I have heard the term blowing the tail on a hydro pickle. What does that mean and when does it happen ? I have a 77 Sanger Pickle Ski hydro (medium hull) with BBC 468 roller motor (just painted, some of you have seen at CFW). When I get on it the front will bounce a little and then when it is really set the front will shimmie back and forth a little (very smooth water). The ride is smooth. I have seen 6000 rpm and there seems to be a lot more to go.
Blowing the tail is when the back is pretty much riding on the prop and skipping on the front two sponsons......
It's what makes a hydro a hydro and not an air entrapment hull. When the tail is "blown" the air is allowed to travel under the hull and away.
Not like this
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/...Uuc_ph-med.jpg
But more like this except my nose should be down more, I think I hit a roller
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/.../16image00.jpg
Isn't blowing the tail also something kinky you do to your girlfriend?
Originally posted by 78Eliminator
Isn't blowing the tail also something kinky you do to your girlfriend?
Watch out for her feet when ya do, she may go to buckin' on ya.
Keeping in mind this info is based on expereince from the early 80's when we ran a BAH and BFH....................
Blowing the tail is a term used to describe the way a drag hydro is supposed to take a set. The boat should 3 point........the trailing tips of the front sponsons and the prop should be the only parts of the boat in contact with the water. It will ride almost in a nose down attitude, the oppisite of a flatbottom.
It takes a properly set up hull and a lot of power to "blow the tail" on a ski hydro and hold it. Depending on the power/speed of the boat alot of them will also carry at least one sponson out of the water. You will know if the tail comes up as the boat will feel like it rolls forward and it will get very smooth and light feeling. If it starts to walk back and forth on the sponsons with the tail up you are very close to getting wet..........
You should have your rudder mounted behind the transom and it should be a very deep rudder as well. If not you can use all steering control when the tail comes up. Be sure you are running a whirlaway.
Once you settle on a engine/prop setup you can get a little adjustment by moving the engine forward or backwards. You can also play with the v-drive angle and prop to generate some additional lift. The red hydro in proppa's pictures is running very loose in the front. It takes a lot power and brass balls to run them that loose. At that point you have very little control of the boat and are at the whims of the boats gods.........
Proppa, nice pic's, brings back some very good memories of my younger (and dumber) years........
Sangster should know somthing about a tail!!!
Sounds like your boat is trying to lift the tail up but it wont quite do it. If its the same as my Kurtis, the rocking back and forth is the tail fighting to come up and transfering its imbalance between the left and right sponson. I noticed in the Kurtis 500 that the tail doesnt go up and stay up until 105 or so, and only then while its accelerating. When running the 10 second class the boat would never really blow the tail. Only when I have run 9.50's or quicker has it done it. Once the tail is up the rpms shoot up immediatly and the boat rides perfectly smooth, no rocking at all. And you feel the mph come on more. I always tell people that it rides smoother at that stage than my truck does driving to the track. The Mize shovel nose is way different. A different design with the sponson tips much closer to the bottom of the hull. The prop and strut are recessed against the hull bottom in a semi-circular area designed into the hull. The same thing that the new What-a-Tomato boat has. The boat sets asap and never looks back, but it only runs 18 gears.
Do you know what kind of gears are in yours? Mine are 35's (or 37's) and seem to be way too much. Along with a 3 blade cleaver, the set-up was high gear in a pro gas hydro. I try to pull it from the start and it doesnt work very well,in fact, the boat never really gets the tail up until its near the et lights. I'm dropping my gearing way down for a race next month and having the prop cut down too along with adding some hp to the motor. Not sure what you have for a motor, but when I hold a blown injected motor at wot and keep it under too much of a load it only serves to fill my oil pan up with alcohol. I've been nice to the 392 hemi, but now its time to make it work in the high rpms.
Anyways, heres some pics of them, you can see how much difference there is in the sponson/prop heighth locations. Hope it helps, sorry for the winded post.
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/...kurtis-med.JPG
http://www.***boat.com/image_center/...ougwin-med.JPG
I have been wondering about hydro "lift" myself,ihave 71 sanger shovelnose with a conservative 450hp i have messed around with gears a props and made several changes to get into the 90's and was stoked that making changes gained me about 16 mph, however the bookreaders around here says if i got the ass end outta the water and quite ridin like a flatbottom i would really be going somewhere, I was happy with what i had and thought i had maximized my potential but was tired of hearing everybodys idea of how it should look when running, so i slide the propshaft back and but 4 nickels into the coupler and put it back together now it is acting all stupid and bobbling every where and tries to fly when it hits any wake and wont turn at all and i have a long outboard rudder so i have come to the realization that i dont have the power to make a hydo do what a hydro does and that is 3 point but someday i will so dont get discouraged get more hp
takin it easy in oklahoma, Dustin
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