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QUESTION:I like building things and enjoy motor boating very much. I have been
thinking for some time about making some type of weird project boat.
Anyone who has ever had a motor boat knows how they can "stand up" when
you give them the gas. Keeping all the mechanical problems aside, how
would these ideas work out in your opinions.
- Make a boat with two propellers. One in the rear and one in the front.
both being driven at the same time to to get up to plane faster.
- Instead of a standard propeller use two long screw type augers on each
side of the boat underneath. These would be the almost the length of
the boat and you could control it with two sticks somewhat like a
skid steer loader or bobcat loader steers. Counter-rotating of
course.
I like the auger idea the best and it seems that it would really be quick
out of the hole. Hydrostatic drive would be real neat. I basically want
feedback on how well the configurations would transfer power to the water.
Not how feasable it would be to manufacture.
ANSWER: I suppose you're already mentally spending the money from your brainstorm.
Well, forget it. It's already been done... by several. One of the
first was David Bushnell, who designed the "Turtle", I believe the first
submarine to attack an enemy vessel-- in the American Revolution. The
"Turtle" had two augers: one forward, to enable a speed that occasionally
would outstrip weak tidal flows; a second overhead-- to of course enable
dives and surfacing. Unfortunately the "Turtle" never realized its
full potential. Its one mission came a cropper when the screw auger
that was to attach the bomb to the king's warship failed to penetrate
the high tech copper cladding of his majesty's vessel.
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