I guess I can Kris. I just don't want it turning into an argument like it normally does when I post in a tunnel thread. These are my views and I have tested them.
First, I would like to discuss why you would, or would not need a secondary ridepad. As Larry Mentioned above, none of his current hulls have secondary pads. Probably a good reason for it. A typical tunnel design specifically built to carry the light load of a nitro setup would not necessarily need wide primary pads to begin with or large sponsons for that matter, so the overall benefit might be pretty low if you primary pad is narrow to begin with. One of those hulls Larry mentioned has a mild problem with extremely slick water conditions, it gets "sticky" on the water, and could probably benefit from a secondary pad, but slick conditions don't really exist to often in race water, so its not a big deal. It also happens to have the widest primary pad of the group...so think about that.
Next, in discussing the Woodstuff hulls. I actually owned both Larry's 32" and the 28" (His actual hulls). Larry's 28" was an older design of the Woodstuff line without the secondary pads, and I just happened to own the newer 28" with the secondary pads before purchasing Larry's. I can say the newer model performed better with the secondary pads. The one without felt like it was struggling to free itself of the water. It always felt kinda sticky. The 32" was just plain fast and handled it great, and it turns great. The 32" Woodstuff, I can honestly say is one of the best all around hulls I have owned as its big enough to handle rough conditions and 5s power. Now, I ran all mine with FE setups, and I am pretty sure Larry's were Nitro, and maybe that lead to his opinion in how he liked it running. Again, these are opinions and my experiences.
Finally, why I use the secondary pads. The secondary pads on my boats, and the Woodstuff hulls, help them out because both the hulls use wide primary pads and larger sponsons than that the typical other hulls on the market. Mike Crawford uses large sponsons on his hulls because of rough water conditions he experiences up north. He found a larger platform could complete races better in high seas. He added secondary pads to free up that surface area on the wide primary pad so the boat could regain speed in the straights and not be a burden of its own design. My purpose for wider ride pads is simply because my hulls start out as FE hulls, and then they get back converted for nitro. Not the norm in the market. I have tested many different hulls and did not like having small sponsons carrying around battery weight. I felt a larger platform under all that weight was a good idea, so a wider sponson was the choice. Like Mike Crawford at Woodstuff, I needed to free up the large primary pad, so a secondary pad was installed. This also makes the hull more efficient in the straights as well, and anyone that runs P-Limited knows efficiency is how you gain an edge with that class of hull. You are limited to your power plant, so you have to gain advantages in other areas. Now, it just so happens the Nitro version of the 295 is currently in position to win (Or may have if they do not do a makeup race for the last race that was cancelled) District 12 with stock power. The boat was really fast and people have made mention it looked like it second staged down the straights. I have a feeling that was the boat popping up on those secondary pads and becoming more efficient and faster!
I am currently testing a new design hull that actually utilizes secondary pads theories even more and some other ideas I cannot discuss at this time but I will say its looking good so far. Lots and lots of testing left to do.
I hope this helped enlighten those that were interested, and didn't offend anyone that disagrees. Again, these are my views. They work on my boats, so I use them, not trying to push anyone into anything.
Thanks, Mike
ML Boatworks
