Bill Murphy poses with his 'squirt boat' while Nina Lovejoy tries out the Freefloater 1.5 in the background. The webmaster had a chance to try out the Hammerhead on Lake Michigan a week later. Like a true wet-decked squirt boat the craft just bobbed up and down in high close together waves. It was very easy to keep the craft upright while another configuration would not have been as easy to switch direction and would have been more prone to capsize.
Also present was a sprinkling of boats from all over. In the tradition of IHPVA races, US national and worldwide events, this venue did not dissapoint. Other big events to preceed this one include the Washington DC IHPVA world championship, the Expo '86 Vancouver event, The World Championship at Blaine Minnesotaa in '93 just to name some.
Boats present included a new 2-seater by ATV kinetic sculptor Bob Buerger, a catamaran 'squirt boat' named "Hammerhead" by Bill Murphy, Warren Beauchamp, and others at the 'Skunk Works'. Also present was a touring catamaran, "Freefloater 1.5" by Jake Free with completely new carbon composite hulls.
The most exotic boat present was an 'orbital' hand-foot powered Flying Fish class [canard type] hydrofoil called "New Fisics" also by Free.
The events were experimental. Along the lines of a "sprint" with a flying start, a zig zagging slalom, a "Bollard Pull" and some kind of long distance race, these events were formed from Doug Millikin's development of events at Washington IHPSC (including DuPont prize). Most of the participants were tweaking and reassembling their newly introduced craft.
Sunday followed with the long distance race.
The outcome of the four events in this competition will be to refine a flying start sprint (optionally allowing for HPVA style timing equipment), run a slalom, do a static thrust instead of a bollard (large heavy buoy) pull. The long distance event will be a short-course run using the the 100 m trap. The long event the next day turns into a 'fun ride'. This is what the competition came to as the contestants used it as a chat filled social event.
4-26-2024