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Written by Matt Trulio
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Monday, 28 June 2010 17:18 |
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It's been a busy summer already for John Tomlinson, the multi-time offshore powerboat racing world champion and co-owner of TNT Custom Marine in North Miami. Fresh from throttling the 39-foot-long Marine Technology, Inc., racing catamaran CRC with owner Mike Defrees behind the wheel in the Super Cat class of the Offshore Super Series season-opener May 20-23 in Biloxi, Miss., Tomlinson headed for the Bimini Ocean Challenge on June 12 to throttle the new 50-foot-long catamaran from Statement Marine. Driving the cat, which was powered by a pair of 1,450-hp T-53 turbine engines, was Todd Werner, the owner of Statement Marine.
"We were the first pleasure boat to finish," said Tomlinson. "We did the run in 58 minutes. It was little bumpier than last year, but not bad.
"It ran good, right out of the box," Tomlinson added. "Like everything brand new, it needs a little fine tuning. But it ran good."
That represented a big step forward from the previous time Tomlinson and Werner ran the 50-footer, though the improvement in performance had nothing to do with the catamaran itself. A week before, they took the cat to the Jacksonville River Rally Poker Run. A mechanical issue knocked them out of the run early.
"We threw a propeller blade about three minutes into it," said Tomlinson. "With this kind of power, you just can't run cast propellers and expect them to last. Now we have a pair of Five Axis props, and they’re fine.”
Next up for Tomlinson, who reported that his business has picked this month? He’ll run with Defrees again in the CRC cat at the July 4 weekend Super Boat International event in Sarasota, Fla. |
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Last Updated on Monday, 28 June 2010 17:20 |
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Written by Matt Trulio
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Thursday, 24 June 2010 09:58 |
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Final design of Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats’ new stepped 28-footer is nearly complete and hull tooling is done for its 36-foot sibling, according to Mike Fiore, the owner and founder of the Bristol, R.I.-based company. The new models will be the smallest offerings in the Outerlimits V-bottom line, which currently ranges from 40 to 52 feet.
“We just finished the hull tooling for the 36 and now we have to do the deck tooling,” Fiore told me early this morning. “And we’re just about done with the design for the 28.
“It’s going to be an epoxy, composite boat,” he added
Historically speaking, builders of large custom high-performance boats have not fared well when they’ve introduced smaller models. Fiore is cognizant of that fact, and said that the key is controlling construction costs.
“Obviously, we can’t build the 28 the same way we build our 52—we’d lose our shirts,” he said. “The 28 has to be a production-built boat. Our 44 is a monocoque, three-piece boat and we’re going to build the 28 the same way.”
At present, said Fiore, Outerlimits has eight boats—from 44 to 52 feet—in production, and has shipped 12 sets of its in-house-built, Whipple-supercharged engines with power ranging from 850 to 1,375 hp. But even with what would appear to be steady work, `Fiore said doing business in the current economy remains difficult.
“I would be absolutely lying if I said it isn’t tough,” he said. “Sure, we have eight boats going, but we’re not making a ton of money on them. We’re keeping our guys working and still making enough to develop some new models. I haven’t had a day off for 45 days, and I’m lucky to be able to say that.
“I’m also lucky to be doing what I love—building boats—and I’m young enough to see another turnaround,” he added. “But if there isn’t another one while I’m still at it, I am perfectly happy to build 14 or 15 boats a year.” |
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Last Updated on Thursday, 24 June 2010 10:01 |
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Written by Matt Trulio
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Friday, 25 June 2010 09:58 |
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With the July 2 Super Boat International Kilo runs in Sarasota, Fla., just a couple of weeks away, time is getting tight for the Louisiana-based Phenomenon crew that will make an attempt at breaking the propeller-driven water-speed record of 220 mph. The 50-plus-foot catamaran, which is powered by four 3,000-hp turbine engines, is still waiting for four new custom-made propellers to accommodate the cat’s new 2-7/8-inch propeller shafts.
“We’re supposed to get one prop today,” said Scott Barnhart, the throttleman for the boat (Al Copeland, Jr., will drive), early this morning. “We’re supposed to get two tomorrow, and the fourth one as late as Tuesday.
“We’ll be sitting on the launch ramp waiting for the fourth propeller so we can test,” said Barnhart. “”If the boat goes over 200 mph, we’re going to Sarasota. If it doesn’t, we’re not. We’re just not going to push it. There’s too much at stake.”
Movement of the boat’s four drives, which Barnhart said cannot be stabilized with tie bars because of the positioning of the thrust tubes, have created mechanical issues. The most notable of these is that the propellers have actually struck one another when the boat is running. That problem, plus the new propeller shafts, forced the Phenomenon team to order new props.
“We also changed the propeller rotation,” said Barnhart. “We’re running them away from each other.”
Though Barnhart said he was concerned about the time crunch, he remains optimistic.
“I still feel really confident,” he said. “In the few runs we’ve made, the boat felt perfect.” |
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Last Updated on Friday, 25 June 2010 10:04 |
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Written by Matt Trulio
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Wednesday, 23 June 2010 00:00 |
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Funny how one phone call leads to another and—when you’re lucky—some worthwhile news. Case in point: I called Ben Robertson, a former championship-winning tunnel-boat and offshore racer, to see what he’s been up to. (Quite a bit, it turns out, and you’ll find that story later this week on powerboatmag.com.) Robertson mentioned that his son, Ben Robertson, III, was still working at Hering Propellers. Hadn’t checked in with Hering lately, so I gave the younger Robertson a call.
The latest from Hering? Seven-blade Bravo-style propellers in 31- and 32-inch pitch. Standard diameter is 15-1/2 inches, and rake angle is 21 degrees.
“Originally, Jim (Hering) had gone to five-blades and then to six-blades,” said Robertson. “The conventional thinking was that more blades helped you in the middle range, but hurt you on top. But our six-blades ended up out-performing our five-blades.
“We had a customer near Fountain (in Washington, N.C) who got tired of breaking our competitor’s props—he’d gone through four sets,” Robertson continued. “So he bought a pair of our six blades, and they were 4 to 5 mph faster up top but 4 to 5 mph slower in the mid-range. We sent him a set of the seven blades we’d been working on, and he immediately picked 6 to 7 miles per hour at cruising, and they were 2 to 3 mph faster than our six blades."
According to Robertson, five pairs of Hering seven-blade propellers have been sold.
Robertson also mentioned that Hering is making a domestic push with its outboard propellers. The strongest market for the props, which are offered in four- and five-blade Bravo-style and over-the-hub cleaver versions, has been in Dubai.
“We haven’t really focused on the U.S. market,” he said. “But we’re starting to.”
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Last Updated on Monday, 28 June 2010 13:43 |
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