Whats wrong with a canard hydro?

[MikeP]

I was wondering why you see very few canard hydros, do they have a problem? Have they been tested and found inadequate.

Mike

 

[Mark Anderson]

I used to run canards in all hyrdo classes. At the time they were very competitive especially my 20 boat. I'm not sure you could be competitve today, the riggers have come along way. If you were into a long r&d program you could probably make one work or you could buy one of several current boats and go fast from the get go.

 

[missbudpilot55]

My knowledge is somewhat limited, but here's what I have discovered by some experimentation with canards. Firstly the wetted area is more than on a 3 or 4 point rigger due to the configuration, ie a little more drag. The plus to this design is that it will corner like it is on rails around the bouys with out a turn fin, unlike a rigger that required one. It requires a lot more patience to set up and has a critical point of balance, for good straight-a-way speed with the nose out of the water and running only on the rear sponsons and strut. A lifting surface prop will make them really loose, it is best to set strut simular to a cat set up. Being no turn fin is required they will generally turn either direction, a rigger doesn't like left rudder.

The angle of the wing between the sponson and the tub is also very critical, as is the shape. The shape I found was a fully semitrical shape worked best, but most production ones have a "Clark-Y" wing shape or flat bottom with lifting surface on top of wing only. If you are designing your own it is best to make the wing & sponsons fully adjustable. I have never seen one without the wing that connects the sponsons to the tub but I always wondered what it would run like with tubes as per riggers.

I found the above observatons in some notes that I have from about 15 years ago, and someday I may just get back at it again, I like the odd ball stuff.