Wow what a blast this weekend:hurray:. It was definitely a good time as well as a hot one. Makes working on Tweety seem easy:D

Here is a link to a picture album with alot of pictures from the event, below it are the page numbers with some shots of the U-22 boat Mike P. is the crew chief for. It is the white boat.:thumbsup:

http://cdenslow.smugmug.com/gallery/9009995_HWMB8#603523227_ubr5C

9,10, 11, 14, 91, 92, 93, 94, 117, 118, 119, 123, 124, 161, 163, 164, 165, 174, 175, 176, 177, 179, 181, 182, 184, 186, 188, 192,

A little too much air time.:sad:
158

Next week is Seafair maybe we will see some of the NW faithfuls out there.

any way to get into the pits? I have a friend visiting from Germany next weekend and I was thinking of taking him and my 4 year old son.

Brian,
Tell Mike congratulations for making it into Heat 1A!:hurray::beers:

Wow! Congrats on the great outting. How many boats run a Rolls Royce?

My only other question right now is,...how many :beers: does Jerry's Tavern have to sell to support that program. Me thinks alot!:D

Hey Brian, I'm thinking a young, single guy might have a hard time concentrating in that venue. How's that workin' for ya?:D

That boat looks sharp! Glad you got in the Final.

And oooh, that U48 looks sweet! Need some more cool paint jobs like the old boats.


Wow! Congrats on the great outting. How many boats run a Rolls Royce?

My only other question right now is,...how many :beers: does Jerry's Tavern have to sell to support that program. Me thinks alot!:D

Hey Brian, I'm thinking a young, single guy might have a hard time concentrating in that venue. How's that workin' for ya?:D
Someone's running Piston this year? I didn't know that.

A few years back there was the U-3 team running Twin Turbo Allison power, they'd be quick, have maybe one good heat and a bad one, and if they made the final they almost invariably pushed the boost too hard and scattered the V1710. I think they won, what, one race? Not bad for a seventy-year old motor design.

I hope we get a good clean show this weekend, no blow overs.

I didn't think about it. I don't really know SH from shinola about it,....forgot about Allison power. The one boat definitely had a piston motor. For all I know,....it's a blown VW.:D:D:D

MIKE,....a little help here!

Just seeing this now and I have a couple hundred pics to down load maybe some time tomorrow. Making the final on points alone from running well in the three heat races was a gaint success. It takes many heats and some times years for new teams to pull this off and I'm proud of our guys for working very hard in 100* temps all weekend. It's difficult to explain the amount of time and hard work that go into getting one of these ready for a race season and it's even more difficult on a small budget with little spare equipment and a mostly new crew to the sport. This weekend was the third race for us and the improvments keep adding up, by the last race we should have a very good idea on what this boat wants and big changes can be made of the winter. This hull was the former U-3 piston powered Miss Chrysler Jeep and Dodge owned by Ed Cooper and was nick named "Tubby" because it's 1k over the wieght limit. Changing the engine program over to the turbine was a lot of work and it will take some time on the water to find the balance points and areas to improve the boat handeling and speed. Engine placement, shaft angle, air traps, propellers, wing adjustments, ect. all need to be right on for things to come together and run good speeds.

Yes there is still an Allison twin turbo v-12 powered U-3 still owned by Ed Cooper and driven by Jimmy King in the running. He built a new and very light wieght boat in 2004 and took the championship in 2005 I think it was, even winning the Gold Cup that year. Ever since then he has either placed very well or broke an engine. They have destroyed at least four this season and I have a pic from Detriot with a hole the size of my head in the engine block!

I can get a few passes but Seafair is the most popular event of the year and I cannot garantee I'll be able to get you in for free. At the most I'll get another 10 passes or so thurseday that will be good for the weekend. We get 75 passes total for the team, even though it sounds like a lot, they go fast and sponsors and their guests come first. This is a very expensive sport and we need to host as many potential sponsors as possible if we want to continue to compete.

Congrats to the U22 team. I hope it's ok, but I will definitely be name dropping at work tomorrow now that I have friends working on an unlimited hydroplane. :D

Way to go guys! :hurray:

Thanks for the call Brian. :cool:

Hey Brian, I'm thinking a young, single guy might have a hard time concentrating in that venue. How's that workin' for ya?:D

Lots of :eek::eek: all over the place thats for sure.:D

I think the other teams send ladies around to get the other boats progress to slow down. :yes:

Congrats to the U-22 team. I've seen how much wotk there is going on in the pit area and this is great success.

Good luck in the future Mike.:thumbsup:

Mike, congrats:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Glad everything's coming together for ya!! How do you manage to do your crew chief duties and keep BrIan out of trouble at the same time?;)

That's awesome! Definitely looking forward to seeing her run at Seafair :thumbsup: Even if you run out of tickets, it'd be worth paying to be down there in the pits seeing how everything works :yes: Congratulations on the success so far Mike :beers:

I see now that pit passes are only $10 anyhow, so no worries...we will just buy them. We are coming on Sunday I think. I know my son will love it! :)

Good pics! Very cool stuff you guys!

Here is a link to the pics I took,
http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/66ssfan/Hydro/?start=all

Congrats to your success Mike. LIVING THE DREAM :thumbsup:

We broke a gear box yesturday:sad: No Sunday Seafair fun for us. I'll have some more pics up tomorrow.

That is too bad! I saw you were scheduled for heat 2B today and were heading over.

We broke a gear box yesturday:sad: No Sunday Seafair fun for us. I'll have some more pics up tomorrow.


Uh Oh insnt Brian in charge of the gear box:D

Brian must have taken this pic, those shorts must be manditory
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/66ssfan/Hydro/U-2209394.jpg

Crack Kills.:D

We broke a gear box yesturday:sad: No Sunday Seafair fun for us. I'll have some more pics up tomorrow.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/66ssfan/Hydro/Seafair2009049.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/66ssfan/Hydro/Seafair2009022.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/66ssfan/Hydro/Seafair2009041.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/66ssfan/Hydro/Seafair2009030.jpg

That really does suck man... But hey at least Villwock didn't win... oh, wait. Damn.

I'm real happy with Jimmy King sliding the U3 in second, that boat looked damn good out in the water and might've even got the Elam if he'd been a lane closer.

I wonder if I can get them to sell me some fried Allison pistons?

I feel like crap for not coming out there to see you guys yesterday or today but I was wiped out :sad: Got home around 12:30 Saturday morning after the races and then waited up for Bianca to get home until almost 1 on Sunday morning.

I really wanted to make it down there too, sorry guys :( Thank you for the offer/invitation though :beers:

Brian looks so clean and respectable..........

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/66ssfan/Hydro/Seafair2009022.jpg

Hmmm? With this guy working on the engine and gear box no wonder they had problems ;).

Sorry for the tough luck guys. Would have loved to see two of TCNW's finest at work :thumbsup:.

TOG

Sorry to hear about the gearbox issues Mike.:(

I hope things are smoother for you next time out.:yes:

Wow...just got done reading about the agreement signed with the Sheikh of Qatar...you guys going to race in the Middle East?!

I wonder if I can get them to sell me some fried Allison pistons?

I can get you an Allison piston if you want, if we make it to Evensville in three weeks. Ed Cooper is a cool guy, I don't know Jimmy too well but Evensville is Cooper's home town. I'm looking forward to checking out his shop.

Wow...just got done reading about the agreement signed with the Sheikh of Qatar...you guys going to race in the Middle East?!

We won't know who is getting the invite or how many teams get to go to Qatar for another month or so. There is a good chance we are going though!

Thanks everyone for your well wishes, I am beyond wiped out and will have more to comment in a day or two:)

Even though we werent able to run on Sunday we still made a good showing this weekend, and per usual I had a great time. :D

Heck we even got a sponsor for the weekend from RamHead Brewery in Buckley, WA. Two free kegs:beers:

I am going to upload some pictures I took and a pretty neat video here in a little bit.:yes:

I can get you an Allison piston if you want, if we make it to Evensville in three weeks. Ed Cooper is a cool guy, I don't know Jimmy too well but Evensville is Cooper's home town. I'm looking forward to checking out his shop.
That'd be awesome!

Good luck in Evansville too, Do you know what caused the Gearbox to frag?

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531253.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531255.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531256.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531257.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531258.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531259.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531263.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531267.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531271.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531272.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531273.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531274.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531275.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531276.jpg

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa50/468Brian/hydroplane/SD531279.jpg

Nice shots Brian!:beers:

Nice shots Brian!:beers:

Thanks greg

I had to shrink the video down to fit onto youtube and i lost the audio I will try to redo it though. But I couldnt wait to post it.:D

YouTube - Unlimited Hydroplane U-22 Matrix Paint Systems Qualifying Seafair 2009

Even though we werent able to run on Sunday we still made a good showing this weekend, and per usual I had a great time. :D

Heck we even got a sponsor for the weekend from RamHead Brewery in Buckley, WA. Two free kegs:beers:

I am going to upload some pictures I took and a pretty neat video here in a little bit.:yes:

I think that was Elks Head Brewery?

It looks to me like the like the bearing retainer/spacer shifted on the bearing slightly and caused the gear to mesh at an angle with the center gear. This put the load on the end of the tooth instead of evenly across the entire tooth causing the failure. I don't think the box was set up correctly when we got it and the bearing preload was not enough, should have been around 400lbs cold on each bearing.

Mike,

Just curious, are parts available for those gearboxes or do you guys have to have everything machined to fit?

Mike,

Just curious, are parts available for those gearboxes or do you guys have to have everything machined to fit?

They are coustom built just for our application. That gear costs 5K to replace and can take up to 5 months to get a new one!

That camera angle was cool as hell! It amazes me that the hotshoes are able to find their marks going 150+ while being buffeted around like they are riding a jackhammer.