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Empire Of The Sun

More pics from UIM F1 H2O GP of Abu Dhabi

I have just uploaded all the pics (183 to be exact) from our trip to Abu Dhabi and the UIM F1 H2O GP. Watch the photoalbum HERE.

Also check THIS link for the results etc.

BaBa F4S boat of Team Mad-Croc.

One of Marit's F1 props. All F1 props are done by one US guy.

Very old-school Mercury 2.5L V6 2-stroke motor. One of the suppliers of con-rods for these are this guy.

Its actually a "prop" he's carrying... They use it for stationary engine tests at the pontoon...

The front part of the tunnel of a Italian made BaBa F1.

On Sunday after the race we went to the newly opened Ferrari World outside of Abu Dhabi. Its just next door to their F1 racecar track. This is the famous really quick roller coaster - but we couldnt go... It was closed. Crap.

At an earlier F1 H2O race in China (I think) Jay Price used this newly designed special version of the DAC. Its shorter and wider. He crashed it at that event and now the Cappelini factory guys (DAC) where repairing it...

In the photoalbum you can see more pics of it...

Swedish star Oskar Samuelsson did well at the two F4S races and he won the championship!

Bimba Sjöholm was not really up to speed this weekend - she use an older Mölgaard F4 hull then Oskar = not fast enough... The limited power from the Mercury 60HP engines make the hull very important...

RC Boat Racing in the snow

I wonder how a rigger would do in the snow... Hmm... ;)

Back home from Abu Dhabi

We made it back from the United Arab Emirates and the F1 H2O GP of Abu Dhabi... The weather was awesome (30+C), the city was "interesting", the partying was 100% and the races wasn't that bad either...! ;)

But I catched a cold with additional fever kicking in the last day when we where heading back to Dubai and our flight back home to freezing Sweden so Im not 100% up to speed yet... I will add more text and many more pics later on as soon as I have gone through them in Photoshop and my head clears up. :)


Race results F1 H2O Abu Dhabi 2010:
1. Sami Seliö, FIN, Team Mad Croc, BaBa hull
2. Jay Price, QAT, Team Qatar, DAC hull
3. Thani Al Qamzi, UAE, Team Abu Dhabi, DAC hull
4. Ahmed Al Hameli, UAE, Team Abu Dhabi, BaBa hull
5. Philippe Chiappe, FRA, Team CTIC China, Moore hull
6. Pierre Lundin, SWE, Team CTIC China, DAC hull
7. Fabio Comparato, ITA, 800 Doctor, BaBa hull
8. Marit Stromoy, NOR, Team Azerbaijan, DAC hull
9. Davide Padovan ITA Rainbow Team, DAC hull
10. Tomas Cermak ITA Team Nautica, BaBa hull
11. Rinaldo Osculati SUI Team Nautica, BaBa hull
12. Jonas Andersson AZE Team Azerbaijan, DAC hull
13. Alex Carella ITA Team Mad Croc, BaBa hull
14. Andy Elliott, GBR, Team Qatar, Dragon hull
15. Marco Gambi ITA Singha F1 Racing Team, DAC hull
16. Fabian Kalsow, GER, F1 Atlantic Team, BaBa hull
17. Francesco Cantando, ITA, Singha F1 Racing Team, Blaze hull
18. Philippe Tourre, FRA, F1 Atlantic Team, Moore hull
19. Duarte Benavente, POR, F1 Atlantic Team, Dragon hull

The total standings with one race to go:
1. Jay Price - 83P
2. Sami Seliö - 79P
3. Thani Al Qamzi - 61P
4. Francesco Cantando - 59P
5. Alex Carella - 59P
6. Ahmed Al Hameli - 38P
7. Pierre Lundin - 38P
8. Philippe Chiappe - 26P
9. Fabio Comparato - 17P
10. Tim Seebold - 16P
11. Davide Padovan - 14P
12. Jonas Andersson - 13P
13. Fabian Kalsow - 11P
14. Marit Strømoy - 10P
15. Duarte Benavente - 10P
16. Andy Elliott - 7P
17. Tomas Cermak - 1P
18. Stanislav Kourtsenovsky - 1P
19. Marco Gambi - 0P
20. Ma'arof Mahari - 0P
21. Philippe Tourre - 0P
22. Rinaldo Osculati - 0P
23. Luigi Roberto - 0P

See the race video HERE.

The next GP in Sharaj/UAE is Thursday-Friday December 9-10!

Follow the live timing HERE.

This was early on when we had the last dinner in Abu Dhabi. Mats behind the camera, Anders & Anders to the left - me, Erik & Stefan to the right.

One of many taxi drives in UAE. Do note, the "MAP" button doesn't work - as in absolutely no GPS function... Most drivers, one would think, would hit the "LOST" button quite often but that was not the case! LOL. You better know yourself where you are going as the drivers most of the time have no clue and its not helping that the buildings aren't numbered either. Brilliant. ;)

We where guests of Jonas Anderssons Team Azerbaijan - he dnf:ed though with a throttle cable "link" coming loose. At that time he was 6:th I think... Crapers. Marit Strømoy (Team Azerbaijan) finished 8:th.

There was also two F4S races held in Abu Dhabi with two Swedish racers, Oskar Samuelsson (in the picture here above) and Bimba Sjöholm. Oskar won the first race and finished third in the second to secure the over all win (I think).

This is the total standings of the F4S class before the last races in Sharaj:
1. Oskar Samuelsson, SWE, Mölgaard hull - 124P
2. Filip Roms, FIN, Baba hull - 74P
3. Bimba Sjöholm, SWE, Mölgaard hull - 72P
4. David Del Pin, ITA, Baba hull - 64P
5. Stefan Hagin, GER, Mölgaard hull - 59P
6. Khalid Al Shamlan, QAT, BaBa hull - 38P
7. Ziwei Xiong, CHN, Kanghua hull - 33P
8. Rashed Al Tayer, UAE, BaBa hull - 21P
9. Majed Almansoori, UAE, BaBa hull - 19P
10. Matthew Palfreyman, GBR, Pugh hull - 17P
11. Kristoffer Fjelde, NOR, Blaze hull - 12P
12. Tobias Munthe-Kaas, NOR, Blaze hull - 5P

More results.

49:ers in Abu Dhabi... Been there, done that. ;)

Going to Abu Dhabi!

This morning it was minus 18 deg C in Uppsala! But tomorrow I will go down south to the United Arab Emirates and the F1 H2O GP of Abu Dhabi with a slightly less freezing cold climate...

BlackBird G2 .21 Outrigger Hydroplane

Now introducing - the new BlackBird G2 .21-sized outrigger hydroplane R/C boat kit! Developed and made by Chris Wood in Iowa USA and you can now pre-order your own! The first production boats are planned to be ready in March 2011.


Quote from Chris Wood:

"This the 2:nd generation BlackBird outrigger hydroplane boat called BlackBird G2. I have been working on this boat over the coarse of 2010 and after 5-6 revisions I have finally settle on this design.

The G2 itself is the same length as the old boat, but the sponsons are new with a wider spread and spacing. The motor placement has also been moved and the rear sponsons have been changed over to a ski design.

The new boat kit will come just like the old version with all the same high quality hardware.

• Complete strut and rudder assembly made out of 7075 aluminum

• The drive line will be glued in just like the old kit but now with a stuffing tube also installed (the tube that goes into the strut)

• The ski is glued in place

• The 4 holes that hold the transom hardware will be drilled and all that needs to be done is gluing in the inserts

Also included:

• Wood's shaft oiler

• Carbon fiber radio box lids & bait box lids

• Delrin motor mounts

• The 7075 aluminum tubes will be glued into the sponsons as well as the turn fin inserts

• The turnfin is sanded, sharpened and ready to bolt on

• As well as delrin boom tube blocks and a fiberglass cowl

Drive line items not included:

• Flexshaft

• Flex/engine collet

• Drive dog

• Prop nut

This is THE MOST complete boat kit on the market today!

• Tub length: 29 1/2" (749 mm)

• Tub width: 3 1/4" (82.5 mm)

• Total width outside/outside sponsons: 22" (559 mm)

• RTR weight of prototype: 3 lbs 9 oz (1.615 kg)

• Price: $750 (shipped to your door - in the US) - additional international shipping cost not included
• Extra set of front sponsons: $125
• Extra set of sponson tubes: $10
  

Any questions regarding the boat you can contact me through e-mail or send me an PM through www.intlwaters.com.

Thanks,

Chris Wood,

WOOD R/C BOAT PRODUCTS"

Note: the pics show the prototype boat - some small changes may be introduced in the production boat.






Video link of the run-off at the Indymasters race in Hobart 2010




Chris Wood's comment on the YouTube video:
"Well I got to do some testing Sunday. The lake was full of stuff and at the end of this video i hit something and kicked the rudder up. I was trying for 80mph but the air was junk. Ended up getting 77 out of it. I was getting the needle set and that is when i hit something. Oh well, not to bad for the conditions. I was testing a new turn fin that didn't work so well as you hear me in the video. Other than that this is the exact boat that ran in Hobart and will be the boat I am selling in the future - the new BlackBird G2."

BlackBird .21 outrigger in Germany

I got some pictures from my German friend Christoph Schneider taken when they recently went to the local pond testing Frank Werner's newly bought BlackBird .21 outrigger hydroplane. The boat used to be Chris Wood's own race boat and was recently shipped over from the US to Germany (Chris is the one that builds and sells the BlackBird boats).

After a day of testing they where very happy with the performance!

Ps, drop by tomorrow Friday for the introduction of the 2:nd Generation BlackBird .21 outrigger!

Frank has installed an CMB engine - I do believe Chris used to have an Novarossi engine in it when he raced it in the US.

Hmm, plastic prop? ;) (that was just for the very first run)


And yes, green is Frank's favorite color! But I get a feeling he likes fluo-orange now also... ;)

And now something Swedish :)

And now something for my Swedish viewers...! This video clip is from a classic half-hour TV show from the 90's that was called NileCity 105.6. The show was about a made-up radio station that was called that (NileCity 105.6). The guys behind it is/was a group called "Killinggänget" - that could be translated to "The Killing Gang" but not really... They where funny as hell though!



This sketch is kalled "Novemberkåsan" and "Sudden" comes into the studio with a report from the classic Swedish enduro motor bike race - his style - and he has some props with him... That race is run every November (really - not made up) and its classically run in very muddy, wet, cold and snowy conditions - typical November weather here in Sweden. You get the similarity's if you look at the YouTube clip. :)

Wikipedia info (in English)

Novemberkåsan 2010

Have a nice weekend! /Niklas

Outrigger Set-Up board and AoA charts

Here's an easy winter project for anyone that wants to be able to check their outrigger set-up without the need to buy any expensive digital AoA device. You can measure the sponsons & strut AoA quite easy when it stands on the set-up board. Do note, the actual AoA reading will be slightly less when you do like me vs. if you turn it up-side-down and use an digital AoA device that you lay on the bottom of the sponson ride pads. That is due to the fact that when it stands on its own "feets" and with the normal weight of the RTR boat the sponson tubes gives/flexes a little... But that is the way it will do when running it also, right?

AoA info.

Nov 10: Updated at the bottom with AoA jig info and link.

My set-up board is a 19 mm MDF board that I have cut to 1050x630mm size. You need to check what size is best for your boat(s). Mine is for 21 and 45 sized riggers. Holes are cut-out for the turn fin and rudder.

These are the AoA tools you need. The green tool is the one you use when checking the front sponson AoA. I made mine out of a fiber glass sheet that was 3.2 mm thick - perfect. But you can make your own tool gauge out of any flat material that is somewhat rigid like aluminum, carbon etc. The thickness must be either 3.0 or 3.2 mm though - columns for booth thicknesses is included in the chart. Make at least one long edge of the tool gauge straight and at 90 deg. Thats the edge you will push against the running surface of your front sponsons. Its easier if you make booth edges equally straight and true then you dont need to make sure you have the right edge.


This is the main chart measure for checking the front sponson AoA. Print it out at 1:1/100% size and cut the three different "parts" out with a pair of scissors. The little one on the bottom is a base measure "chart" that you use when checking low degree AoA's as in strut and rear sponsons etc...

When you have printed it out on a laser printed double check the base line measurements that is in the charts so they actually are at 20/30/40/50/60/70 mm from the base line. If not you have not printed it out correctly and the AoA's will not be correct.


After cutting them out its best to cover them with some plastic laminate so they will last a while.

Do note, dont use the gif picture here above - thats not in scale!

Click HERE to download the pdf file that you will print out. Or check to the right in the download list -> where its linked also (Sponson AoA Measure PDF).

Now stand the rigger on the set-up board with a laminated (or not) chart including the small one for the strut (so its level and on the right height on all corners). Align the trailing edge of your front sponson ride pads to the base line of the chart - see the above picture.

Do note, for these AoA charts to work - the bottom of your sponsons must be perfectly straight and true for at least the last 70 mm toward the TE. If the ride pads are convex or concave you cant measure the AoA like this, in fact if that is the case its difficult to measure the AoA at all...

Then you use your newly made tool gauge that is either 3.0 or 3.2 mm thick and lay it on the chart in front of the sponson to be measured. Then push it carefully back until it touches the bottom of the sponson. Make sure the gauge tool is aligned and parallel to the lines in the chart. Read the AoA to either the left or right column depending on if your tool is 3.0 or 3.2 mm thick. In this case the AoA is 3.59 degrees as my tool gauge is 3.2 mm thick.

Also note the fact that the sponson AoA charts are made to be read on booth left and right hand side of the chart. The lines are separated in 1 mm segments so the text would have been unreadable if made to be read on one side only so to speak. If you check the charts carefully you will know what I mean... :)

With a set-up board its also easy to check the turnfin angle. First I make a line with a permanent market at the first bend. That bend I want to have perfectly horizontal = not angle up or down.

Set your rigger on your new set-up board and use a steel ruler and the permanent marker again and draw a second line that now is perfectly on the water edge level.

Now you easily can see if your turn fin is pulling down or lifting. As a base set-up the two lines should to be parallel. Make adjustments and wipe off the top line with denatured alcohol and re-do the last step until you're satisfied with its angle.

In April 2009 I published this AoA chart that you can use to measure AoA angles of a rigger also. The chart is made the other way around so to speak if you compare it to the chart where you use a set-height measuring tool gauge (as with the front sponsons). Here you actually measure the height at a given length away from a base line. Thats perfect for smaller AoA angles as in the strut and rear sponsons...

Click HERE for download of this AoA chart.

Place your rigger on the set-up board and align the small chart with the strut rear edge at the base line. As this is a .21 rigger I will be measuring at the 40 mm mark.

Use a set of feeler gauge blades and slide them under the strut from the front until they stop at the 40 mm mark. In this case it was 1.00+0.15 mm that was needed.

If you take your printed out AoA chart you can see that 1.15 mm would be just between the 1.10 and 1.20 mm heights = 1.64 degrees of negative AoA on this strut...

That wasnt that hard was it? :)

You can of course use the same chart to measure the AoA of the rear sponsons also.

In July I published an article about sponson tape and how to make a rear sponson mounting jig. Thats the jig you see in the picture here above. The AoA PDF chart is used in this case also to calculate how thick the spacer blocks should be to give an preferred AoA of the jig. Click HERE for that article and more info.

Good luck measuring and have a nice weekend!

/Niklas