Nitro Nationals Last Weekend

[ReddingGuy]

Hey guys, thought I'd give you an interesting piece of information from last weekends boat drags. I went Sat and the wind came up and they had to cancel all of the faster boats for the day. Only a few ran in the morning.

Of course Sun was perfect!! Problem was I had to be in the Bay Area for a wedding and missed everything. Oh well, there's always next year or Chowchilla.

Anyway, the local paper had an article about the races on Monday and it noted that the two final boats (TopFuel) were both a new hull type. They called it a "rigger" and explained how it differed from the traditional hydro hull, the sponsons being extended from the hull tub. Hummm, maybe we RC guys are the leading edge in real boat racing techology!! haha

Well thats it for me.

Greg

[AndyKunz]

Greg,

In some ways we might be. 20 or so years ago Jim Lucero (a model boat racer and Crew Chief of the Winston hydro team) built a giant-scale rigger and stuck a turbine in the back. It became known as the "Lobster Boat." It had trouble keeping the back end afloat at rest ;)

So if you see a model of the Lobster Boat (Graupner Tornado, BBY Eagle) you are seeing a model of a full-scale rigger. So is a model of a scaled-up rigger a rigger? :D

Those Hawaiians have riggers too - but they're a little different still.

Andy