First runs of the season

[LarryConrad]

I finally had a chance to get a boat in the water today. The weather up here has been horrible since the snow melted and the ponds thawed. I hooked up with Richard Dahleimer,and Todd Hollander wandered on by a bit later. Richard brought one of his Black Jack hydros with a red head valvola under the cowl, and I ran my Blackbird for the first time with one of the new 5 port Nova's that Glenn Quarles has a smokin' deal on.Richard wanted to test a Brown fat pipe on his boat and it ran real well. I have very little experience with outrigger hydros so starting out with a boat that is as well designed, and built as Chris Wood's Blackbird makes the learning curve just a little bit shorter. My boat lauches easily, turns like it's on rails, and even with it setup really loose, handled the rough windy conditions at the reduced speeds I was running at with a tight motor,fat needle and long pipe. Todd Hollander actually ran a boat today... so look out, he will want to be giving everyone advice on the internet now! :lol: Todd started building one of the new wave .12 riggers that Mr Geraghty recently offered up plans for, from line drawings he got from Rod last fall. Those little .12 boats look like a lot of fun,and Todd's is going to be a real screamer when the motor gets some run time on it.

Larry Conrad

 

[Richard Dahlheimer]

I finally had a chance to get a boat in the water today. The weather up here has been horrible since the snow melted and the ponds thawed. I hooked up with Richard Dahleimer,and Todd Hollander wandered on by a bit later. Richard brought one of his Black Jack hydros with a red head valvola under the cowl, and I ran my Blackbird for the first time with one of the new 5 port Nova's that Glenn Quarles has a smokin' deal on.Richard wanted to test a Brown fat pipe on his boat and it ran real well. I have very little experience with outrigger hydros so starting out with a boat that is as well designed, and built as Chris Wood's Blackbird makes the learning curve just a little bit shorter. My boat lauches easily, turns like it's on rails, and even with it setup really loose, handled the rough windy conditions at the reduced speeds I was running at with a tight motor,fat needle and long pipe. Todd Hollander actually ran a boat today... so look out, he will want to be giving everyone advice on the internet now! :lol: Todd started building one of the new wave .12 riggers that Mr Geraghty recently offered up plans for, from line drawings he got from Rod last fall. Those little .12 boats look like a lot of fun,and Todd's is going to be a real screamer when the motor gets some run time on it.Larry Conrad

I think Larry is now hooked on .21 hydros! The Valvola i ran yesterday was one i purchased from Hobby Supplies in Australia two years ago. These motors had the old style MAC/ CMB crankcase, and piston and sleeve. The drum housing was the new style with the fixed aluminum ramp, and bolt on carb. I bolted on a old style drum housing, so i could run my Zoom carb. I tried a CMDI fat pipe @7and 5/8ths. Plug is #6 Nova turbo plug with turbo plug insert from Dave Marles. I believe a good test would be to build a carb adapter plae, and try a different carb on the new 08 /09 Valvolas. Richard D