They were all here. Everyone waiting in total anticipation.
Nerves of steel being tested to their breaking point.
Money changing hands in good old fashioned traditions of betting.
Everyone waiting to see the real reason we all drove to Long Beach Marine Stadium . . .
The chance to witness Moses parting the sea. Unfortunately, he forgot his staff, so we went to "Plan B."
And plan b of course, was a boat race! "Why not. We are all here, and so is the water."
Line em up boys and girls. Let's get this show on the road.
Things are going to be tight here kids. So remember- swapping paint is bad.
Here, Wayne Herbert makes a tough decision to get baby blue on his green boat or head hard left into a spin.
He chose the latter, and that sent Guthrie- (dusted in the far right) to go visit Ty on the outside of the mess.
Unfortunately, that was not the end of the paint swapping decisions during the Saturday event.
Here the 37 seemed to chine right into the path of the following boat.
(I have earlier pictures, but all you can see it water splashing.)
The red boat crashed pretty hard into the 37, destroying the boat and hammering the driver pretty good.
The driver hurt his arm and rung his bell, but no hospital visit was necessary.
But he did look good riding his boat back into the pits where the damage was further inspected.
The rookies in the 550 looked pretty good in the opening heat.
That was until an ear broke off of the prop and chewed up the bottom of the boat pretty good.
Again, all you can see from the pictures we have of the crash is water,
but in this shot the driver did set a new record for signaling that he was O.K. after the crash.
The water was far from settled, but he signaled that he was indeed O.K.
I am not certain the same could be said of the boat.
Tony, had a great weekend behind the wheel of the K-69 as the normal pilot Dave, was off playing with the unlimiteds.
Tony said he liked the pictures from the back of the boat, so here is one just for ya Tony.
I keep hearing that my little makeshift magazine needs to have more technical knowledge to instruct people.
And as everyone knows, I am pretty much the king of making these boats really work, so I figure I will give it a try.
Whoever thinks I am full of crap and that I don't know a single thing about these boats, give me a fist pump.
Thanks. So here we go, but only with the flatbottoms right now. We will save the other classes for later.
Let's start simple! We will just go with prop placement for right now.
Getting these boats to run is a delicate balance of power and finesse.
The boat needs to settle, or often called 'taking a set'. Or basically running even and consistent in the straights.
To do that is not as simple as one would think.
The less power you have, the more you need help to get the nose of the boat out of the water.
Putting the propeller further under the boat will help do this. But putting the Prop too far forward can cause problems.
Often if the prop is too far up, the boat will continue to bounce rather than take a consistent set.
A team can actually place spacers between the prop shaft and v-drive shaft to micro adjust how far the prop is under the boat.
Although some teams have machined spacers out of old prop shafts, some people will use actual nickels.
You may hear this lingo about the nickels. Ty, how am I doing so far?
Thanks! (Oh yeah, Ty won pretty much everything in the SS and PS on Sunday. They may need the jaws of life to get his helmet off.)
As the power increases, the props like to be back a little more until a point where the boats make too much torque.
That usually happens when you put a supercharger on your combination.
The extra torque actually tries to propel the back of the boat out of the water. or "Blow the tail" as it is sometimes called.
It seems odd, but as your torque increases, you start to put the prop further underneath the boat again to fight this.
I guess you read that right. Prop back as the horsepower increases, to a point where more torque wants it back forward.
O.K. I am completely confused- so let's take some examples on a case-by-case basis.
This boat is absolutely perfect. Notice how the nose of the boat is just a smidge higher than the tail.
Fairly flat to the water, but not too much nose up, yet not blowing the tail.
Take notes everyone. This is definitely looking about as good as it gets for a fairly flat set.
Most boats aim for a fairly flat set, but some try to get it a little more nose up, but that is a little more tricky to balance.
Once again, looking very good. The nose, however, is a little high in an effort to show us our second type of set.
If he has the horsepower to keep it this high in relation to the back in the straights, and keep it suspended,
than this boat is set-up to ride back on 'the rocker', and doing it well!
If he does not have the power to keep this suspension, then he may try a click of more plate to keep it more flat, or maybe a nickel.
This may look a little deceiving. The driver is actually trying to drive with one foot on the up pedal and one on the down.
So as you can see, he is running the throttle with his hand. Daring, but really pays off in getting the plate pedals absolutely perfect.
All of the true greats test their plate set-up like this.
O.K. here is a team trying to really get greedy. They seemed to take a good idea a little too far.
When the nose of your boat is this much higher than your tail, you are really trying to pack air under the boat.
This is just a little too far, as I have the pictures to prove they could not sustain this much nose lift through the straights.
But sometimes you have to try just to see how far is too far.
Alright, we are really getting somewhere with this one. Nose up, but not too far. Nice set for sure!
This is nice, but when the boat wants to tip to one side or the other, then loses it's suspension, it is called a 'chine.'
Often a prop change or a plate change can keep it flat, and thus keep it suspended.
Whip strut in the 66? I learn something new every day.
Nice set! Nose up a little, but he really should be 8-10 inches more out of the water.
Water is drag. Keep that stuff as far from your boat as you can!
And our last one is really getting there. Just needs to be 8 more inches out of the water.
--Well, I hope you enjoyed your lesson. You should all be able to tune a circle boat by now.--
So Paul, what do you think of my analysis of the Biesemeyers? I was pretty spot on, wasn't I?
Fine, I don't need your help anyway!
Now, to the rest of the racing.
These two were having a contest of horsepower. The fans were the winner here as both really put a power thumpin in the air.
"How on earth do I keep this Mohawk on when guys keep spraying me with their jets?"
"I dunno. Mine stays on just fine. Maybe it is all in the color?"
Some of the best racing on Saturday was this battle between the 111 and the 96.
In this turn the 96 kept under power through the whole turn and really made up some space.
At the end of the turn, the 111 drifted out over the wake of the 96.
The 111 took quite a jump. This hiccup gave the 96 space and the place later in the heat.
**There was supposed to be a picture of Billy here with some really sarcastic statements. But he told me not to.**
I am not certain, but I believe Tony ran second for the weekend in the SS68. Heck of an effort.
That boat is just fast!
A real coming of age with the K-24 boat and driver.
The boat ran really well up with the big dogs until an unexplained lean condition ended his run on Saturday.
Hey guys, you are not supposed to be aiming at each other. You are supposed to be parallel.
Guthrie really had a great day on Saturday. He thumped everyone on the first heat and took a close second in the main.
Mark my words, this boat is going to be a contender in not too far a distance.
The boat looking great and the driver really coming into his own. This boat is going to be a threat.
I have to be honest, the smoke screen ploy is getting a little old, but still works.
But this boat did run better than I remember. Once they get the oiling problem worked out, the new engine will make some waves in pro stock.
"Mark- Set- GO!"
Gotta love the wood deck boats running in any competition.
We hate to see this. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of this during the weekend.
Hey, that is all I have for right now.
Till next time, I am signing off! B-Bye!