Sailing

Visit us on the web: www.ravenracingvideo.com A breif explanation of the sport: Eagle is the number one race hull but there are others racing. Kwikraft is a New Zealand hull designed and built by Tony Ward, 19 to 21 foot tunnel. There also is at least one Doug Riddle hull still racing and there are several unique one-offs, the two built by River Wild are good examples. One is a 21 foot B-class tunnel and the other is an 18 foot FX class tunnel. Bottoms are anywhere from .160 to 3/16ths. Sometimes AR plating is used as an extra layer of protection. Sides are generally .090, decks can be even less than that. Saving weight is very important and the location of the weight in the boat is even more important. Most use spoons, an add on piece in front of the intake. Hulls are generally tunnels although v-hulls have done well in FX class, and River Wild has built two super light "semi-wing in ground effect" hulls that are also quite good. The FX version did especially good in 2001. I believe the Eagle 19 foot Sport step-tech will become a big force in FX class in the next few years. Since these boats are raced through whitewater interspersed with rocks and logs, they need to have fairly precise handling characteristics compared to other types of race boats. They also need to be very predictable. Bad habits and quirks can put you up in the rocks or worse. The pumps are obvously highly modified, but based on Berkeley, Legend, Aggressor or American Turbine production pumps ...