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NAMBA INTERNATIONAL PROPWASH VOLUME 38, NUMBER 2 SEPTEMBER 2008 INSIDE THIS ISSUE President’s Message By Al Waters NAMBA President Since the last Propwash in March of this year, there has been a lot going on so I will reflect back just a bit and take the President’s Message through a time line. Proposals were voted on and passed for the Fast Electric classes and the new Classic Thunderboat class in the gas rules. Please go to the NAMBA web site at www.namba.com and simple directions will show you what pages to print and replace to keep your current rule book up to date. Each year, we will mail to the general NAMBA membership the updated rules. However, once they are posted on the Internet, they do take affect so we might as well keep our rule books up to date at the races. In June of this year, the FE NAMBA Nats were hosted by the Devil Mountain Water Boilers in District Nine at Lake Minden. This is home site to the RC Modeleers of which District Nine Director Dave Bestpitch is a member. Dave and his club jumped right in and assisted the Devil Water Mountain Boilers in running the event so that they would have the opportunity to race also. More and more, we are seeing that our NAMBA Nationals need the assistance from outside the hosting club or district to run a smooth Nationals. It’s now July and off to Greeley, Colorado where District 20 hosted the NAMBA Nitro and Gas Nationals. This was our first Nationals in some time where we were prepared to assist a district that had a smaller membership than say District 3, 9, or 19. Co-Contest Directors Robert Holland, Joe Scarpino, and their district members did an incredible job. Occasionally they needed help with race announcers, judges, mailing lists for sponsors, the race program, heat sheets, teaching on-site race day scoring procedures, you name it. When they asked, we found it for them. We want the NAMBA Nationals to travel the country so that those who can’t will have the opportunity for the Nationals to come to them. I won’t candy coat it and say that the system in place was perfect and the Nationals went off without a hitch. All Nationals provide opportunities for us. We take care of them, learn from them, and make provisions so that following Nationals will run that much more smoothly. When the contestants have a good time and can’t see that we are taking care of those opportunities behind the scenes, then we have a successful NAMBA Nationals. Robert Holland, Joe Scarpino and his committee did just that. They showed that the smaller districts can host a successful and fun Nationals. Read elsewhere in this issue what Jim Continued on page 2 EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Cathie Galbraith 1815 Halley Street San Diego, CA 92154 (619) 424-6380 Fax (619) 424-8845 e-mail: [email protected] Web Page: www.namba.com PRESIDENT Al Waters 162 Avenida Chapala San Marcos, CA 92069 (760) 746-2408 e-mail: [email protected] VICE PRESIDENT Mark Grim 7372 Natal Drive Westminster, CA 92683 (714) 890-3127 e-mail: [email protected] 2 3 7 7 8 9 11 13 13 14 15 17 17 18 19 19 20 20 20 22 23 In Memory of Bill Miller ……... Tuning Tips/Troubleshooting … New Scale Club Hits the NW … The State of Sale ……………... ERCU at Seattle’s Seafair ……. Zenoah from Stock to Outlaw ... So You Want To CD …………. ERCU Happy to be NAMBA ... NAMBA District IX ………….. Kids Are Boaters ……………... NAMBA Nats Snaps …………. Nats Point of View …………… So You Want To Host A Nats .. A Nationals Thank You ………. NAMBA Nationals History ….. You Can’t Touch This! ………. WOR! is Online! ……………... Notes From the VP …………… District One - The Home Stretch In Memory Of Roger Newton ... NAMBA Contacts …………….

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NAMBA INTERNATIONAL PROPWASH

VOLUME 38, NUMBER 2 SEPTEMBER 2008

INSIDE THIS ISSUE President’s Message By Al Waters NAMBA President

Since the last Propwash in March of this year, there has been a lot going on so I will reflect back just a bit and take the President’s Message through a time line. Proposals were voted on and passed for the Fast Electric classes and the new Classic Thunderboat class in the gas rules. Please go to the NAMBA web site at www.namba.com and simple directions will show you what pages to print and replace to keep your current rule book up to date. Each year, we will mail to the general NAMBA membership the updated rules. However, once they are posted on the Internet, they do take affect so we might as well keep our rule books up to date at the races. In June of this year, the FE NAMBA Nats were hosted by the Devil Mountain Water Boilers in District Nine at Lake Minden. This is home site to the RC Modeleers of which District Nine Director Dave Bestpitch is a member. Dave and his club jumped right in and assisted the Devil Water Mountain Boilers in running the event so that they would have the opportunity to race also. More and more, we are seeing that our NAMBA Nationals need the assistance from outside the hosting club or district to run a smooth Nationals. It’s now July and off to Greeley, Colorado where District 20 hosted the NAMBA Nitro and Gas Nationals. This was our first Nationals in some time where we were prepared to assist a district that had a smaller membership than say District 3, 9, or 19. Co-Contest Directors Robert Holland, Joe Scarpino, and their district members did an incredible job. Occasionally they needed help with race announcers, judges, mailing lists for sponsors, the race program, heat sheets, teaching on-site race day scoring procedures, you name it. When they asked, we found it for them. We want the NAMBA Nationals to travel the country so that those who can’t will have the opportunity for the Nationals to come to them. I won’t candy coat it and say that the system in place was perfect and the Nationals went off without a hitch. All Nationals provide opportunities for us. We take care of them, learn from them, and make provisions so that following Nationals will run that much more smoothly. When the contestants have a good time and can’t see that we are taking care of those opportunities behind the scenes, then we have a successful NAMBA Nationals. Robert Holland, Joe Scarpino and his committee did just that. They showed that the smaller districts can host a successful and fun Nationals. Read elsewhere in this issue what Jim

Continued on page 2

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Cathie Galbraith

1815 Halley Street San Diego, CA 92154

(619) 424-6380 Fax (619) 424-8845

e-mail: [email protected]

Web Page: www.namba.com

PRESIDENT Al Waters 162 Avenida Chapala San Marcos, CA 92069 (760) 746-2408 e-mail: [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENT Mark Grim 7372 Natal Drive Westminster, CA 92683 (714) 890-3127 e-mail: [email protected]

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In Memory of Bill Miller ……... Tuning Tips/Troubleshooting … New Scale Club Hits the NW … The State of Sale ……………... ERCU at Seattle’s Seafair ……. Zenoah from Stock to Outlaw ... So You Want To CD …………. ERCU Happy to be NAMBA ... NAMBA District IX ………….. Kids Are Boaters ……………... NAMBA Nats Snaps …………. Nats Point of View …………… So You Want To Host A Nats .. A Nationals Thank You ………. NAMBA Nationals History ….. You Can’t Touch This! ………. WOR! is Online! ……………... Notes From the VP …………… District One - The Home Stretch In Memory Of Roger Newton ... NAMBA Contacts …………….

PROPWASH

2 September 2008

President’s Message (Continued from front page)

Rigli and Rena Corley from the City of Greeley Parks Department had to say about the Nationals. The first question always asked at the completion of one Nationals is where the next one is going to be held. The NAMBA Nationals for Nitro and Gas will be held in District Eight at Twin Lakes in Marysville, Washington. Co-Contest Directors Eric Bourlet, Mike Hughes, and their committee have not wasted any time and are securing class sponsorships and host hotel accommodations as of this writing. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to see just how fast the FE boats are going with the new rules package, the 2009 NAMBA Nationals are a must attend. There will be a couple of FE classes that will run exhibition. I refer to them as WOW classes. That is what you will say when you see them run. It should be pretty exciting. The 2009 NAMBA FE Nationals will be hosted by the Mid-Michigan Electrics Unlimited Club, home of the prestigious MMEU Cup. MMEU hosted the FE Nationals five years ago and had nearly 100 boaters entering 509 boats. Please check back to the NAMBA web site frequently so that you will have access to both NAMBA Nationals web sites when they become available. There are also a few changes to be announced with NAMBA Chairmen. Dave Bestpitch, who has been our NAMBA Awards Chairman for many years, has resigned. Kim Grim will now fulfill his position. Kim has been instrumental in providing us with the high resolution graphics for the NAMBA logo and NAMBA Hall of Fame logo. She has been involved with designing NAMBA Nationals race programs and owns a graphics business so I am sure that she will fit right in comfortably. NAMBA Vice President Mark Grim and I were talking and felt that we should have someone who has the energy and passion to search out our history beyond the banner that displays our Nationals patches. Who else other than District One Director Dave Rychalsky. Dave has been collecting Nationals pins and race programs dating back to our first Nationals. He has a good collection going but we are missing the early years. Please read elsewhere in the Propwash on how you can be of assistance in helping him out. Dave has the current pins and patches in a collection case designed to display at the Nationals during the special events held throughout the week. As a result of his efforts, we have added Dave to the Contacts page in the Propwash and NAMBA web site with the title of Historian. His e-mail and phone number are available so that he can be contacted. As we approach the end of the 2008 racing season, we come upon that time of the year where District Director elections are held for even numbered districts. We have received one nomination from District Eight and District 20. Nominations are now closed as per Section 3 of the NAMBA rule book. You will also notice that there is a NAMBA application for 2009 insurance included with this issue. It may sound a little early but how many times have you found yourself waiting until a couple of weeks before your first race and then trying to get insurance at the last minute. Please remember that your insurance is good for those times you test before race days so don’t wait until the last minute to take care of business. Have a good year racing!

In Memory of Bill Miller By Al Waters NAMBA President

Bill Miller was a gas model boater in District 19 who everyone knew. If they didn't know him because of his person-ality, they knew of him because of the way he drove his boats. He was known as “Wild Bill.” I didn't know Bill that well as I have not been racing gas boats that long but he was a likeable kind of guy. He did race Cat and Sport Hydro so we were in many heats together. He always said hi to me and was very personable. Very few people in this world could have as much fun as Bill did. District 19 uses an online feature for entering races. Vince Henderson, the Safety Chairman for District 19 would always enter Bill’s boats and be there for him at the races. Kirk Henderson, Vince’s son, would help Bill out also if the two were in the same heat together. When we lose a model boater, we always have a memory or two about something they did that will always stick in our mind. Bill left an everlasting impression with me that I can still talk about to this day and it gives me a good laugh. At the Gas World Championships last year in Las Vegas, racing for the event was finished and everyone was cleaning up. Bill decided to run one more boat that he was having some difficulty with during the event. Whatever it was, he found it as the boat ran like a rocket. If you have ever been to the Las Vegas pond, you will notice in the front straight that there is a very tall protective retaining wall.

until you get to the turn. Sometimes you just might be trying to use too big a propeller and once the boat slows down you might never get it back up on a plane. There is just not enough grunt in the motor, no matter what the tune is.

Two Needle Carbs There are a lot of performance advantages to be had by using a two needle carb. The engine will have much better performance at all levels of the RPM spectrum. A properly tuned two needle carb will give you a solid idle, snappy acceleration, and outstanding top end. The low-speed needle will handle the fuel flow from idle to about ¼ throttle and the high-speed needle from there on up to full throttle. The most common two needle carb that has been adapted to our 1/8th scale unlimiteds boats is the O.S. Max 9B. I have seen these mounted on Picco’s, CMB’s, Kalastrotov’s and even Mac’s. The newest version of the CMB Hydro Greenhead motor comes with a two needle carb that performs and tunes very much like a OS 9B carb. One advantage the CMB carb is that the low seed needle has a 5/16th hex head that is more easily adjusted than trying to get a screwdriver in from the side as you do with the OS 9B.

Tuning Two Needle Carbs Start by over richening the low-speed needle. You basically want to take it out of the picture while you work on getting the high-speed needle right. Again, start by over richening the high-speed needle. Run the boat and keep leaning it out until you get the top end performance you want and the glow plug has a good read. This is the critical adjustment. The reason you must tune the high-speed needle first is because the high-speed needle controls the amount of fuel that the low-speed needle receives because the fuel flows from the fuel line to the high-speed-needle and then on through to the low-speed needle. Once you have the high-speed needle set you can start adjusting the low-speed needle. Fire up the motor and let it warm up on the boat stand. Give the throttle a good solid blip. If the low-speed needle is right, the motor should snap right up with no bogging or coughing.

Continued on page 4

PROPWASH

September 2008 3

On the upper area, there were about a half a dozen fisherman with their lines in the water. Fishing is not permitted there but they were there just the same. Bill ran his boat a little wide coming out of the right turn and proceeded to wipe out every fishing line and bobber in the pond. We know that Bill didn't do this on purpose as he was a hooting’ and a hollering’ how fast his boat was running. Needless to say, we calmed the fishermen down as we explained that they were not allowed to fish in that area as it was. Bill went home a happy man totally unaware of what had transpired. We cleaned up and got out of town in a hurry. Yes! What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Bill, we will certainly miss you.

Tuning Tips, Maintenance and Troubleshooting By Mike Cathey Unlimiteds Northwest

The challenge of the past few years in 1/8th scale racing in the Pacific Northwest has been to get the boats to slow to a crawl at the start in lane one and then accelerate hard to the first turn. Very few have been able to accomplish this with a single needle carb. One way some of us got around this (somewhat) was to train ourselves to roll into the throttle rather than snapping it wide open. The other way is to use a third channel with an onboard adjustable high-speed needle valve, starting off rich so the boat will take a start, then leaning it out once the boat is at full speed. The third channel needle valves also work with two-needle carbs. I can’t remember how many times I’ve seen guys struggling to find a tune and no adjustment to the needle helped, so they just stayed lean. Most of the time it is because a piece of crud is in the needle valve seat. Sometimes it is a piece of plastic flashing from the inside of the tank, or a piece of carbon or pipe coupler material that has made it through the pressure tap from the tuned pipe. A lot of people run fuel filters. Most fuel filters are directional and have to be installed correctly to be of any use. Always back flush you needle valve with some brake clean before you even start the tuning process. I blow mine out several times during the day, especially in hot weather when the nitro can gum them up. When you initially do the radio install and throttle setup try to have about a one mm opening of the carb barrel at idle. Remember you can always adjust this with the radio throttle trim later without affecting the top end throttle barrel opening. Many radios have an “Idle Up’ feature that allows a higher idle until you turn it off at the transmitter after the boat is launched. An important safety tip is to always make sure you can shut the motor down by having enough servo travel to completely close the throttle barrel. Setting up your failsafe is also a critical safety feature as well, protecting your boat and your fellow competitor’s equipment. In my opinion a boat that cannot be shut off should never be launched.

Tuning Single Needle Carbs The best way to adjust a single-needle carb for all around performance is start off rich and tune to lean. You can use a lot of your senses to determine if the motor is too lean right on the bunk. If the motor idles too fast, the exhaust sounds too hollow or raspy, or the exhaust from the motor smells burned and it makes your eyes water, it is too lean. A flow meter can be indispensable in helping to establish a baseline. Once you have established that the motor is on the rich side, test run the boat and assess the performance. If it launches and accelerates easily but has no top end, you are probably too rich. Lean it up in small increments until you get a good all around performance. You want it to take a reasonably slow start, have decent acceleration, and good top end performance. Once you get what you want, let the motor cool off and flow it. A motor that it running lean will generally speed up in the turns (as the prop unloads) and sag coming off of the turns and will take a long time to come up on the pipe from a slow speed, if at all. A lot of times the boat won’t come up on the pipe

you are too rich. If it is really pulled out and white it is too lean. The perfect tune will show a coil that is slightly pulled and a little frosted looking. If the outside of the plug is starting to turn dark there are several possibilities such as too lean a mixture, inadequate cooling water flow or perhaps a bind in the cable/stuffing box due to a broken motor mount, rubber isolator (the rubber isolators should be changed every couple years as the fuel destroys them) or the prop shaft bushings/bearings are coming apart. No matter what adjustment you make, such as adjusting the needle, lengthening the pipe or changing propellers, make one adjustment at a time. Otherwise you don’t know what the heck you did that changed what. Been there, done that, sold the tee shirt. My experience is that if you go out for a heat and you find you are too lean don’t back out the throttle much (even in the mill-this is where your coach earns his pay) because if you slow down the motor will probably die. Better to just keep the speed up quite a bit and take a start in lane 99 and you just might finish the heat and grab some points.

Annual Maintenance Radio gear: I have found that one good way to avoid radio problems is to send all my gear (Tx, Rx’s, and servos) back to a service company to have it all checked right after the regular season is over. The total is usually less than a $100 and the piece of mind is well worth it. Most of the people who have been doing this for awhile also replace the receiver switch every year. You cannot see any corrosion in the switch and if it fails, your failsafe functions will not work at all. This has disaster written all over it. I buy a new receiver battery for each boat every year and relegate last year,s battery to a back up. I have seen some beautiful boats lost because of bad batteries. Usually the wire gets brittle or corroded and breaks or a solder connection fails. Invest in a battery cycler/charger. This is the only way to make sure your batteries are working in top capacity. Some people prefer using alkaline batteries for their transmitters because alkaline cells are 1.5 volts each. Nicads or Nickle metal Hydride cells are 1.2 volts. Remember that when your transmitter is down to 9.5 volts, the

PROPWASH

4 September 2008

Tuning Tips, Maintenance and Troubleshooting (Continued from page 3)

Symptoms of a low-speed needle that is too lean: a. Upon starting the idle rpm increases and then the motor dies. Richen it up until you have good steady idle and the motor snaps up to full speed without any hesitation. b. If upon starting, the motor misses from idle right up to high speed when you crack the throttle wide open, then both the low and high-speed needles are too lean. Richen the needles and retune the high-speed needle again. Lean out the low-speed

needle until the idle starts to drop and a reliable idle is attained and the motor snaps right up to full throttle with no hesitation.

Symptoms of a low-speed needle that is too rich: a. Upon starting a warm motor the idle starts off high and then gradually decreases and

the motor dies. Lean it out in small increments until a reliable idle is attained and it snaps up to full throttle without any hesitation or bogging.

More Tuning Techniques Tuned Pipe Adjustments Another tuning method is to move the tuned pipe in and out. This affects the mixture as well. Lengthening the pipe tends to richen the mixture and conversely shortening it will cause a leaner mixture. Moving the pipe in less than ¼” increments probably won’t bring any discernable differences in performance unless you are really, really close on your optimum set up. Some people measure pipe length from the back of the water jacket to the weld on the pipe, others from the glow plug to the weld. I like measuring from the glow plug as a standard because that won’t change from engine to engine. Lengthening the pipe can compensate for hot weather or sites that are high above sea level. The boat may look slow to you, but if you look around so does everyone else’s. You motor just isn’t going to make the power it will at sea level on a cool day.

Engine Temperature Monitoring engine temperature can be critical to good overall performance. A motor that is running cold will never work well at slower speeds. The digital, instantaneous spot engine temperature gauges are a great tool to find out where you are. One long time boater tells me if he can hold the water jacket for a couple of seconds before he gets burned it is just right. Getting a temperature gauge sounds like a less painful way to determine if the motor is running at the right temperature. OK, call me a sissy but jeez! If the motor is running cold one of the easiest ways to adjust the flow is fit a piece of the next size smaller water cooling tubing in an easily assessable place. Many guys make water line restrictors out of wheel collars or a 3/8” Nylon nut that has an 8/32” hole drilled and tapped through one of the flats toward the center. Use an 8/32” Nylon screw with an 8/32” Nylon lock nut to pinch the water line. Sneak up on it so you don’t fry a motor. If the motor is running hot, check for holes in the tubing or restrictions. Be cognizant that sometimes the restriction will only happen with the cowling or fake motor is installed. When you push the fake motor or cowling down it pinches the water line. You should always have a good overboard water flow. Checking the overboard is something you should always look for on the mill. Sometimes if the ambient water is really warm you might have to water cool the exhaust. In warm ambient water cool the water jacket on the motor and then plumb it to the exhaust header and over the side. If the water is really cold (like we experience here at some of our sites in the Pacific Northwest in the spring) it is better to run the water through the exhaust header first and then through the water jacket on the motor and then overboard.

Reading the Glow Plug Another method of determining how your motor is tuned is to examine the glow plug. Look at the second or third coil of the platinum element. If it is shiny and oily

PROPWASH

September 2008 5

Checking your boat out after a race

Look for loose nuts and bolts, servos, motor mounts, hull cracks, dinged propellers, rudders and turn fins. Blown exhaust couplers, chafed, cut, or worn fuel and water lines. Also look for a loose radio box or pushrod seals. All of this is much easier (and a lot less stressful) to fix on the bench at home rather than at the pond. Race days should be fun instead of a thrash. In any form of racing, preparation is always one of the keys to success.

Drying out wood boats A wood boat can pick up as much as a pound of weight during a race season if they are not dried out. This also leads to wood rot. You can buy an aquarium pump and all the fittings and tubing for less that $20 at a pet supply store. Feed the lines up into all your drain holes and let it run for a couple of days and it will carry any residual moisture out. I know this works as I have popped the decks off a couple of my 5 year old boats and they looked as if they were built last week.

Race Day Rituals Many new boaters need to develop habits that will make them successful. Here are a few things that have been helpful to me. Above all else, approach the day resolved to have fun. This can be a frustrating hobby when things aren’t going your way. Try to learn from days like this. It is usually is indicative of some aspect of boat preparation you haven’t been paying enough attention to. If the boat won’t run, your wings just got run over, and maybe the calls aren’t going your way-just relax and enjoy some of the really great people that are in our hobby. Remember, it’s only a model boat race; not life and death.

1. Make sure you have the frequency pin. 2. Range check your radio- before you go out on the water for the first time. 3. After every run. a. Remove the glow plug, read it and check that it still ignites. b. Remove the fuel line, place a rag over the glow plug hole and blow the motor out to remove any water that might have gotten gotten in it when the boat came off plane. c. Blow the needle valve out with brake clean. d. Refuel the boat. e. Check for loose parts and re-tighten as necessary . f. Check the prop, rudder and turn fin to make sure were not dinged by running over something in the water. 4. Every other run. a. Grease the cable if you can do it without removing it. b. Grease the strut. 5. If you use a flow meter, wait until the heat before you are up to flow. Weather conditions can change the tune in a hurry, so you want to be current. I hope this helps some of you enjoy our hobby more. I want to thank all the people who took the time to help me over the years. Remember once you learn what you are doing; pass it on to the new guys. If your day is going good take some time to help someone who is struggling. After all, they might be kicking your butt one day and they might be more willing to share some their speed secrets with you!

transmitter range is cut in half. Using alkaline cells allows you to start off the day with higher voltage and makes changing them out a simple process if they get low on voltage.

Fuel system Without a doubt I have seen more boat problems be traced back to a problem in the fuel system. Every year the tank stoppers should be replaced with new ones and new tubing formed and installed (the exception on the tubing would be if you are using stainless steel). Brass tubing will corrode, crack and weaken in the course of a single season. The minimum tubing size for a .67 engine is 5/32”. Dubro makes a tubing bender (p/n 786). K & S also makes a tubing cut-off tool (p/n 296) that makes this job much easier. Sullivan manufactures a spun aluminum stopper set (p/n 478) with a 4/40 stainless steel clinching screw that really allows you to crank down on it without stripping as the plastic stoppers (p/n 296) can do. Leaks in the fuel system can usually be detected by examining the tubing to the carb. If you see air bubbles in the line you have a leak somewhere. This almost always manifests itself in a lean running condition. If the boat runs good for a couple of laps then the motor leans out and dies, the fuel pick up line in the main tank is either cracked or broken.

Engine bearings Almost everyone replaces the engine bearings at the beginning of the season. I also change mine about half way through. Typically, bearing problems become apparent when you can’t get a tune no matter what you do or the motor runs OK for a couple of laps, gets up to operating temperature and then lays down on you. I have had good luck really pickling the motor good with after run oil (like JB 80) and then tearing the motor down when I get home, cleaning it with brake clean, blowing it out with air and lubing (Risoline works good, it has lots of additives for anti-rust and anti-corrosion) and reassembling. This gives me an opportunity to examine the motor and bearings and most importantly, eliminates one more race day headache.

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The State Of Scale By Mike McKnight National Scale Chairman

So for the last couple of years I’ve been hearing, mainly from the same couple of people, that 1/8 Scale Unlimiteds are dead. Being the Scale diehard that I am I wasn’t really listening. I was willing to concede that Scale numbers were dwindling a bit but not dead. Even in the Northwest the numbers at RCU and UNW races are down quite a bit. So I decided to take a long hard look at what might be contributing to this. Was it the full sized boats? One wouldn’t think so as they see to be growing in numbers and the ABRA seems to be getting better every year since the departure of the Budweiser team, Hydro-Prop, and the APBA. Well there are the economy and gas prices obviously. Even this racer has cut back on traveling quite a bit. But I think more importantly the factors within boating itself might be more the issue. Let’s face it, there is a real problem with nitro at the moment. The cost of fuel, plugs, and engines has increased. Plus the fact that there is a serious lack of available engines anymore. Not only is this affecting Scale but quite a few other classes too. Then we have the loss of hull builders like Troy McIntire, and now with the passing of Roger Newton even the flow of plans now has halted for the time being. There are some bright spots however. Bill Fritz’s molds have a new home in Florida at RC Boat Company, and Steve is doing his best to increase his catalog of boats while still turning out boats with equal quality to Bill’s. Henry Velasco still has his boats and a few other builders are turning out hulls slowly. But for some boats and parts it is still hard or impossible to get what you want unless you have the ability to mold it and make it yourself. But even for someone like me who enjoys the challenge of modeling, and who can make my own plugs and molds to make my own cowls and other parts, the time commitment is getting more extensive. At this point I think Scale is being supported by a core group with maybe another layer or two of racers

Continued on page 8

PROPWASH

September 2008 7

New Scale Club Hits The Northwest By Marty Shallenberger Pacific Northwest Thunderboat Association

I would like to introduce a recently formed District Eight club called the Pacific Northwest Thunderboat Association. We are a group of hydroplane enthusiasts that enjoy building and racing radio controlled scale hydroplanes of all types. This new club will consist of two classes of boats that will run heat races around the greater Seattle area. The first are the Classic Thunderboats, the enormously popular and recognized NAMBA class that is made up of boats that are built and painted in the spirit of the Thunderboats that ran in the 50’s and 60’s. This class runs stock 25.99cc motors and has a very complete set of rules to follow. These boats can be built from scratch or hulls can be ordered from different manufacturers. If you just want to open the box and go racing you can order a boat from companies as completely ready to run including paint and graphics of your choice. The second will be the Scale Hydroplane class. This class is made up of boats that will be painted and detailed to match their full size counterparts. This Scale Hydroplane class will include the older round nose boats along with modern pickle fork boats that are still racing today. This scale class will be allowed to use modified 25.99cc motors without pull starters that will propel the boats to speeds over 60 miles per hour in heat racing trim. These boats must be built and configured in the likeness and proportion of the unlimited hydroplane that it is modeled after. The boat must run with the correct engine cowling or dummy motor that covers the boats engine. This is not a recognized NAMBA class but with the large group of 1/8 scale nitro racers in the Pacific Northwest, along with all the building talent in the area, we believe that this class will become very popular in the Pacific Northwest. We will be running our first demonstration race of the Thunderboats at this year’s Northwest Scale Hydroplane Championship race in October. For 2009, we plan on running a six race series with the last race being held in conjunction with the Northwest Scale Hydroplane Championship in October. Speaking of the Northwest Scale Hydroplane Championship race, this year’s contest will be our fifth annual event. Each year this race has attracted many racers from the local area and a few from around the US. I am very pleased to announce that this year we will now be able to call it an international race. We have been informed that Merv Sowden from New Zealand will be shipping his Budweiser scale hydro to race with us. For information regarding the Pacific Northwest Thunderboat Association and the Northwest Scale Hydroplane Championship race please visit www.pnwta.org

spent weeknights after Tri-Cities repairing a broken steering cable in time for Seafair. On Friday, during test runs, driver Dr. Ken Muscatel said he had a rudder-flutter happening, which kept him from being able to go as fast as he wanted to go. Saturday the boat was not riding the way he wanted it to, so the team added weight to the right sponson by putting in sand bags; Price borrowed a longer rudder from another team and put that on the U-25, and Williams worked to put new shorter bras on the boat in order to pack less air under the boat. After the boat went dead in the water on Sunday morning, and spewed a small fire from the stack, the team tried to change an engine during the Blue Angels air show, but when the cranes and fuel trucks were not allowed to be used during the air show, the 30-minute break before the provisional final just wasn’t enough time to get the job done. On the ground in the pits, Ben Keller was working hard delivering the best pit tours ever known to the Stan Sayres Memorial Pits, giving valuable and accurate information to all who cared to listen to insider info about the big boats. On the pit tower, Nelson and Dawn Holmberg were just as busy all day long as the crew members were, keeping track of all of the different stories and boat performances throughout the weekend, to maintain and constantly update the website hydroinsider.blogspot.com, so that hydroplane fans worldwide would have the opportunity to keep up, almost real-time, about what was happening at the Ted Jones Memorial Race Course on Lake Washington. Since Seattle is home to our club, it’s pretty cool that ERCU had a big role in Seafair’s premier event of the summer.

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8 September 2008

The State Of Scale (Continued from page 7)

beyond that. But the opportunities for the new racer getting into it Scale are getting slimmer. But is Scale dead? Far from it. With the introduction of the Classic Thunderboat gas class I think Scale may be heading in a different direction. As it stands now the rules of the class do not require the boats to model a real boat. But as I suspected there are a group of boaters that wish they would. Hence the Pacific Northwest Thunderboat Association which will run the Classic Thunderboat class with NAMBA rules and a Scale Hydroplane class which will be for boaters that wish to model and run any real boat, not just a shovelnose. With the availability and ease of maintaining gas engines versus nitro I suspect this will be the future of scale. So I guess now I have to build my Circus all over again. So the future actually looks a little brighter in my opinion, and those that were telling me Scale was dead may be a little quieter now. Not only will 1/8 Scale Unlimiteds continue but those same drivers might now be racing Classic Thunderboats and the Scale Hydroplane class as well. So instead of just one option there will most likely be several. That can only lead to better racing so let’s get building!

ERCU at Seattle’s Seafair By Nelson Holmberg ERCU

Watching real unlimited hydroplanes cruise around a race course at 200 miles an hour or so is pretty inspiring. Sometimes, just watching the behind the scenes action is inspiring, too. When you consider there are roughly 60 members of ERCU, and then see eight of its members actively working the Stan Sayres pits for the good of unlimited hydroplane racing, you realize that nearly 20 percent of our club is making a difference in the big boats. The world’s largest club for 1/10-scale fast electric hydroplanes was very involved in everything from keeping news flowing over the HydroInsider blog, or guiding pit tours, to doing all of the prop work for the U-10 Hoss Mortgage Investors over the weekend. Among those who were involved were Jeff Campbell on the U-10 Hoss Mortgage Investors crew. Jeff said he was returning a favor by serving as the team’s prop guy over the weekend. And judging by how fast the boat was running, Jeff did quite a job. After the U-10 flipped in heat 2A, Campbell was one of the two crew members who were taken to the upside down disabled craft while it was being towed in. He was also one of a handful of crew members who got very wet while going through the process of preparing the boat to be turned upright. On the U-13 Graham Trucking presents Spirit of Detroit crew Dawna Gross, and John Burkey were working for crew chief Kurt Tavenner who may as well get a boat and start racing with us. Gross handled the cockpit duties, and Burkey was helping out with props and rudder duties, while also keeping the HydroInsider blog reporters in line. Considering they entered the weekend with just one motor and two propellers, the U-13 gang had a bit of a stressful weekend, especially when a shortshaft broke and their best prop dropped to the bottom of Lake Washington on Saturday. Luckily, for the crew that had just spent the whole week repairing damage that occurred a week earlier in Tri-Cities when a prop blade broke and rattled the bottom of the boat, there was no damage in Saturday’s prop incident. On the U-25 Miss Procraft Windows/ Superior Racing Team crew Carl Lewis was a new face among the volunteer crew, that has for a long time been bolstered by ERCU members John Williams and Howard Price. Price handled props and lines and rudder work, while Williams was doing yeoman’s work including everything from aerodynamics work to handling lines. Lewis also helped out with systems and general work on the Miss Procraft Windows. The team had a frustrating weekend, after having

The stock engine specified for the Thunderboats should guarantee level racing in the class. However, the pipe was left open. The Zenoah has a relatively restricted intake tract. This can be overcome either by raising the intake timing or by using a pipe with a strong suction pulse. We used an accurately machined pipe with an adjustable baffle cone to investigate possible power gains from a high suction pulse pipe. Below is a picture of the billet pipe along with the M&D pipe.

This pipe uses a three stage diffuser with a high horn coefficient and large diameter to expand the exhaust pulse more than most pipes. With the right tuned length, this will result in a low pressure at the exhaust port when the piston is around bottom dead center. We find that moving the diffuser section on the header doesn’t make much difference in the tuned length as long as the baffle cone is kept the same distance from the exhaust port. There is s best position for the diffuser section and it is the design position. We changed the tuned length of the pipe by moving the baffle cone, i.e. by changing the band section width. On page 10 is the dyno graphs for these changes. Only a few of the many band changes are shown on the graph for clarity. The first number in the legend is the length in millimeters from the exhaust flange to the beginning of the band section and the second number is the band section width in millimeters. The lower curve is the power with the M&D double cone pipe. It is easy to see the power gain from the fat, wide band pipe. We decided that a 75 millimeter band width would be optimum for the good bottom end torque a heavy boat would need. Several months later we tested the billet pipe with a 75 millimeter band, a fabricated version of the billet pipe, and a commercial band pipe with a straight cone diffuser section. The commercial pipe is pictured below the Stock Zenoah 03-08 pipe test graph.

Continued on page 10

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September 2008 9

The Zenoah from Stock to Outlaw By Lohring Miller District Eight Director

We have been developing Zenoahs for several years. There are three classes of Zenoahs in NAMBA, “stock” for the Thunder boat class, mildly modified for the G1 class, and “outlaw” for the GX1 class. My designation of the M&D cast cylinder engine as “outlaw” comes from the IMPBA outlawing the cylinder that was specifically designed to fit the LS27 class. There are more powerful GX1 engines, and I believe a 10 horsepower custom built 26cc engine should be possible. We consider the M&D double cone pipe to be the standard Zenoah pipe. There are pipes that improve specific areas on the power curve, but the double cone pipe is a good compromise and gives a G1 engine a broad power curve that is easy to prop for. For comparison, here are the port timings and other details from the test engines:

I need to explain a few things about our dynamometer. It is an inertial dynamometer; that is the engine accelerates a flywheel and the change in speed of the flywheel over time is a measure of the engine’s torque. Unlike brake dynos that measure power under steady state conditions, inertial dynos measure power in a rapidly accelerating engine. This is similar to the way racing engines work. The inertial dyno also allows very rapid testing. We often make 50 individual runs in an afternoon. We have not carefully calibrated our dyno so its results may not match other dynos. I know that a particular engine tested both on our dyno and a similar dyno shows nearly ½ horsepower less on our dyno. Power measured on the same engine will vary from day to day even with corrections for atmospheric conditions. We try to compare changes on adjacent runs with a calibration check run at the end that duplicates the starting conditions. All the curves in this article are the average of at least two runs. Even so, there is irregularity in the horsepower curve from noise in the rpm measuring circuit. Another series of tests on the CMB 35 can be found at www.modelgasboats.com. A complete description of the dyno with design and building instructions is in issue 14 of Model Engine Builder.

Stock Zenoah Miller Zenoah M&D Cast Cylinder Exhaust 164° duration 188° duration 184° duration Transfer 124° duration 126° duration 122° duration Intake 146° duration 158° duration 166° duration Squish Clearance .032 .010 .010 Combustion Chamber Volume 2.4cc 2.0cc 2.0cc

Some other small power gains are possible with plug and carb butterfly opening changes. I doubt that the rules really allow some of these changes. Breaking in the seals will also help. Removing the seal springs should be illegal, but would be hard to check. Changing the cylinder base gasket to a thinner one should be illegal but would also add power. By far the most popular engine is the Zenoah with the modifications allowed under NAMBA’s G engine rules. Here, material can be removed to modify the engine. An excellent article on this by Scott Schneider can be found at www.modelgasengines.com. The modifications to the test engine are described and illustrated below.

The first problem with the stock engine is excessive head clearance. This should be lowered to .010 to .015 inch by machining the cylinder base. The top 3/16 of the piston should be machined around .004 of an inch smaller in diameter to eliminate piston seizures. I also machined a flat top on the piston and removed a lot of material from the inside to reduce piston weight. It is possible to machine the squish area both in the head and on the piston to match the angle. Though this was done on this engine, I’m not sure it made a power difference compared to previous engines. Finally, the skirt of the piston was slotted to improve transfer flow. The transfer ports were raised by the same amount machined off the cylinder base. The rear transfer was seriously widened as well. The exhaust port was widened and raised. Thirty thousandths of an inch was machined off the intake side of the piston skirt to raise the intake timing. Because both the amount machined off the cylinder base and that machined off the skirt affects the intake

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10 September 2008

The Zenoah from Stock to Outlaw (Continued from page 9)

It is easy to see both the superiority of the three stage diffuser in the billet pipe and the power loss from inaccuracies between the billet and the fabricated pipe. Nearly ½ hp gain over commercially available pipes is possible from a custom pipe.

So You Want To CD Al Waters NAMBA President

I have always felt if you don't like a judges call in a race, then you should judge. And if you don't like the call by the CD on the starts, then you should take over the microphone. I was at a race the other day and a boater in my district who stepped up to the plate to host a race took on that responsibility. In no time, there was a boat in a heat that went from lane eight to lane two and cut in front of another boat. The CD announced, “watch your lanes”. I told the CD after the heat, if you ever have to announce watch your lanes, that means that you saw a penalty but were too intimidated to call it. Well shut my mouth! When the time came for him to observe a penalty and make the call, guess who got hit with it. Yours truly. I took the call graciously, but whether I agreed or disagreed with the call was not important. There was a person who stepped up to the plate and made a decision and followed through with it. Too many times we have all complained at one time or another that penalty calls are not made at the races. This CD got over the hump and found out that he will be more respected and it will make for better and more fair racing for everyone. I talked with him after the race and asked him how it went for the day. He said that he had a whole new apprec-iation for those who call the races. He felt that it was something that everyone should experience. I don't know if there is a moral to this story, but do have another club that will host a race and another CD who will call the races. Our district will be that much better in the future.

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September 2008 11

timing, .010 less was machined off the piston skirt in this engine because .010 more had to be machined off the cylinder base. This was needed to get .010 inch squish clearance due to the amount machined off the top of the piston and the combustion chamber. Below are tests with this engine using two different pipes.

Notice that there now is less difference between the band pipe and the double cone pipe. This is a contrast to the graph for the stock Zenoah where the band pipe was clearly superior. Because we have raised the intake timing, opened up the transfers, and raised the exhaust, there is much less restriction through the porting, and the lack of a strong suction pulse is not as important. The other area for improvement is the carburetor. We have a flow bench setup to test Walboro carbs on a cylinder. These tests show that things in the bore are much more important than the bore diameter. All stock Walboro carbs have the same .500 inch venturi bore unless noted.

Below is the flow at 13 inches of water: Modified WYK 81 cfm (.610 bore, barrel style carb) M&D modified WT-257 65.5 cfm Miller modified WT-257 63 cfm WT-257 61.8 cfm WT-287 58 cfm WT-813 56 cfm WT-745 55 cfm WT-644 53 cfm (Modified WT-644 61 cfm) WT-EX520 48 cfm

A good comparison is an M&D prepared carb to a Bontoft carb. Though the bore of the M&D carb is larger, its butterfly is only slightly thinned on the leading edge. The Bontoft carb has the shaft cut down, the butterfly streamlined, and the stop cut so the butterfly opens a little past the normal position. The difference in power is shown on the graph on page 12. Even more top end power is possible with a shorter carb isolator block that tunes the intake tract for a higher rpm. The ultimate Zenoah is one where the standard die cast cylinder is replaced with an investment cast cylinder available from M&D Designs. This cylinder incorporates all the modifications mentioned above as well as better transfer port shapes. The inner wall on the transfers helps improve the flow as well as providing better piston support. The carb is raised up the cylinder to improve the intake timing, and the exhaust port is

Continued on page 12

raised and angled down. The only modification needed to the rest of the stock Zenoah is to lighten, relieve, slot, and flat top the piston. M&D also installs their low drag seals. The clear superiority of the engine can be seen in the graph below. he stock engine was tested with the billet pipe and stock carb. The others were tested with the M&D carb and M&D pipe. So what does all this mean in your boat? The speed of a boat increases approximately as the power cubed. That is, if you double the power the speed will only increase by about 1.26 times. That is why it is hard to test engine power by observing boat speed. If your hull goes 55 mph with the stock engine it would go about 59 mph with the modified engine and 61 mph with the cast cylinder engine. The two mph difference between the modified and cast cylinder engine explains why G1 engines are very competitive in the GX1 class. Lots of other factors will overcome this small edge in speed. In a stock engine class, if your boat goes 55 mph with a double cone pipe, it would go 56 mph with the billet pipe. Again, many other factors will negate this small speed difference. The best engines will have a broad, flat, peak power band. This gives an engine that will handle a broad range of props with good power both in the turn and at the end of the straight. If everything else is optimum, the most powerful engine will give the winning edge.

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12 September 2008

The Zenoah from Stock to Outlaw (Continued from page 9)

It also helps guide the Director to make well rounded rulings within the district. So far the new executive board has worked quite well. Another change was to no longer have nitro and gas chairmen, but to have hull chairmen to coincide with a technical chairperson. Decisions are discussed and made by two individuals. All engine issues are now made by made by the technical chairperson, i.e. engine tear down for records and size compliancy. We have some new boats showing up in our district in the Classic Thunderboat class. Wow! What an exciting class! The class started as an event at the annual Gold Rush held in April. As we watch this class evolve you can’t help notice the improvements made each and every contest for speed and design. District Nine did very well this year at the Nats. Alfred Lanza (again) took top honors as overall high points champion. And what about our Terry family? Allie and Alan tied for first place in A Mono. The clean sweep of A Hydro by District Nine members Troy Davis (1st), Gary Moll (2nd) and Alan Terry (3rd) was also very exciting. Austin Piazza, one of our juniors, came home with 2nd place in Open Crackerbox and a 3rd in Classic Crackerbox. We had another clean sweep in B OPC by Alfred Lanza, Don Osman, and Dylan Frentzel taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively. And let’s not forget Nancy Moll who took 1st in X mono and Jim Wilson in Sport 21. District Nine, you rock! I personally want to thank the membership of District 20 for a great Nats that was well run. I enjoyed seeing the Taylors again, along with Kelly Stout.

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September 2008 13

ERCU Happy To Be NAMBA By Nelson Holmberg ERCU

One of NAMBA’s newest and proudest member clubs has quickly become among the largest in the association. So perhaps it’s time for a little primer on ERCU. With nearly 60 members, ERCU touts just shy of 90 distinctly different boats, and after five years as a member of a different national association, we are really excited to have made the move to NAMBA as we start the second half of our first decade racing. Electric Radio Controlled Unlimiteds (ERCU) came into existence on January 24, 2003 as a fast electric 1/10-scale unlimited club, and was born with direct affiliation to Radio Controlled Unlimiteds (RCU), which is the granddaddy of all scale racing clubs in the nation. The club is largely based in the Puget Sound region of Washington State, but after a two-year effort to provide for potential growth in the Portland, Oregon area, the club has not only added members in Portland and Southwest Washington, it has also added events in that area. There are now three races in the Portland area, one in Vancouver, Washington, and one in Centralia, Wash. (located midway between Portland and Seattle). While RCU is a club that has existed for nearly four decades racing 1/8-scale, nitro-powered, perfect replicas of real hydroplanes, ERCU operates under a very similar philosophy with smaller boats and different power plants. Our affiliation to RCU adds an important element of scale electric racing, and has always been an important source for fresh and experienced club membership. Like many of the 1/8-scale clubs around the world, we pay particular attention to detail, and take pride in making sure our boats look as much like the real thing as possible. Paint and lettering is as authentic as we can make it, the cowlings must be the same as the real boat – heck, we even have to have a little model driver (also required to be 1/10-scale) with a scale helmet and life vest aboard these boats. One of the very unique factors of ERCU is that we run our boats counter-clockwise around our oval courses, exactly the same way the real hydroplanes do. In cases other than ours, RC boats are forced to turn right (or opposite the way the real boats turn), due to the way their propellers are built. Fortunately, we’re able to run right-handed props just like the real boats do. Several members of our club are even involved with actual hydroplanes on the American Boat Racing Association (ABRA) tour, or on restoration crews at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum.

NAMBA District IX By Dave Bestpitch District Nine Director

Our district held the Fast Electric Nats at Lake Minden with great success. Brian Buaas set several records. The thorough setup and prep work by the electric boaters was quite apparent as the race went on. Racing was fast and furious, and did I mention a lot of fun? As for myself, I raced in an offshore event as an invite and guest of Dave Newland, boat owner. Our district looked for new sites this year, and found two very good sites for next year’s running of our heat racing championship series. One of the sites is centrally located in our district and should help all with high commute costs. As District Director I assigned four members as members of an Executive Board. The Executive

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14 September 2008

Cade Holland

Kids

Are

Boaters

Grace Holland Avery Holland Ashley Taylor

Megan Wittrig Salina Holland Benjamin Sick

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September 2008 15

2008 NAMBA Nationals

Greeley, Colorado

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16 September 2008

2008 NAMBA Nationals

Greeley, Colorado

Want To Host a Nats? Al Waters NAMBA President

NAMBA districts have been exceptional in volunteering to host a Nationals. We have also been really fortunate in lining them up years in advance. We want the locations to move throughout the United States providing everyone the opportunity to participate. We sometimes hear, “My district does not have enough members to host a NAMBA Nats.” Not too worry. Every district, even the largest like District Three, Nine, and 19 ask for outside help. After all, they would like to race their boats also. Asking for help and providing it is the norm today. That’s what we do. Do we have an official NAMBA Nats Committee that run things? No we do not, but we have NAMBA officers and member volunteers who have the resources and expertise to fulfill the districts needs to successfully host a Nationals. We have sponsors lists, race program contacts, awards contacts, class champion records, and even a “to do” list available of 150 plus items and quirky things that occur at the Nats to make life easier. That’s just to get things started. We all know that man power is needed to operate a NAMBA Nationals smoothly. If a district needs race announcers and judges, we can line them up. Retrieve boat operators, scorers, registration personnel, and even an announcer to run the paddleboat races are easy opportunities that we can all full fill to make things happen. District 20 needed manpower and we were there. District Eight knows that they need help and has not wasted any time in asking and no one has refused them. I don't want any district to feel that they can’t host a Nationals because they do not have a large membership. We are family and everyone is great in helping out. Like I was saying earlier, “That’s what we do”.

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September 2008 17

Nats Point of View By Kate Scarpino District 20

From a non-racing, woman’s point of view, I just wanted to say a few words about the NAMBA Nationals recently held in Greeley, Colorado. After seeing all the hard work and the countless hours spent planning this event, I have to take my hat, or should I say my bonnet, off to our leaders and our members of District 20. What a fantastic outcome we had at the races. We all definitely have a new appreciation for all the NAMBA Nationals previously held over the years. What a tough job it is to put this thing on! And you all, past and present, make it look so effortless. I truly mean that. If I were a mere spectator at these races, I never would have known how much goes into preparing for it. Our family and the other District 20 families really looked forward to the Nationals being held here in Colorado. We were excited (and nervous as well) and wanted to do anything we could to pitch in and help. And our nerves were quickly calmed down as soon as all the other districts arrived. Everyone just jumped in and helped out where and when they could. You all are real troopers, as are our own guys! The week passed by so very fast, it’s hard to believe that it’s come and gone already, all thanks to the best group of people belonging to a great organization….NAMBA. I look forward to seeing many of you next year in Seattle! Thanks for a great time!

The 2008 NAMBA Nitro and Gas Nationals Race Committee strike the pose for a group photo after a race. As we all know, it’s the women behind the scenes who make it all happen. Even when it comes to holding the camera.

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18 September 2008

A Nationals Thank You By Jim Rigli and Rena Corley City of Greeley Parks Department

To all the NAMBA participants and their guests/families: Rena Corley and I would sincerely like to thank all the boat racers that were at Sanborn Park in Greeley, Colorado for the NAMBA Nationals. We really enjoyed your visit July 11 through the 19th. All the organizers, especially Kelly Stout and Joe Scarpino went out of their way to work with Rena and me. Together we all made sure the impact on the park area was very minimal. Once everyone was set up in their areas, the place looked like a small city. It was very impressive. Even the younger set was well behaved, although I had to bribe them with some coyote skulls to keep their skateboards under control. Thanks Dylan, Mitch, and the rest. I'm very impressed at how everyone was so friendly and willing to take the time to talk to me and explain how the system and boats work. I was pretty much completely unaware of the mechanics and abilities of those little screaming machines. Watching some of those boats out on that lake made me wonder if they had some kind of glue that made them stick to the water like they did. The talents and racing abilities of some of the contestants were as awesome as the craft they were controlling. It was quite an amazing site watching man and machine. It was a real education for both of us. The park has recovered quite well and there is no noticeable trace of any occupation. Greeley did receive over three and one-half inches of rain on August 6th. Since Sanborn Lake is a detention pond for street run off, the lake was quite full. The launch and announcer booth area were completely under water and the sidewalk near the big tent and food court was also covered. Once again, thank you all! It was a great time with great people. You're always welcome and we look forward to a time when we can see you racing here again.

Jim and Rena from the Greeley Parks Department could be found all week long maintaining the beautiful facility and socializing with the boaters

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The Propwash

NAMBA International 1815 Halley Street San Diego, CA 92154 (619) 424-6380 Fax - (619) 424-8845 e-mail [email protected]

Editors: Cathie Galbraith and Al Waters

Newsletter Contributors

Dave Bestpitch Mike Cathey Rey Garcia Mark Grim Nelson Holmberg Mike McKnight Lohring Miller Doug Robichaud Dave Rychalsky Kate Scarpino Marty Shallenberger

This newsletter is sent to all members free of charge as a part of their membership. All articles contained herein may be reproduced as long as proper credit is given as to author and publication source.

Some of their comments include “Don’t lift from the wing,” “Watch out for the fake engine,” and “Make sure you don’t grab the boat by the nose”. Some of these guys insist on hopping in the retrieve boat just to be sure that their boat is lifted properly. Well, here’s the impetus for this article. During the Greeley Nationals in July, I spent a lot of time talking to people and hanging out. During open water for the X Hydro class, I was taking a few pictures in and around the pit area. Alan Terry and his wife Brenda were racing the class. They both have quite a few boats and every single one runs great and looks great. During open water, Alan completed his runs, and then drove his boat back to the pits. Brenda didn’t have an opportunity to get down to the launch area when Alan stopped his boat. Hence, I was standing right there thinking to myself “Should I pick it up – no, I better not.” “What if I pick it up and accidentally pull the sponson off?” “What if I lift it and Alan is actually superstitious about someone else touching his boat and blames me for a future buoy cut!” “What if I pick it up, turn to hand the boat to Brenda, and I stab her in the leg with the rudder?” “What if I trip and fall on the boating, crushing it with my svelte 250 lb frame.” “Yikes!” So, what seemed to me to be an hour, I caught a glimpse of Brenda out the corner of my eye, standing a few feet from me, staring, trying to figure out what the heck I was doing. Brenda affirmed “Oh, I’ll get the boat.” So, naturally, I cleverly replied “Duh, ummm, uhhh, it was coming closer, umm, well, the uh, boat…” Quickly I realized that I needed to just walk away, because there wasn't any way I could talk my way out of looking less stupid than just standing there watching Alan’s boat. So, off I went, heading out of the pits, making sure I didn’t knock anyone over. Meanwhile, Brenda picked up Alan’s boat, and the race continued. The moral of this story is “The next time Alan drives his boat back to the pit area; he should figure a way how to park his boat back up on the table, rather than leave it two inches from the dock in the water!” This would avoid any future problems when I wonder aimlessly in the pits! Hey, at least I didn’t trip and fall on the boat!

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September 2008 19

NAMBA Nationals History By Dave Rychalsky District One Director

Guess what? I’ve decided to revive the NAMBA Nationals Program and Pin Search. After spending a week attending the 2008 NAMBA Nationals in Greeley Colorado, I had an opportunity to bring the Banner and Pin set. Even though we have at least one of the Nationals Patches, many of the pins and program are still missing. So, my search for pins and programs continues. I haven’t received any additional pins or race programs for the collection for quite a long time and I’m guessing most have all but forgotten about it. So here’s my pitch: I am willing to pay $10 for each pin I get from the list below and $10 for each program I get from the list below. Naturally, I do not want a pin that has been run over by a train or a program that was used to absorb the burnt fuel from a 90 rigger. Only as a last resort will I consider some of the “weathered” samples. I’m guessing that it is possible pins were not offered in every year; however, I don’t know for sure. The same can hold true for the Programs, but I suspect there was a Program for each National event since its inception. Either way, please think about sending your old pin/program to add as a keepsake of NAMBA, so that future NAMBA members, possibly your grandchildren, will have the opportunity to see your history in NAMBA. Personally, I’ve been to 14 Nationals and each one of my programs, pins, and patches is part of the collection. After speaking with Al Waters, we will try to get all three collections to the Welcome Party of future Nationals. It’s been the norm to bring the banner to the Awards Banquet; however, many people are too involved in the dinner, the awards and the prizes, and don’t get a chance to take a good look. If you have a pin or program and don’t want to mail it, you can hand it to your district director or NAMBA official and it will get sent to me. Just drop me an email. My email is [email protected]. For the pins, I am missing the following years: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, and 1984 For the programs, I am missing the following: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, and 1988 For those that would like to donate their pin or program to the NAMBA National Historical Collection, we would naturally accept any of those. Please send to: Dave Rychalsky 10 Timber Road East Brunswick, NJ 08816

You Can’t Touch This! By Dave Rychalsky District One Director

During many boat races, I’ve had the pleasure, and the pain, of racing with a wide diversity of people. Each person has his/her idiosyncrasies with their boats. Some guys polish the heck out of their boats, while others allow their boats to resemble the floor of your neighborhood auto repair shop. I guess its personal preference. We had a guy racing here in District One quite a few years ago that could slap together a boat in less than two hours. He would drill holes here and there, epoxy this to that, screw in the engine, add the radio, and finally drill some access holes. When the boat was taken to the pond for the very first time, it still had greasy hand prints all over the hull. Some of his hulls had a unique grease design that kinda/sorta made you think it was a rogue paint job from one of those creative artsy types. (Just like those stupid statues in front of arts buildings or libraries. You know the ones – you just can’t seem to figure out what it is, so you walk right by). On the other hand, there are people that freak when you go near their boat, and would never even race the thing! I guess I’m somewhere in the middle, probably leaning toward the clean, neat, nice-looking boat person. My point here is that everyone is different and you just never know what type of boater the person is. Many of the scale guys get edgy when the retrieve boat goes out and the retriever has to lean over and pick up his water-logged scale boat.

PROPWASH

20 September 2008

Notes From the VP By Mark Grim NAMBA Vice President

NAMBA members have recently had the opportunity to participate in both the Electric and the Nitro/Gas Nationals, where members from all over the world come together to compete for top honors. At the NAMBA Electric Nationals held at Lake Minden in District Nine there were several records set, both in Six Lap One Mile Heat Racing and Two Lap 1/3 Mile.

Congratulations to the following record setters:

On another note: If you plan on attending the Electric SAW's in October please get your entry forms to Mark Grim. If you don't want to run your boats just come for the lunches. There will be a BBQ every day! Call Mark Grim to get your reservation in. The lunch will be $7.00 a day. There will also be a three day all class SAW event for Nitro, Gas, and Electric on October 31st and November 1st and 2nd. The BBQ will be available at this event also. Also recently held were the NAMBA Nitro/Gas Nationals in Greeley, Colorado. I would like to personally thank District 20 for all of their hard work putting on the Nats in Colorado this year! From the ladies in the radio impound (in an air conditioned ice box) to Dave White, the Pit Boss, who kept the heats running smoothly. A special thanks to Robert and Dave Holland for all of their hard work! I think I can speak for quite a few in saying the Nats were a lot of fun and a good time was had by all. I wish there would have been more participation because if you didn't attend you missed a very good Nationals! Small districts can do amazing things. The park setting was really nice. You couldn't ask for better water conditions. As far as the altitude goes we were all in the same boat so there was a lot of good racing and camaraderie going on! I even got to be an Outlaw for the Gas Marathon Team! Kim and I had a great time with Russ Stark and his family, Al Waters, Lenny and LeAnn Blake, Shannon Muth, and all of the District 19 members who participated at the Nats. I hope to see everyone at the 2009 NAMBA Nationals next year in Washington. The name of the game is to promote model boating whether you run Nitro, Gas, or Electric. We are all in this together!

District One – Heading for the Home Stretch… By Dave Rychalsky District One Director

The NAMBA Nationals in Greeley Colorado are here and gone, half of the District One sanctioned races are behind us, and by the time this article makes it to print most of our district class champions will be resting comfortably up at the top of their respective classes. This is our second full season racing the gas, electric, and nitro boats in the same heats. There weren’t any significant issues that we encountered last year, so only minimal updates to our district rule book were required. Actually, the only real rule change we voted on for this year was to revert back to the six lap course as opposed to the five lap course. Back in 2006 the district voted to allow electric boats to race within the gas and nitro classes. At that time, in order to keep the playing field

WOR! is Online! Rey Garcia District 19

Wide Open Racing is online! On July 4th, 2008, WOR! became a web based information site for all boaters on the West Coast. WOR! is a community based information center that provides information to new boaters, provides information about lakes available in all three districts, includes information for specific district events, race schedules for all three districts and valuable information links for NAMBA, Districts Eight, Nine, and Nineteen. WOR! has a large forum based information center for discussions on many topics in the boating com-munity. WOR! also provides a valuable resource for selling or buying boating equiptment. Manufacturers or distributors can post their contact information to reach out to the boating community. WOR! can be a great tool to help and promote the model boating hobby all in one site. By directing a new potential boater to WOR!, the new boater can find out about NAMBA and how to apply, each district, the classes that are running, where to see boat racing, what is needed to begin boating and where the closest model boating club is located. More importantly, the new boater can ask questions or make inquiries on the WOR! board that can be answered by the members. A new boater can’t do this at any hobby shop or in a magazine. WOR! has a goal to be the best provider of information for both the new boater and the most experienced boater. If "we" as a boating community embrace the prospect of sharing our valuable boating experience with the WOR! board, then WOR! will become the foremost leader in "real time" information. The WOR! board can be found at http://wideopenracing.informe.com (on your web browser, you can put in: wideopenracing.informe.com and it will take you there). Check out and register on the WOR! board today!

Darin Jordan Brian Buaas Brian Buaas Brian Buaas Brian Buaas Brian Buaas Brian Buaas Brian Buaas Brian Buass

2 LAP Oval Record 56.080 2 LAP Oval Record 25.620 2 LAP Oval Record 22.054 2 LAP Oval Record 23.350 2 LAP Oval Record 26.672 6 LAP Time Record 1.27.03 6 LAP Time Record 1.32.65 6 LAP Time Record 1.40.68 6 LAP Time Record 1.49.81

N1 Mono N2 Sport Hydro P Hydro N2 Hydro T Mono N2 Hydro N2 Sport Hydro P Mono N2 Mono

The Classic Thunderboat class is expanding one by one, and nitro scale is still solid. So, it looks as if gas powered boats will be the staple for us here on the east coast. It’s also a good thing that the FE guys are coming to our races because it makes for good racing, especially in AB mono and AB Hydro. When a spectator asks questions on how to join, or what boat to run, we have the luxury of showing him all three power plants, as well as every boat class in this district. He can make a sound decision on what he sees. This year, the CX Hydro class seems to growing. Last year, we had a tough time getting guys to haul their big riggers to the pond. I guess you just never know what’s going to the popular from year to year. In the end, I guess it really doesn’t matter as long as we continue to provide the opportunity for any type of model boater to race his/her boats. No matter what, we’re moving forward!

PROPWASH

September 2008 21

In 2008, we have two new old clubs back in the mix. The Del Val club from Pennsylvania and the South Jersey Model Boat club have combined to host a district race. Back in 1993, District One hosted the NAMBA Nationals at the Del Val site in Bristol, Pennsylvania. They have a real nice site that boasted one of the most competitive and exciting Scale finals of all time. For those that weren’t there, all boats in the Scale final finished the last heat in single file, and then all drove all the way out and circled the island to get the “Island Patch”! It took a lot of guts because you have to drive your boat around the back side behind the trees, without the luxury of being able to watch it. In other words, “Go fast, then slightly right, and pray it comes out the other side!” So, Del Val is hosting a district point heat race at the end of September. A lot of the guys in this district are looking forward to that race. We’re glad you’re back! In District One, our popular classes are G1 Sport Hydro, Crackerbox, Open Cat, and Sport 40.

even, we dropped the course from the NAMBA standard six lap, 1.0 mile course to a five lap, 0.9 mile course. However, 2007 proved to be a technological boost for the FE guys. With the development of the Lithium Polymer batteries, and the ever-increasing popularity of this type of power source, the FE boats were able to extend run times. We can thank the cell phone, digital camera, and video game industry for turning up the demand for high amp-hour rating and added power, yielding longer operational run times for these devices. Naturally, this flows into numerous other fields, and the FE boats benefitted substantially. I guess our biggest problem in District One these days is the traffic getting home after a race! Most of our classes are balanced, with a few exceptions at a few sites. It is odd that in one year, we will have only four boats competing throughout the entire racing season in one class. But the next year, that very same class will pull eight to ten boats for the year. Go figure!

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“It is my hope to continue the plan business as I know how important it was for him to continue the growth and development of model hydroplane racing. For now Newton Marine is on hold. After the dust settles I will make announcements to fill the backlog of orders and info everyone of the future of its direction. God bless you dad you are now at peace.” A Celebration of Life for Roger J. Newton was held at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum on Saturday, August 16 from 2-4 p.m. The MiniCzar made a presentation to celebrate the memories of his father at the event. A video slideshow documenting Roger’s life was also shown, and guests were encouraged to offer short stories about, and tributes to, the great man whom we all knew, admired, and loved. David Williams, executive director of the museum – and a friend of the Czar’s – wrote on his website the following about Czar: “ Having been a part of hydroplane racing for more than 30 years, Roger was known as the “Czar” of the R/C unlimiteds, with his designs and models known throughout the R/C racing world. He was also the founder of the Northwest’s R/C Unlimiteds racing club. “Roger was a long-time member of the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum, and he worked hundreds of hours on the museum’s various restoration projects, and often assumed management positions on those teams. Roger was the restoration manager on the Hawaii Kai III, Slo-mo-shun V, and most recently, the Hurricane IV. He was also acting secretary on the museum’s Board of Directors.” Roger was also active in unlimited hydroplane racing. He has served as a crew member for a number of unlimited racing teams, including those of Ken Muscatel and Dave Bartush. Most recently, Roger had been crewing for Greg O’Farrell’s U-50 racing team. Roger’s warm influence and the people he touched reached nearly every aspect of hydroplane racing. He will be deeply missed by so many.

PROPWASH

22 September 2008

In Memory Of…Roger Newton By Nelson Holmberg ERCU Sadly, Roger J. Newton (a.k.a. The Czar) passed away on Saturday, August 9, due to complications of his quadruple bypass surgery. Our great friend and a founder of our hobby – not to mention our club and several others – was receiving life support, assistance from two artificial hearts, and treatment from other medical advances, to give him time to try and fight for his life. Seems it just wasn’t enough. David Newton, who’s said to have been as solid as a rock through it all, shared his thoughts with his friends, through the R/C Unlimiteds website. “I regret to inform everyone that my father passed away this morning at 10:44. He developed many complications after his surgery due to the severity of the heart attack. He passed quietly and quickly without any pain or discomfort,” David said. “In lieu of any flowers please send donations to the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum or Medic 1. I will get more detail on that later. “Everyone can take comfort in knowing that he is up there now racing with my mother, Troy, and all of the other fellow hydroplane brethren that have been taken from us. Thank you for everyone’s support throughout the entire process for my dad. I know it meant the world to him to know before he passed that so many people loved and cared for him.

District 19 Scale boater Leonard Feeback and Roger Newton race C Hydro at the 1973 NAMBA Nats in Washington

NAMBA OFFICIALS AND CHAIRMEN Revised September 2008

PRESIDENT: Al Waters

VICE PRESIDENT: Mark Grim

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY: Cathie Galbraith

(760) 746-2408 (714) 890-3127 (619) 424-6380

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

CHAIRMEN: HISTORIAN: ELECTRIC: GAS: HALL OF FAME: MONO/HYDRO: OUTBOARD: AWARDS: RECORDS: SAFETY: SPORT HYDRO: UNLIMITED HYDRO: COMBAT:

Dave Rychalsky OPEN Russell Stark Doug Twaits Bill Bridge Chris Wittrig Kim Grim Mark Grim Lohring Miller Eric Bourlet Mike McKnight Wreno Wynne

(732) 254-2165 (909) 613-1819 (973) 347-5765 (858) 449-9344 (407) 829-7916 (916) 608-1908 (714) 890-3127 (541) 345-7897 (253) 460-7283 (209) 333-2306 (214) 912-9518

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

DISTRICT DIRECTORS

District 1: District 2 District 3: District 4: District 5: District 7: District 8: District 9: District 11: District 13: District 16: District 19: District 20:

Dave Rychalsky Kelly Brooks Ron Ratoff Doug Robichaud Carlo Catalanotto Scott Grissman Lohring Miller Dave Bestpitch Richard Grenier Rey Medina Keith Warham Russell Stark Kelly Stout

(732) 254-2165 (513) 583-5837 (954) 687-6462 (608) 767-2050 (504) 305-5005 (806) 798-3484 (541) 345-7897 (916) 608-1908 (603) 524-2628 (787) 509-5103 (403) 253-9031 (909) 613-1819 (970) 454-0963

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

PROPWASH

September 2008 23

2009NAMBA MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

THIS FORM MUST BE USED TO APPLY FOR NAMBA INTERNATIONAL MEMBERSHIP PLEASE NOTE: Print all information clearly. In the event of an accident, this form becomes a legal form. Please do not use it for personal notations. Where any doubt of spelling of the name or address occurs, the form will be returned to the maker, and the membership will be held up. Please keep in mind that the member is not insured until the request and the fee for insurance have been properly filed with an authorized NAMBA official. Enclosed please find $___________to enroll me in the NAMBA Modeler’s Insurance Plan. NEW MEMBER: _______ EXISTING MEMBER: _______ CURRENT NAMBA #: _______ MEMBERSHIP CATEGORY AND FEES: Adult Member ($45) _____ 2nd Adult at Same Mailing Address ($35) _____ (Please note: this category does not receive separate mailings) Junior Under 18 ($25) _____ NAME: ________________________________________________________________________________

STREET ADDRESS:______________________________________________________________________

CITY: ________________________________________ STATE/PROVINCE: _______________________

COUNTRY: ___________________________________ ZIP/POSTAL CODE________________________

HOME PHONE NUMBER (Include Area Code): _______________________________________________

CELL PHONE NUMBER (Include Area Code): ________________________________________________

EMAIL ADDRESS: ______________________________________________________________________

CLUB AFFILIATION (If Applicable): _______________________________________________________

SPECIFIC AREAS OF INTEREST (e.g. OUTBOARD, GAS, COMBAT, ETC): ______________________

I WOULD LIKE TO PAY BY CREDIT CARD (VISA OR MASTERCARD ONLY):

NAME ON CREDIT CARD: _______________________________________________________________

CREDIT CARD NUMBER: ________________________________________________________________

EXPIRATION DATE: ____________________________________________________________________

SIGNATURE: ___________________________________________________________________________

MAIL COMPLETED APPLICATION TO: NAMBA INTERNATIONAL 1815 HALLEY STREET SAN DIEGO, CA 92154 CREDIT CARD APPLICATIONS CAN BE FAXED TO: (619) 424-8845