production I think. Stay tuned here for more info... :)

Currently the only "finished" design is the JAE .12G - the rest are still in R&D.


The picture is borrowed from Ron Olson's picture gallery at International Waters forum.

Mark Grim new 2-lap oval record

Mark Grim set a new NAMBA B-Hydro 2-lap oval record recently at the Lake Legg pond outside LA in California. The new record is 16.923 seconds and the boat had exit speeds of about 77 MPH (123+ KPH) out of the corners and about 90 MPH (144+ KPH) at the end of the straights!

It's a Crapshooter 45 with a CMB 45 motor modified by Mark, a Truespin prop by Chris Grim and a Mark Grim turn-fin.

YouTube video #1


YouTube video #2

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Pics from the FSR-V race in Södertälje

Some pics from the last FSR-V nats of the season in Sweden. I'll update with text tomorrow (hopefully).

More pics from the race can be found HERE.










































Results Södertälje FSR-V Sept 19-20

This past weekend we raced our last Swedish '09 Nationals round in the FSR-V classes. The race was held just outside the HQ of Scania Trucks in Södertälje just south/west of Stockholm. The weather was absolutely perfect with no wind on Saturday (20+ C) and also on Sunday up until noonish. Then the wind picked up so the last finals where a little bumpy.



FSR-V 3.5 Juniors final results:
1. Magnus Hammarling / 74 laps 30m 11.28 sek (BL: 21.90s)
2. Matilda Stenström / 61 laps 30 m 17.61 sek (BL: 25.7s)
3. Jesper Nilsson / 59 laps 26 m 40.85 sek (BL: 24.64s)
4. Fredrik Pedersén / 8 m 29.66 sek (BL: 22.25s)

Magnus had a perfect final with very good driving all 30 minutes. Matilda in second place finally finished a complete final (I think it was her first full 30 minutes) and she was happy like no other... Jesper was driving good for most of the final but I think he had an stop at the end. Fredrik had a bad start and then lost his drive gear on the motor so he DNF:ed. But his Falcon II boat is scary quick! :)



FSR-V 3.5 final results:

1. Niklas Edlund / 74 laps 30m 3.67s (BL: 21.76s)
2. Mats Angseryd / 65 laps 26m 34.66s (BL: 23.01s)
3. Staffan Zetterlund / 52 laps 25m 16.48s (BL: 24.47s)
4. Timo Mannonen (Finland) / 51 laps 30m 17.83s (BL: 23.37s)
5. Peter Ingloff / 48 laps 27m 1.68s (BL: 22.3s)
6. John Axberg / 42 laps 30m 15.46s (BL: 26.02s)
7. Fredrick Cederberg / 38 laps 24m 45.29s (BL: 21.85s)
8. Anders Stenström / 35 laps 27m 32.96s (BL: 24.27s)
9. Timo Aarnio (Finland) 25 laps 10m 2.46s (BL: 22.66s)
10. Christian Fridh / 4 laps 1m 54.45s (BL: 26.34s)

This was my second FSR-V race of the season. The last one in @ the GP in Eksjö I won in very windy conditions. This time it was perfect Falcon II weather though = almost no wind! I was about half a lap down at the start but the boat was pretty good when the tanks where full so I started to catch up ever so slowly... :)

At about 10 minutes I was up on a podium finish. A couple of minutes later I caught Mats Angseryd that was leading and we had a good fight for a few laps. I got by and was in the lead. I extended the lead and was just about to lap Mats at the 5-minutes to go mark when his boat DNF:ed with a broken crankshaft. But at that time we where so far a head of the other guys he still managed to finish second!

The last 5 minutes I just cruised and did big corners etc. It was a nice feeling winning a nice fast heat for a change! But as I only raced two races this year I would not have a chance at the championships (I needed to do at least one more race to be a contender for the title). The main focus was to qualify for the NAVIGA worlds in Hungary next year and that I managed. :)

My race stuff:
- Falcon II by Tony Forslund
- CMB Valvola RSV07 with 9 mm carb
- CMB Valvola pipe @ 195 mm
- Sirio S7T plug
- Gearbox: 1.93
- Prop: 2026 (Werner)
- Fuel: 40% nitro with Klotz 8% Super Techniplate & 7% Benol recin oil
- Futaba 4PK with R604FS, 2xS9650 & S9550 on the steering



FSR-V 7.5 final results:
1. Anders Stenström / 73 laps 30m 16.28s (BL: 21.87s)
2. Conny Nilsson / 55 laps / 30m 17.84s (BL: 20.64s)
3. Fredrick Cederberg / 46 laps 24m 31.4s (BL: 19.22s)
4. Michael Fridh / 44 laps 26m 8.63s (BL: 21.7s)
5. Timo Aarnio (Finland) / 33 laps 26m 31.07s (BL: 21.32s)

Anders Stenström from Eksjö won his first race and was thrown into the lake as the protocol states. LOL



FSR-V 15 final results:
1. Mats Angseryd / 80 laps 30 m 19.69 sek
2. Peter Ingloff / 70 laps 30 m 11.29 sek
3. Fredrik Pedersén (junior) / 64 laps 28 m 40.34 sek
4. Timo Mannonen (Finland) / 63 laps 27 m 15.1 sek
5. Staffan Zetterlund / 47 laps 27 m 1.76 sek
6. Magnus Hammarling (junior) / 20 laps 27 m 24.77 sek
7. Fredrick Cederberg / 8 laps 3 m 1.06 sek

It was an all Mats & Peter battle from the start. After one lap they had a straightaway lead. I think Peter had some issues and maybe a stop also but Mats was fast and won quite comfortably.



FSR-V 35 final results:
1. Jan-Olof Hammarling / 76 laps 30m 24.5s (BL: 22.19s)
2. Peter Larsson / 68 laps 30m 7.98s (BL: 21.56s)
3. Fredrick Cederberg / 4 laps 3m 39.45s (BL: 27.35s)

Jan-Olof was leading from the start and he took his first win in the gas class. He got thrown in the drink also of course. ;)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Kep's .21 '09 updates



Update (October 2012):  I'm happy to announce that Friday November 2 2012 I will publish a completely new PDF template freebie design - the KEP's T2 .21. So welcome back soon and download the next generation racing outrigger hydroplane freebie!

(Updated September 23 with action pics from Mattias Kratz)

As I mentioned briefly in my race report yesterday I have updated my latest Kep's .21 '09 rigger slightly for the last hydro nats of the season. When I built it this spring I changed it to an "Jap" type of no rear sponsons design instead of the normal set-up we use with two rear sponsons.

You can watch a video of it from when I tested it the first time this spring HERE and some more pics HERE including pics of the rear support ski-ramp (that I have removed now - read on).

My experience with the central "ski-ramp" on my '09 Kep's where quite good to begin with early in the season. I made it with a an overlapping step so the lower running surface had about the same AoA as the ride surface of rear sponsons would have. The advantages I found with that ramp was that it runs really light with very little drag from the KS brass tube and strut as they are either covered or run above the water level. Its also very easy to launch from the pontoon as the prop doesnt dig down as deep as as when we use no central ski to cover the flex-tube. The boat pops-out of the water quite soon which is nice especially with the .21's. You can also pull more prop and its in general easier for the motor as the strut is almost at an given hight above the water at all times = better throttle pick-up and better accelerations. I could almost pull any prop I wanted also, but for a good race set-up I usually used an ABC H6 with 3.6 cup by Mark Sholund. When testing I could easily pull a ABC S15 prop with 3.75 cup by Mark but its not that race friendly of a set up on this rigger... ;)

BUT as my Kep's designs (so far at least) has been with the std forward type of engine placement and light rear end it doesnt really work that good when you race together with other boats! Racing on your own it's usually no issues what so ever but in the choppier race waters it has been a handful up until now...

In the first two nats rounds this year I have had one of the fastest .21 riggers (only Mikael Sundgren's Kep's '06 could keep up) but when starting to lap other boats or if I made a bad start and had to go through wakes etc I often DNF:ed. During the summer I tested with different fin placements and designs but nothing really helped. Finally I came to the conclusion that the central flat-bottomed ski-ramp was taking away almost all drag (too much) from the rear so just a little extra chop would make the rear end of the boat to come out of the water and the rudder un-hooked. That made the turn-fin hook badly and I usually DNF:ed. Very frustrating.

But for the last nats (this past weekend) I removed the rear ski from the tub and put on a pair of left over sponsons instead (see pics here below). The strut hight and AoA was kept intact. Now the handling is super good! You can tell at the launch that the engine works slightly harder though but its no biggy. In the corners it now feels there is full control and rear end has enough "grip" and stability. I can put it anywhere I want. Nicers!

Do note these reflections are valid on my boat - it might be different on your boat. But for heat-racing I think that the boat design need to be more like a "Jap" style with the engine more to the rear so there is more weight on the prop so to speak to make it work. With a light prop-weight design as on a Kep's nitro rigger you better stick with rear sponsons and exposed flex-tube if you will race it. But if you just want to have some fun or do SAW testing I can recommend the ski-ramp type of rear support!

My race equipment at the last nats was this:- CMB Valvola "green head" with head clearance about 0.2 mm
- Zoom 21 carb
- O'Donnell purple plug
- 60 % fuel with 14% Klotz Super Techniplate oil
- Fat pipe @ 200 mm & CMD 14 mm header
- ABC H6 with 3.46 cup by Mark Sholund (I could use more cup but the race course was quite tight)
- Futaba 4PK / R604FS with 2xS9650 & S9551 servos
- 5-cell AAA NiMH pack














The pics here below is also a Kep's .21 '09 rigger but it belongs to Mikael Sundgren. I have built the tub and the front sponsons but he has made the rear sponsons himself. The front sponsons ride surfaces are exactly the same as on my '09 boat shown here above. The differences are only visual - I made them kind of "stealth" looking for Mikael but they take way too much time to do with all the angles etc... ;) But he uses a flat bottomed strut instead - I use a round bottomed one. Its not that big of a difference.