Conference noted::bicycle

2052.0. "Human-powered Watercraft" by NQOPS::CLELAND (USIM&T Data Center Services) Thu Aug 22 1991 07:55

	The Boston Globe * Thursday, August 15, 1991
	By David Arnold, Globe staff

	Cambridge - When the bicycling professor from MIT kicked in the
	extra power yesterday morning, the hulls of his pedal-driven
	contraption leaped three feet out of the water like a dragster
	trying to fly. Then the machine started skimming at almost 16 mph
	down the Charles River, planing on a hydrofoil just twice the
	size of a yardstick and leaving astern the slightest sliver of
	ripples and many confused commuters on Memorial & Storrow drives.
	This was the first full power run-up. The time was 7:02 a.m.

	   Cheers, applause, cries of "yes, yes!" and "unbelievable, the
	thing actually works!" pierced the still air as the half dozen
	students, long on hope but short on sleep, watched in awe from
	an accompanying launch.

	   They had spent several thousand hours making this entry for
	next sunday's human-powered watercraft race in Milwaukee, WI.
	Yesterday they were the Chuck Yeagers and the Wright brothers
	of the Charles River Basin, if only for a moment. Before their
	minute was up, their craft had crashed, sort of. It was really
	more of a plop as pilot Mark Drela eased too quickly off the
	power and his steed fell back down with a splat.

	   Mini-crashes come with the turf for these engineers, who know
	their hydrodynamics as they know sleep deprivation. Some of them
	helped set the current world records for speed and distance in
	human-powered flight with the aircraft Monarch, Light Eagle, and
	Daedalus. And now they're back, pedaling a gangling, oversized
	waterbug named Decavitator toward what they hope will be a world
	record pace and a $20,000 prize, offered by Dupont Co., to the
	first single-human-powered boat to go 20 knots (24 mph) over a
	110-yard course.

	   Yesterday morning, about one-half dozen students from MIT
	began to believe they actually had a crack at the money.

	   "It's incredible", said an elated Marc Schafer after the minor
	crash. He is the 32-year-old Decavitator project manager, an aero-
	dynamics graduate student who had slept less than 2 hours in as
	many days. "I don't even feel tired", he said.

	   Decavitator, powered by a twelve foot propeller, rhymes with
	decapitator but is named is dishonor of cavitation, a property of
	hydrodynamics. Cavitation occurs when unwanted air cavities form
	around a poorly designed surface to disrupt the smooth, speedy
	flow of liquid over that surface.

	   Decavitator is a twin-hulled, 17-foot-long, 48-pound opponent
	of cavitation. It was built with parts purchased from hobby shops,
	parts fabricated in MIT machine shops, parts "borrowed" from MIT
	departments still unaware of their generosity. The craft looks
	like a biological cross between an Everglades airboat, and a
	chaise lounge.

	   Mounted between the hulls is a pair of stacked hydrofoils -
	long, slender wings made of carbon fiber - onto which the boat
	lifts in two distinct steps as it accelerates. During the first
	test outing tuesday, engineers prepared to accelerate to step
	two - the highspeed hydrofoil - when they realized something was
	very wrong. Oops. They had mounted the hydrofoil upside down.
	Such are the pitfalls of combining no sleep with a charette.

	   The annual race sunday is sponsored by the IHPVA, also known
	as the International Human Powered Vehicle Association. Three
	watercraft made the start in 1986, the first year of the event.
	Thirteen craft are slated to compete this year, and include
	Flying Fish, the current speed record-holder. Flying Fish hails
	from Los Angeles and has been clocked at 17.4 miles per hour.

	   Team Decavitator packs up their creation and starts for
	Milwaukee in a 20-foot-long truck today; a couple of the team
	members are veterans of previous MIT human-powered successes.
	The airplane Monarch holds the speed record (21 mph) for human-
	powered flight, set in 1984; the Light Eagle holds the flight
	distance record of 37.2 miles for a woman pilot, set in 1987;
	Daedalus holds the overall distance record, flying 74 miles
	from Crete to the Greek island of Santorini in 1988.

	   End

	I hope they kick some serious booty...     Face.

    Anybody know what happened to the MIT entry inthe race?
    

    	I don't know any results yet.
    
    	What we need is someone who subscribes to the newsletter
    	mentioned in topic # 366.
    
    	Anyone here a member of the IHPVA ???

    I'm a  member  of IHPVA, but I haven't yet received the newsletter
    with  the  results  of  last month's championships. When I get it,
    I'll post the results here.

--David

	The Boston Cyclist  Vol. XIII No. 2
	November-December 1991

	Boston Area Bicycle Coalition
	PO Box 1015
	Kendall Square Branch
	Cambridge, MA 02142-0008
	Tel. # 617-491-ride

                            WATER SPEED RECORD SET !
                            ----------------------

	   Early in the morning of  Sunday, Oct. 27, while most people
	were relaxing in bed savoring the extra hour they got from the
	change from  daylight savings to standard  time, a team of MIT
	students, their pilot/advisor, and two official observers from
	the  *International Human Powered Vehicle Association*  set up
	timing equipment on the banks of the  Charles River  in Boston
	and Cambridge.

	   At 9:19 a.m.,  MIT professor Mark Drela set a human-powered
	water speed record of 18.5 knots in the  Decavitator hydrofoil
	designed and built by MIT students.  He B-R-O-K-E the previous
	record of 16.5  knots,  which he had set the previous  evening.
	The "old" record of  15.5 knots was set at the IHPVA Champion-
	ships in Milwaukee, WI., in August.

	   Graduate student Dava Newman set a women's record of 11.4
	knots in the same watercraft.
    
    	-end-
    
    	I'm confused, I thought the championships were in September?
    	Anyway, I still don't know how these folks did in the competition,
    	as in, how well they fared against the Flying Fish...
    
    	Actually, I'm still trying to find an entry form so I can join
    	the IHPVA!  Time to pester my local shop-owner again...

    I think  that  Decavitator  did  poorly  at speed week, because of
    mechanical problems.

The IHPVA's address is:

  IHPVA
  PO 51255
  Indianapolis, IN 46251-0255
  (317) 876-9478

    I don't remember how much membership costs.

--David

I got this from a mailing list.

============================================================================
From:   US1RMC::"[email protected]" "Doug Mink"
To:     [email protected]
CC:
Subj:   Observers needed for water record attempt

Boston area IHPVA members are needed as observers for an attempt at the
human-powered water speed record this weekend.  The MIT team which
set the record last fall is going to try for 20 knots, and I need
help verifying their speed.  Mark Drela is calling people, but this
mailing list might get to people who he can't reach.  If you live near
Boston, but aren't yet an IHPVA member, please join IHPVA so you can
help.  If you can't afford to join, Dave Wilson, who observed last
year's record run but is out of town this weekend, has volunteered to
pay a year's dues for a prospective record observer.

If you're interested, send me e-mail at [email protected].  If you
are a member who can help this weekend, call Mark Drela at MIT at
(617)253-0067.

-Doug Mink

============================================================================

    The record attempt will be at 8 in the morning, or at dusk,
    depending on the weather.

    For those of you making plans.

    -Jeff

    	For anyone who's not a member of The Boston Area Bicycle Coalition,
    
    	or the International Human Powered Vehicle Association, some notes
    
    	on the previous water speed record are under topic # 2052.
    
    	Jeff, t'anks for the reply...
    
    							Regards, Face

    I'll send mail to the moderator to ask him to move this string
    to note 2052, where the topic was already underway.

    -Jeff