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Published by Fast On Water Publications 2019 All articles and photographs are copyright All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission. Editor Roy Cooper
Contributors David Jones Roy Cooper Kevin Desmond Rusty Rae
Cover photo from the Kevin Desmond Archive: ON line up, Bristol 1980
Contents 1
F1 V8 Chattanooga 1988
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F1 V8 Cincinnati 1988
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The Mangoletsi 90
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Ramblings of an ex-racer
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The Paris 6 hour 1964
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The Paris 6 hour 1974
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Electric Power – The Future?
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Articles used with the kind permission of Rusty Rae
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We have in the past had some great world champions. Are there going to be any more? It is no harder now than it was then to become good. There are more rules and regulations now; rules to try and slow things down but you will always have the fast drivers. Those who work harder on their driving skills, their set-up skills and their understanding of what they are doing to get the best out of everything, no matter what the rule book puts in your way.
The Ramblings of an Ex Racer Where is the sport going?
What do you see when you’re standing on the bank watching the boats go around the circuit? As an ex racer I often see, what I would describe as, some strange things. It’s okay being a ‘rookie’. We all start at that point. What isn’t so good is to start racing with the wrong mentality/knowledge base and continuing to do so on the assumption that what you’re doing is fine. All new drivers should be made aware that this is ‘not’ a game. This is ‘real’ and there is no pushing the reset button.
So, the answer is yes, there could be another world champion from Britain. But is there someone who has those skills here now with the right people around him? Not at this time. Maybe in the future? Sadly no, I don’t think so. The ‘nanny state’ we now live in may well shut down so called dangerous sports. Sports where you may get hurt in or someone who does not understand what they are doing, causes a problem for someone else. Wrapping drivers in carbon fibre boats gives them a sense of security, which reduces both their consideration of other drivers on the circuit and the level of driving skills. Skills that were crucial to drivers of the past.
A good idea is to get one of the team or a friend to film to film them. The driver is then able to see what they are doing or not doing. It’s important to know what a boat will do and what it will not do. Hopefully, with a couple of people who have some experience, they can be guided along the right path. Ideally, new drivers should be put out on a lake by themselves for a few hours. That way they will learn what they can and cannot do with their boat. There is no substitute for time in a boat. Drivers can only improve with practice. At least on a lake they have the time and space to work all this out; what the boat feels like when it accelerates; how it feels when it’s up and going fast, on the plane, flying but hopefully not kiting or as the Americans would say, blow-over.
Having seen racing from day’s past with larger fields of fast cats with different category engines, all racing down to the start line; bigger fields of 350, 500 and 700 hydros all racing down to that start line; mostly faster than the fields there are now, you have to ask yourself why is the governing body of the sport trying to slow these boats in the hydro class down? A boat standing in the pits is not dangerous. Put a person in that same boat and it can become a different story. Is it that in the past drivers/pilots were different in some way? If they were, what is the difference? Is it that today there is a lack of training, a lack of understanding, a lack of common sense? If you had slower boats
If they can have some quality time on a piece of water, they will then have the opportunity to learn about props and set-up. There are people out there that will help them and, hopefully, there maybe another good driver and champion in this country.
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would there still be accidents? Everyone knows the answer to that question.
So, where does that leave us watching? A sport we have enjoyed for quite a few years and have had the privilege of being involved in, both spectators and competitors?
This sport is a wonderful thing to watch. Fast cats, driven well, taking turns at high speed; hydros coming down the straight, flying, sliding their back ends round the turn – awesome!
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Electric Power – The Future? engine could be developed although things move on a pace in this tech led world.
With environmental issues becoming top of the agenda, all levels of motor sport will be forced to develop alternative power sources. Better late than never some would say, as the science has been fully known since at least the late 1980s and many climate scientists were pointing out the future problems of CO2 way before then. Unfortunately, the short-term attitudes of governments over the last half century, rather than utilising the Precautionary Principle, pointed out the fact that there were some scientists who still were unsure of future outcomes. Being a little cynical I would suggest that this decision was based on financial rather than environmental concerns.
Above is the Edorado 7S powered by an allelectric system, combined with hydrofoils that project into the water and help reduce drag by lifting the vessel as it speeds up, thus making the boat more efficient.
As we all know from experience, the biggest fall-out of leaving things to the last minute is that everything then has to be done in a rush. Consequently, rather than choosing to implement change gradually over the last 40 to 50 years, we are now running around like headless chickens realising that time is seriously running out.
According to the team behind the design, this will allow it to travel at speeds of up to 40 knots (74 kilometres per hour). Traditional commercial speedboats can travel at around 40-45 knots on calm waters. The Edorado 7S will be powered by a rechargeable battery hooked up to two motors that drive the twin propellers at the rear. The company says it will have an 80 kilometre range on a single charge if cruising at around 25 knots (45 kilometres per hour).
This leaves motor sport in a vulnerable position and so it’s important that the powers-that-be in powerboat racing start working on where we go in the future and come up with a feasible plan as soon as possible. There are a large number of companies around the world, developing electric powered speedboats, utilising a variety of power sources and batteries and I thought it would be interesting to take a look at a few here.
It has created its own unique hydrofoil arrangement as part of its design, with a blade that wraps around the side of the hull towards the prow. This also gives the boat a wider profile, making it more stable.
For racing the obvious requirements are speed and duration and of course cost, which at present is the biggest issue. It could be a while yet before an inexpensive electric race
"The hydrofoil design minimises the required power-up to 40 knots," said the Edorado S7's designer Tom Speer, a former competitor 24
in the America's Cup. "It is stable in pitch, heave and roll, so the boat's safety doesn't depend on an active control system, which would be complex, redundant and expensive."
unfortunately, it's a one-off with no plans for production. The record-breaking Jaguar Vector, looking like the raceboats we are familiar with, was designed and constructed by Jaguar Vector in
The fastest all-electric speedboat to date is the Cigarette AMG Electric Drive Concept – a one-off concept speedboat created by car company Mercedes Benz and racing brand Cigarette Racing in 2013 that could reach 160 kilometres per hour (86 knots).
partnership with Panasonic Jaguar Racing’s Formula E technical partner Williams Advanced Engineering. The V20E electric boat featured electric power, motor and control systems that drew on Williams’ experience in supplying batteries to the entire Formula E grid for the past four seasons and its ongoing partnership with Jaguar Racing in the ABB FIA Formula E championship.
Rather than using hydrofoils, this relied on an electric drive train originally developed for the Mercedes SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive, one of the most powerful electric cars in production.
In mid-2018 Jaguar Vector co-founder and technical director Peter Dredge piloted the V20E across two legs of the famous 1km course on Coniston Water, England, breaking the outright world and national electric speed records in a battery-powered boat with an average speed of 88.61mph beating the previous record from 2008 by nearly 16mph.
Underneath the "AMG Electricbeam Magno" coating is the same lithium-ion batteries as its road-going counterpart – but multiplied by four. A quartet of 60 kWh battery packs are juiced up by two 22-kilowatt chargers that take the batteries from drained to full in seven hours, or just under three hours with a boosted on-board charging unit. The real story is the motor – or rather motors – sitting at the stern of the boat. Twelve liquid-cooled permanent-magnet synchronous electric motors conspire to pump out 2,220 horsepower, or 1,656 kW. Mercedes claims it’ll hit a top speed of 99 mph, and while that pales in comparison to the SLS AMG Electric Drive's terminal velocity of 155 mph, on the water, almost toppling the ton is quick. Very quick. And it's enough to make this rig the world's fastest electrically powered boat. But 25
The Torqueedo Deep Blue outboard at full throttle gives 36 -54 kph with a distance of 22 - 33 kms and a run time of 35 minutes; all depending on boat design, weight etc. It uses batteries from the BMW i3.
water for low resistance and this is how Candela claims they need 75% less energy. The range of close to 93 kilometres (50 nautical miles) from a 40 kWh battery suggests as much. In other words, this is 3 hours at 25 knots. Charging the battery via Type 2 connector can take all night though at 230V/16A or 110V/34A standard household outlet. The final craft is the X Shore eelex 800. Konrad Bergstrom, the Swedish tech millionaire behind X Shore electric boats, aim is that every boat in the X Shore range must be capable of 40 knots, be able to run for two hours at 25 knots and have a range of 100nm at 10-12 knots. In other words it needs to perform as well as a petrol powered sportsboat but without the noise and pollution.
The Swedish firm Candela has developed an electric hydrofoil speed boat. Top speed is 30 knots (55 kph) and the 40 kWh battery enables a range of more than 50 nautical miles (93 km) – and, they’ve taken it to series production. It’s most efficient at 19-23 knots.
The original prototype used a relatively conventional twin-stepped hull but a chance meeting with a naval architect and 3,000 hours of subsequent testing at Rolls-Royce’s marine engineering facility suggested a single, much deeper 37cm step could reduce drag by up to 30%.
The Candela hydrofoils are released once the boat reaches a certain speed. The formula goes like this: use an all-carbon body for low weight (92 kg), lift it out of the 26
Effectively it splits the planing surface into two distinct sections fore and aft with clear air between them, allowing it to plane at speeds as low as 8-10 knots. In displacement mode, it’s actually less efficient than a round bilge design but that’s a compromise X Shore is happy to live with. The deep step is also what makes its decision to go with an exposed shaft drive more understandable.
By mounting the electric motor much further forward than normal (it sits directly in front of the hull step) and as low down as possible, the angle of the shaft is only 3.5 degrees off the horizontal. And thanks to that deep step the majority of the shaft is running in air with just the propeller and the last few inches of it immersed in water.
Fast On Water Had a stand at this year’s Lowestoft Lions Gala Day at Nicholas Everett Park. With lovely weather it was a wellattended event and a lot of interest was shown from ex-racers and the general public. We took along the Sabre Craft runabout, which is part of the Fast On Water collection.
separate petrol generator that can be put onboard. If you have any further info on ‘Raybuck’ we would love to hear from you.
Another boat that is also part of our collection has us a little bewildered. It came from the old Basildon Motor Boat Museum and is named ‘Raybuck’. It was built by Warwick productions of Kenilworth in the late 1940s to early 50s. It is an aluminium electric launch, which could be run on batteries but also has a 27
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