PaulHail
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2017
- Messages
- 357
I've looked through the old posts and haven't seen mention of this mid 80's West Coast outrigger. For those not familiar, Howard Power was the editor for the model boating column in RCModeler magazine. He also produced a fiberglass verson of the Northwind that was supposed to be an improvement and as I recall he called it the Mirage.
As I recall, the boat was a 45/67, 36" long. The tub and rear sponsons were a copy of the Octura Wing ding, the front sponson's were a copy of the Crapshooter and the front sponson supports were rectangular aluminum extrusions. Conventional for the time plywood tub with plywood over foam sponsons and a fiberglass cowl. The tub was 5" wide, engine mount was a rigid Octura and there was room between the sponsons to fit a pair of 8 oz Sullivan tanks. The front sponsons could be built with an optional tunnel on the ride surfaces.
Power products produced their own hardware featuring glass filled nylon for the strut supports, rudder support, rudder blade, and turn fin bracket with what appeared to be an Octura strut blade. The flex tube was an S bend design, but not to allow the engine crank to be mounted parallel to the tub. The S-bend allowed for the strut to be mounted 5 degrees off the boats centerline (and there was a tapered wedge included with the strut) which was supposed to account for prop walk and allow the hull to track straight without compensation from the rudder.
I built one as a teenager, and never ended up racing. As memory serves, I used an OPS 45 with OPS nitro pipe and an X-455. I never got the engine to run well with the stock carb but found the OPS 21 car engines used a cab with the same diameter stub so installed the slide valve carb and actuated it from a bellcrank. The engine ran great with the slide valve carb. Somewhere I've got some pictures I'll have to dig up and scan.
Anyone else ever build one?
As I recall, the boat was a 45/67, 36" long. The tub and rear sponsons were a copy of the Octura Wing ding, the front sponson's were a copy of the Crapshooter and the front sponson supports were rectangular aluminum extrusions. Conventional for the time plywood tub with plywood over foam sponsons and a fiberglass cowl. The tub was 5" wide, engine mount was a rigid Octura and there was room between the sponsons to fit a pair of 8 oz Sullivan tanks. The front sponsons could be built with an optional tunnel on the ride surfaces.
Power products produced their own hardware featuring glass filled nylon for the strut supports, rudder support, rudder blade, and turn fin bracket with what appeared to be an Octura strut blade. The flex tube was an S bend design, but not to allow the engine crank to be mounted parallel to the tub. The S-bend allowed for the strut to be mounted 5 degrees off the boats centerline (and there was a tapered wedge included with the strut) which was supposed to account for prop walk and allow the hull to track straight without compensation from the rudder.
I built one as a teenager, and never ended up racing. As memory serves, I used an OPS 45 with OPS nitro pipe and an X-455. I never got the engine to run well with the stock carb but found the OPS 21 car engines used a cab with the same diameter stub so installed the slide valve carb and actuated it from a bellcrank. The engine ran great with the slide valve carb. Somewhere I've got some pictures I'll have to dig up and scan.
Anyone else ever build one?