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Speed Ramblings
By Bob Dill October 2000
The Iron Duck Flies Again
On Friday, March 31, the last day of the PACRIM we had plenty of wind…too much wind
to race. It started with gusts over 30 and built to gusts over 40. I took
advantage of the big wind to try to beat Bob Schumacher’s NALSA sanctioned record of
116.7 mph. I figured with so much wind it would be a piece of cake. It turns
out, it was not so easy. If I had a decent run I could easily get over 110 but the
fastest I went was 113.4 (in two separate runs). There were a bunch of reasons for
this:
· The wind was much gustier than last year so while there was occasionally a lot of wind,
much of the wind field was too slow to power the boat to it’s potential.
· I was pushing the boat as hard as it would go but tended to be a little more
conservative than Bob might have been when it came to shutting it down at the end of a
run. Reviewing the data from the two fastest runs showed one run with a short speed
peak that would have benefited from a longer run.
· Some of the gusts were very dusty while the wind was building in the morning. On
one run the dust came up suddenly and I came closer to the radar van than I would have
liked. It was a wake up call. A bit more patience was called for. On
Ivanpah, the dust always clears after awhile, no matter how windy it is. Visibility
was fine during our afternoon runs in the same wind strengths.
· On the 21st run, the wing snapped in half. I was going 98 mph at the time and
there was a tremendous BANG as the boat unwound. I thought I had hit an unseen
pothole and a quick check revealed that all the wheels where still attached so I kept
sailing. It was not until I rounded up that I noticed that the boat seemed a little
underpowered. (The wing has been repaired and about to head back out
west)
I want to thank those who wanted to sail but kindly let us have the playa while we made our speed runs.
Hollywood Comes to the Playa:
The FOX TV crew was still on the playa filming for their NO BOUNDARIES show. The
PACRIM part of the segment covered landsailing racing nicely with great commentary from
Chris Wright, Andy Parr and Lincoln Baird. They embellished the Iron Duck segment
more than a little but I guess that is Hollywood. I have a ½” Beta copy from
FOX. I will bring a few VHS copies to Ivanpah at Thanksgiving.
Measurement:
Art Lang provided us with a Trimble AG 132 Differential GPS and an Enerteck data logger to
measure the boats speed. This GPS is a very sophisticated unit that is normally used
for precision farming (allowing farmers to accurately apply seed and fertilizer to their
fields). This system is by far the best method we have used so far. It
measures speed with an accuracy of less than +/- 0.05 mph! (more than twice as good as
radar or ‘field set up’ timing traps). The GPS records velocity, position,
time and relevant data quality parameters every second. This gives a complete
record of each run, which we found helpful in understanding the performance of the
boat. We will have a more detailed article on this on this site by late October
2000.
More Speed Runs
Later on Friday (March 31) we ran some informal speed trials using radar. The wind ranged
from 20 to 30 mph. Andy Parr (K 445) was fast in his five square at 68.2 mph and
Richard Augistin (NZ 362) went an impressive 75.3 in his class II but the fastest was
78.8 by Bruce Dresser (US 218) in his Friendship!
Speed on the Beach:
In early June Tadeg Normand went 94.4 mph (151.9 kph) on the beach at Port Leucate
(Aude) France, beating Bertrand Lambert’s 94.2 mph (151.55 kph) record on sand set in
1993. Bertrand’s record was the official all-out landsailing record until
Bob Schumacher went 116.7 mph (187.8 kph) in the Iron Duck last year. (Link
to news story-in French)
News from the Gerlach:
Dan Kampo has his big red speed yacht ‘Pegasus’ on the Black Rock again this
summer. Dan took Pegasus home to Wisconsin last winter to convert it to a one man
boat, move the mast back some more and to put it on a diet. No news on how the boat sails
with the changes. In early September the the yacht was hit on the side wheel,
at night, while parked near the east side trackway by a BLM truck. From the pictures it
looked like Pegasus is need of some repairs but it could easily have been worse. No
word on the truck.
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Pegasus after the collision
News from NALSA
The NALSA Board has just approved revised NALSA Regulations for
Speed Record Attempts. The revisions add sofisticated GPS to the allowable
primary measurement methods (in addition to radar and timing traps). Other changes
include a clairified definition of stored energy and who can serve as observers.
Bob Dill