waikato river seagull race

[Chicken]

everyone geared up for the big race. river looking good is about a foot or two higher than last year.

[Rex NZ]

Chicken

That's good news about the river level. Might see some fast times with the incr flow. Last year was so low that you almost needed wheels in places

I'm on the rescue boat this year. P/B is bringing one too. So, there'll be good backup

Rex

[The Tinker]

And the Pom reckoned wont be enough water this year. Eat your heart out Charles. Rex I thought you were competing.

[Rex NZ]

Tinker

Will have to get myself sorted first. The new rule changes are a game changer.

Have invested alot of time over the last year doing research & design work for J/D from the deep south.

Doing research work towards pressurised induction lately

Rex

[The Tinker]

A blown Seagull that would create some interest, plus a lot of offerings to the god of speed I would think. An induction side of a turbo charger over driven by belt off the fly wheel would work ok I reakon.

[Charles uk]

It will be interesting to see if the amount of energy required to give pressurised induction & then pressurise it more in the crankcase is paid back by enough extra power from the combustion stroke.
You do the work Rex & let me know.

[Rex NZ]

CharlesUK

I'm estimating about 1/3 of the brake output to drive the compressor to be about right. Output could be 150% +/- of normal aspiration.

There are several successful case studies on 2-strokes out there;
* turbocharged chainsaws
* bikes with kinetic air rams

Been thinking about reversing a rotary vane air motor to create a compressor. Maybe use a compact planetary gearbox to speed it up.

Any other suggestions?

Rex

[Charles uk]

Well my spy has just sent the first micro film of the 2011 Waikato secret weapons, sorry no captions on pics it's still with the decoders.

[The Tinker]

Charles the green and white 20 footer, is the finished boat. Sorry about not get around to getting photos on line I was to busy getting it finished. That photo was taken about five minutes after it hit the water for the very first time. Afternoon before the race. These twenty footers are very suitable for a Seagull engine. They easily do nine knots with a standard slightly sick 102.

[Charles uk]

The Wooden boat 033 is Chicken's boat, who came 3rd in the modified class.

If he keeps that work effort up he's going to make you old overweight Kiwi's very nervous.

It won't be long before I have to diet to keep up with this younger breed of Kiwi petrol heads.

Congratulations Cam (Chicken)!

[Rex NZ]

All

One of the best Races ever. A true endurance adventure of 76 nautical miles (141km) over 2x days.

Best part of 30 boats. Many specially built just for the race. Perfect weather, cloudy & dry. Lots of water & flow in the river

This is the first year in my memory that the Karapiro rapids were taken without incident. Usually there's swampings or capsizes, or smashed hulls, or lost overboard motors.

Excellent standards presented by participants at scrutineering. All participants wisely chose to wear their lifejackets thru to Cambridge

Refreshing to see many new faces. Including an Ozzy, who in true Australian spirit equipped his boat with a fully functional barbeque.

The usual breakdowns of fuel systems & ignitions & propsprings kept us rescue boats busy with many tow-ins req. Biggest issue over the weekend was a smashed off gearbox, so, fairly minor given the entire scheme of things.

Rex

[Charles uk]

Here's some more pic's thanks to Pete Notman.

https://picasaweb.google.com/piratepete ... 1Webphotos

[Charles uk]

Here's John Crighton's race report.

Hi Seagullers, The Seagull Gods once again smiled upon us gifting record capable conditions , high river levels, no wind , overcast and an enthusiastic bunch of competitors, who prepared and presented their boats in top class condition , Srcutineer Raoul tells me he only had to suggest that a new young competitor add a little more buoyancy to his boat,..... it would have been a shame to lose such a beautifully prepared motor too the “Rapids Taniwha”.. he already has between 30 and 40 Seagulls scattered along the Rapids section of the course.. ....if they ever stop the flow completely there is some treasure to be found in that 4 mile stretch of water. Easter this year fell at the very end of April, after “daylight saving” had finished, so the suggestion was made we bring start times forward by 30 mins and to set maximum allowable passage times between points on the River, failing to meet these targets the boat entry was required to ‘retire’ from the event, this was to ensure we had all the boats home before 1700 hrs at Rangiriri on Saturday.. and it worked, we didn’t have safety boats darting up and down looking for stragglers as they all finished pretty close to “target” times. The one area we have to tidy up is start times, when you are assigned a class and a start time ....the clock starts ticking for you at that start time ..only hand written excuses for your inability to get organised, written by your grandmother and presented too the starter on the day, along with her passport and the traditional $50.00 bribe will be considered. Unfortunately I didnt see the start, but I’m told the usual mayhem reigned especially in the modified class, where a grey/blue “hobie” rammed Rev Phil Bennetts safety boat, plus a couple of other competitors,our only “international” this year was an Australian yes we are scrapping the bottom of the bucket... but beggars cant be choosers. Mark was sent down the River in a boat/motor combo put together by Ross and Raoul, in an effort to appease the locals Mark announced he would be cooking ‘snags’ [aussie for sausages] all the way down the river, because of the extra weight he was carrying on board , nobody could wait for him to catch up so he spent a day cooking and eating, in a further effort to gain attention he conveniently dropped the gearbox off his “borrowed”? motor and was duly towed to Rangiriri by Rev Phil, Ross found him another motor for him to continue on with next day river levels were reasonably high this year and a high flow of water saw the competitors and a few white knuckled “newbies’ set some good speeds through the first 4 miles, I’m told two boats hit the wall at “the whirlpool” before exiting into Leamington Pool before continuing their rather sedate trip to Hamilton, where we had dozens of bystanders and wellwishers watching the fleet pass through, this was brought about by recent newspaper publicity put in by the Hamilton Menshed group, who built 3 mini maxs and had a great weekend..... promising to return next year with purpose Seagull boats, you did your hometown proud boys, onward too Rangiriri and the end of day one after 53 miles ... the Heritage Cafe extended their hours to cater for the road crews, provided secure camping areas for the tenters, opening next morning to ensure that everybody fed and watered before leaving on the next stage ... thankyou Sandie and your team, job well done. Sunday saw the boats set off for the most challenging part of the course... Sandbar Alley between Rangiriri and Meremere didnt cause too many problems as the boats made good time down the River, I travelled up from Hoods Landing on “Classic Edition” a 26 ft Max Carter built day boat powered by 2x115 hp 4 stroke yams to have breakfast under the Tuakau Bridge, no sooner was the bacon frying and Ross Leger came buzzing around the corner making great time, making about 12mph , to finally set a new one man dinghy race record, then a couple of dinghy boats passed through followed by Graham Keagan in his terrible looking, but effective Portaboat, setting a new modified record of 7hrs 51 secs Nigel Drake “ghosted” by doing approx 12 mph, no wake, no fuss, just an honourable old Seagull on his very elegant “Fleatwood , Nigels boat was the first boat built of the “International Bermuda Class “ we started, ......we have now 3 of these boats running and by the end of the year there should be another 3 joining the class, they’re comfortable and look a picture cruising by, the class is governed by length [20ft]and motor [either stock 102 or silver Century] only mods allowed, is a cav plate and polished prop... the plan is to build a couple of this class to have available for visiting competitors.. Andy Murray and Michael Wenzlick were the other two competitors in that class and only finished their boats the night before the event ... isnt that typically Seagull race behaviour, watch these babies pick their times up with a little development. so the race continued on to its final conclusion, with the usual set of “ local Bogans” complaining about the Hoods Landing ramp being cluttered up by Seagulls etc while exceeding speed limits within 200m of the shore at every opportunity, maybe the Waikato River Harbourmaster should be paying attention these fools rather than “speeding” Seagulls in Hamilton environs.. all boats completed within the time space allotted and proceeded back to Sandspit Motor Camp for a shower and then back to the Waiuku Cossie Club for a Seagull quiz compiled and run by Mark “Aussie” Walker... thankyou Mark .....Prestige catering did a fine job with the food as usual, on time and plenty of it , the only apology I really have to make is for a bunch of " gate crashing drunken Boofheads” who used our gathering as an excuse to be able to drink booze on a “public holiday”, by there bad behaviour almost disrupted the proceedings.... finally adding insult too injury helped themselves to the food that was bought and paid for by the Great Race competitors ....... today I have had a frank discussion with the “Club” management and they assure me it will never happen again, as the function from hereon in will be classed as a”Private Function” ... all in all another great event .. competitors thankyou for your co-operation re the safety rules we have in place .... Next Years [2012] GREAT RACE is earlier race starts at the Karapiro Dam Pool on Sat 7th April, now you have 11 mths and one week to get organised...... plus you have a load of great events around New Zealand to hone your skills on ... I’ll advise you as notification comes to hand ... thank you John C

[SS ERLANGEN]

Sorry about that, trying to sink the safety boat is not cool. Boat not Hobie but a Kiwi Cat. Got it off Trademe for $50.00 was a playground attraction at Tairua Primary School. Problem I had was no steering, down rapids had the control of a log floating down but no problems in the rapids just went the flow.
Next time the motors will go on the front and the rudders will be increased in area and will deflect more.
Some stats
Used 22 litres total on 1 engine first day
Used 23 litres total on 2 engines 2nd (day reason to get rid of the fuel)
Speed with 1 motor 12 kph
Speed with 2 motors 10.5 kph it pulled the back of the boat down

[Charles uk]

Here the 2011 Waikato race results & times.