Period Nanny State Reminders

[Flyfisher]

Boat racers are a peculiar breed. The general approach seems to be to keep pushing until something like that happens because it's only then that they can be satisfied they were trying hard enough! After all, he had already set a world record for that class of boat, so he was only trying to beat himself.

Here's another friend setting a world record on Windermere back in 1984 in a 'cabover' hydroplane in which the driver lays down on their front (this is the type that Mrs FF used to race).

The runs at 3:00 and 3:40 shows just how close to the limit the boat was running, with just the propellor and a few inches of the boat in contact with the water. The run at 4:00 shows the boat rising too far and about to flip before Chris throttles back slightly (you can hear the engine note drop slightly).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGdX9uuvF6c

This record still stands today and is unlikely to be beaten as these types of hydroplanes could not be fitted with safety cells and are no longer licenced by the RYA for racing except at 'classic' events. They can still be seen most Thursday evenings in the summer 'racing' on Oulton Broad in Suffolk, which is home to Lowestoft & Oulton Broad Motor Boat Club (http://www.lobmbc.org.uk/#/club-history/4553642769) one of Britain's oldest powerboat racing clubs, dating back to 1903, and the only one remaining to hold regular meetings throughout the year.

 

[LadyArowana]

We must therefore infer that telling your wife about your potentially lethal accident is scarier than having your boat flip at 130 mph.

Yes, and rightly so, because dealing with the consequences would just be so much fun wouldn't it?

 

[philpjuk100]

Whilst on a "petrolhead"theme,I was in my workshop down the garden yesterday when I heard a loud engine,I dashed outside but could see nothing although the noise (music!) was getting louder,the trent runs at the end of the garden as I reached the bank a spitfire came around a bend in the river between the trees and climbed to clear the roadbridge upstream,magic! the engine note sent a shiver down my spine!.We are not too far from coningsby and the memorial flight and have seen the lancaster overhead but yesterday was something I will remember for the rest of my life!

 

[Penners]

Ah yes, the iconic growl of the Rolls Royce Merlin - Beethoven never produced a more musical sound.

When the aircraft did a roll, the engine always produced a characteristic puff of black smoke when it was upside down.

 

[philpjuk100]

Have been told by some anglers that there is a scaffolding camera platform downstream of us so the spit was probably being filmed,I have seen them before (once at an open air "Glen Miller" concert put on by saga at Evansville university grantham) where a spit flew in,did a roll and flew out again during "in the mood" but never that low or flown in such a cavalier fashion,this one was raising water with the prop draft,it disturbed a flock of cormorants from an island and I felt the draft and smelt the fuel!. I remember being taken by my dad to RAF sealand in the late 40s/early 50s where there were fields full of WW2 aircraft awaiting destruction,spits,hurricanes,lancasters etc.We climbed aboard some and collected a few souvenirs,one,a pressure gauge is in use in my austin seven.