posted 05-16-2012 01:38 PM ET (US)            

If I may link to Jim's old favorite, (LOL) Bass and Walleye Boats magazine:

http://www.bwbmag.com/output.cfm?id=1122481

Skip about 2/3 down the page to "Allison"

posted 05-16-2012 05:46 PM ET (US)            

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/history/whaler.html

Bass and Walleye Boat magazine was a favorite of mine--and I am not being sarcastic. It was too bad they decided to get in bed with a certain manufacturer and drove off all the others from participating in their shoot-out tests. As one engine manufacturer manager mentioned to me, when the BWB editor-writer and crew from one of the other engine makers in the test are all high-five-ing each other and going out for drinks every night during a three day test, when they won't actually weigh the boats in the tests, and when they won't actually verify that the firmware in the test engines is the actual EPA certified firmware, it made hard for the engine makers not in the inner-circle to keep participating.

Crouch was a naval architect, and his useful estimate of boat speed for planing hulls is a remarkably simple and accurate method. I could not call it a design formula. There are no illusion in my mind about how it works, although there seems to be at least two or three people who have some serious misunderstandings--disillusions--about it. Good for them.

I don't buy in to the celebration of a lack of education or scientific method is the right way to design boats. It is just part of the Proud to be Stupid movement that is sweeping the country these days. The people that invented the internet, modern computers, the processor chips we use, are the ones that do the math that makes all of this possible--they were not the stupid ones in their classes.

By the way, C Raymond Hunt's 12-meter America's Cup defender EASTERNER was not selected for the defense of the cup--it was not as fast as other boats designed by some naval architects. You have to wonder if perhaps those other guys--the naval architects--employed some design formulas that made their boats faster. For more on C Raymond Hunt's participation in the design of Boston Whaler boats, please see my article

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/13/originalHullDesign.html

which was written twelve years ago and has had about 148,000 readers.

ASIDE to Binkie: Have you read it?

At bit more about my admiration for Bass and Walleye Boat magazine. Near the end of their run, BWB was doing a series of articles on optimizing the performance of a boat. They started with a ten-year-old bass boat, and began applying a series of improvements to it with the goal of getting more speed. It was quite interesting to see what steps were done and what increase in speed resulted. The experts applied all sorts of remedies: they fitted all kinds of propellers, had the propellers tuned and balanced by experts, they raised the motor, they added a jack plate, they reworked the motor with new reeds, different jets, better coils, and so on, and so on. Each improvement added a very modest speed increase. The improvement that caused the biggest change in the speed of the boat I have not yet mentioned: they carefully smoothed and faired the hull. The work on the hull jumped the speed upward several miles-per-hour.

posted 05-17-2012 10:54 AM ET (US)            

He then turned the shape over to loftsman who would scale it up and pull the offsets to construct the full size vessel.

Since his boats were recognized as the boats to beat, coupled with the stellar list if winning of Gold Cup races back in the day. He too was not an engineer or naval architect and had limited education.

posted 05-17-2012 11:05 AM ET (US)            

It was Charlie Stang who first had the concept sketches dubbed the "AVC Drive" which was the basic design for the modern sterndrive.

After presenting it to Kiekhieffer who thought it quote: "a Horseshit Idea" Strang and Wynn collaberated together on it.

Wynne built a mock-up using old Merc parts and ordered an engine from Volvo marine engine with no transmission.

A Volvo rep checked it out and the rest is history.

Interestingly, Strang could not take credit for the design because he was at Mercury and Karl would have gone ballistic. So he acted as "Ghost designer" and even met in secret with volvo designers to tweak out problems so they could showcase a prototype at the 1959 NY Boat Show.

posted 05-17-2012 05:22 PM ET (US)            

For more on the sterndrive and its roll in a very significant legal action involving Mercury (as part of Brunswick), you might find the lengthy two-part article I authored about 11 years ago on this subject to be of interest:

posted 05-17-2012 09:16 PM ET (US)            

(In the spring of 1958, Jim Wynne left Kiekhaefer Mercury and in less than 90 days, "invented" the stern drive. Charlie Strang and Charles Alexander remained at Kiekhaefer Mercury and continued to support his development of a prototype AVC drive. A company was formed, Hydro Mechanical Development, headed by Wynne. Unable to raise the huge funds required to tool and produce the drive they began looking for help. In early 1958 they met with John Buehler president of Indiana Gear Works and also the U.S. licensee of the Hamilton Jet Drive of New Zealand. The book tells of the unusual meeting, Buehler was a large man in a boy scout uniform and his huge office had the rear end of animals mounted on the walls with arrows sticking in them. Buehler was convinced that Hamilton Jet Drives were going to take over the industry, so he was not interested.

In Florida, Wynne completed the "cobbled together" prototype in his parents garage. Remembering the importance of secrecy learned from Kiekhaefer, he covered the garage windows and spoke to no one about it until the prototype was completed and tested. He borrowed a 20 foot fiberglass boat from Woody Woodson (founder of Thunder Boat Company in Miami) and installed the new drive. He covered it up and trailered it to Pelican Harbor on the intracoastal waterway in Miami before dawn. After a few trial runs and some adjustments, he was satisfied that the concept would work.
Shortly later John Jarnmark, the New Jersey based general sales manager for Volvo Penta made a routine sales call on Wynne following up on a 80 horsepower engine delivered without the reverse gear. Wynne told him he was working on a new application for the engine that could produce a lot of sales. Jarnmark was interested, but Wynne could not disclose more until filing the patent applications. After they were filed, he invited Jarnmark back and he was very impressed. Jarnmark sent diagrams, photos, and descriptions of the device to Volvo in Sweden.)

So where does Charley Strang come into the picture except for moral support. My comment about Jim Wynne was one sentence long but it doesn't contradict what is written in Iron Fist
The thread is about boat designer Ray Hunt.
Get Real jimh

rich

posted 05-18-2012 12:13 PM ET (US)            

Strang was indeed the chief designer of the sterndrive, Jim Wynne had to disclose to Harold Wilkund (CEO of Volvo Penta) that it was Strang who had actual design drawings. This is why Strang had to meet with these Volvo guys in "off the beaten path" hotels to perfect the drawings for production.

It was decided Jim Wynne would take the credit, and its a good thing he did.

Wynne even took a Ray Hunt hull and entered one of volvo's precious "hand-built prototypes" in a sanctioned APBA race without Wilkund's knowledge.

posted 05-18-2012 12:23 PM ET (US)            

You Mercury guys would really enjoy it, IMO, you guys should be issued a copy when you purchase your motor!

You'll learn stuff like Charles Alexander at Mercury perfected the thru-hub exhaust.

The reason Mercs are black is because when they built the inline six, it was white and looked to "out of proportion"

As they wrestled with the problem, Charlie Strang's mother walked into the meeting and said "that if a big woman wants to look smaller, she wears a black dress."

So they painted the big outboard black and it looked like it shrunk 20%, Karl was so elated he said "Lets paint them all black!!!!"