| Bushwacker |
09-26-2014 11:10 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigLew
(Post 230961)
I was thinking. It might be interesting to some of us what boats are popular over there 'across the pond.' If you could give us an idea of some of the more popular ones and which ones you have found interesting and worthy from an experienced boaters perspective, we here in the Mother Land might use the power of the internet to learn a little bit about the Brits boating habits and preferences.
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Lew and Kipstone,
You might be interested to know that the Brits actually have been seriously involved in powerboat racing for years and have come up with some very innovative designs. I have a good book, “Seamanlike Sense in PowerCraft” written in the 1970’s by Uffa Fox, a famous naval architect from Cowes on the Isle of Wight. During WWII he invented an Airborne Lifeboat that could be carried under the wing of a plane and dropped to downed RAF fliers. He also describes a 40’x8.5’ 5.25 ton 5-stepped hydroplane built in 1912 called Maple Leaf IV, that ran 55 kts using a pair of what must have been extremely heavy 400 hp engines!
In the 1960’s, they began an annual international race of about 200 miles from Cowes to Torquay in the English Channel, which is notorious for strong tidal currents and steep breaking waves, so it can be a very tough race. Uffa decribes a number of boats that ran in those races, including some American boats: a couple of Bertrams, “Broad Jumper” (W. Wishnick), “Maltese Magnum” (Don Aronow), and 1966 winner “Ghost Rider” (Jim Winn) (that race was so rough that Winn’s mechanic ended up with 2 broken ankles!). Uffa Fox patented a design for those races where the entire floor supporting the seats was mounted on springs! My understanding is that SeaCraft did not participate in that race simply because of the expense involved for an international race. Many of the British boats also raced in the US Offshore Power Boat races in the '60's.
Surfury No. 111 was actually the name of a famous 36’ British boat that won the race in 1967. It had a very unique engine setup with two 525 hp Daytona (supercharged Chevy) engines driving a single prop through a modified V-drive, with one engine aft and one engine forward of the gearbox. The 4 ton boat had a 10’ beam, ballast tanks in the bow, a 23 degree “Rise of floor” (English for deadrise!) and would do 58 kts. There are some good shots of Surfury towards the end of the Cowes-Tourquay video, starting at about 3:37 |
