Thundercat Racing 08

[thomas]

Hi all, Im looking for a new co-pilot for the 2008 UIM Thundercat Championships. I have my brand new boat coming from SA in 4-5 weeks. The team will have sponsorship from THOR, Oakley, RIB International, Ribeye and LOMO. I have custom wet suites being made up with name or each crew and team logos. All UIM approved brand new life jackets, helmets, wet suites, dry suites, gloves and boots etc provided by myself FOC.

You would just need to pay for your travel expenses etc. Chance to get into a really good race championship with also travels with the P1 circuit!! Great time to get envolved, opotunities to race abroad with a great low cost commitment.

If you are intrested please let me know, Im based in Dartmouth so South West would be best for training, if your more southampton way, again Im sure we can organise something.

Regards

Tom

[thomas]

Some photos of the 07 racing...

[Mark Babbe]

Tom,

You seem to be the resident expert of thundercats on the forum.

Currently living in Perth but originally from Guernsey and have just bought a thundercat.

I have a couple of questions:

Do you need two people in the boat at all times to keep the nose down. I had a quick play on the river a few weeks back and i felt like i was going to flip just with me in. Can you buy balast bags or anything similar to assist in this.

Also have you skied/wakeboarded behind yours? Just about to put an order in for a wakeboard.


What is the technique to make sharp corners, do you keep the power on and fight your way round the corner or power off and use the outboard leg as a rudder. I can probably find this all out myself through trial and error but have been too busy to get out recently and starting to get intrigued.

Any info you can give me would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Mark

[thomas]

Hi Mark,

Ok well firstly, no you dont need someone in the craft with you if the weatehr is right(no wind, flat calm on a river etc). If it is very windy then I would advise it, aspecially if you havent got much experience in the craft.

You can add balast, one thing that I used to suggest when I was selling them, was if you were out on your own, to move the fuel tank forward up to the nose area, make sure its well secured and run a longer fuel line. Although this is for short periods only as you do use up your ballast this way.

If you are wanting to turn really tight, I would suggest having somebody in the boat with you, as when on your own, the craft will skip or slide, becuase of being so light, therefore having someone hold on and sit in the craft on the side that you will be turning, will mean the craft will be able to turn very quickly.

No nack to it, drop the revs a small amount, turn then engine keeping a constant amount of power on so that you dont unsettle the boat, then once 60% into your turn as you coming around back out of it, up the throttle to full again.

When doing repeated Doughnuts for example, depending on what prop you have will give you different slip, but if you go in a straight line to build up some speed and plane, then turn tightly and then add the power with someone leaning into the corner for you. Just get time into the boat and give things ago that best suites you and you will have alot of fun.

[Cookee]

Tom has spent a lot more time in these than I have, although I have raced a Thundercat! I would suggest that you might want to experiment with the trim if you're going to be on your own a lot, obviously not being a power trim you'll have to spend a bit of time trying different settings, but I reckon you might find a good compromise if you're not going to be racing it.

[blimp]

Hi Mark, I bought a Thundercat at the tail end of last Summer and with the missus only being a fair-weather boater, I tend to go out on my own quite a bit. For what it's worth I find that I just need to watch the wind and conditions a bit, although I can still get through most conditions on my own, with a bit of common sense applied. In calm conditions I can turn hard, at full speed, to starboard (I steer with my left hand), but I wouldn't fancy trying it to port on my own!! When powering up I tend to move forward a bit myself and then adjust to the conditions accordingly. The more experience you get with these things, the more you'll tend to push your own boundaries - they're incredibly capable.

Finally got the chance last Sunday to take on some serious rough weather conditions in it with a crew member - I'm still smiling

[Mark Babbe]

Thanks for the information.

Perth is on of the windiest Cities in the world, especially in summer. The only time i went solo i could hardly go into wind without sh1ting my pants.

Blimp, a bit like your missus mine cannot be relied upon as crew so will need to get the boys interested. Problem then is having to organise a trip rather than just hook up and go.

Another few questions.

1) Should the cap on the fuel tank be loosened when i go out to allow air to get in?
2) Do you ever carry an anchor and bucket when going to sea. Perth has strict rules when not in protected waters which state a vessle over 3.5m in length and with more than 6hp requires a bucket, anchor, distress flare pack and radio when in unprotected water.
3) Do you ever carry paddles with you?
4) To ski behind a thundercat is ok? just attach bridle to tansom?

The bucket one makes no sense for a thunder cat unless it is to put a fire out. But knowing how anal the aussies I bet they would still require this

Cheers

Mark

[blimp]

Mark - just my 2 cents worth, but there are a few regulations which I have to 'overlook' when taking to sea, such as correct lights and radar reflector. I do carry a handheld VHF which I used to put in a grab-bag (essential for a thundercat) but now I just clip on to lifejacket and lightly spray with fresh water after use. Mobile phone goes into grab-bag, and I plan to get one of those small flare packs that are designed for jet-skiers / kite surfers / etc.

With the wind I find (and it's pretty windy over these parts too!!) that downwind is fine, wind at my back (in my case over starboard side) is also fine. From port side I tend to take in easy, and driving into the wind I try and get as far forward as possible.

I've found that the harder you can get the tubes (especially the hijackers) the better the handling will be. With two people on board you can turn, pretty much, as hard and as fast as you like - just watch that you don't do it over a breaking wave. Try to find a quiet navigation buoy, or vacant mooring buoy, and practice slowly. Start with wide, slow turns around it and keep increasing speed and tightness of turning as your confidence builds. There's a lot of guys over your way that race these things, so if you can get one of them to come out with you (google for local clubs) you'll get a great insight into what they can really do. It takes a while to get your confidence, since they appear to go against the laws of boating physics to anyone coming from a background of monohulls!!

As for your questions:
1. My fuel tank has a little plastic air-release screw on the top which is always open when engine is running
2. I never carry and anchor or bucket (where would I put them?) but flare pack and VHF wouldn't be a problem.
3. My thundercat came with two paddles in a specially designed pouch on the tubes.
4. I got the manufacturers to fit towing-eyes to either side of the engine on the transom. Haven't tried to ski with them yet (but have seen it done) - have used them to pull inflatables (try and get someone to sit up front when doing this). I believe it's fine to just tie to the transom if you don't have towing eyes fitted.

I found the following on a thundercat forum last year (hopefully the author will be ok with me posting it here). I haven't needed it yet, but always carry a laminated version in the grab-bag:

Start a flipped Thundercat Outboard
First of all you need tools for the job and should always carry these on board just for this job.

Tools (for Tohatsu recovery)
1. Spark Plug Wrench
2. Medium Flat head screw driver
3. 5 or 6 Medium Zip ties
4. Medium Phillips head screwdriver
5. Pliers with side cutters

Once your boat is back up the right way

1. Remove Spark Plugs - Don't drop these overboard if you are not on land!

2. Pull the lower crankcase rubber pipe off, it's the one that is at the very bottom of the power head under and behind the accelerator cable. Water should come out of the brass nozzle. (Thanks to Riviera for that great tip)

3. Undo each carbie fuel bowl screw (1 on each carbie) with flathead screwdriver until fuel drips out (you don't need to take them right out)

4. Squeeze your fuel primer and watch the fuel come out of each cabie. Keep priming gently until you do not see any white looking fuel on the pan of your motor(under bottom carbie). Once all water is clear from cabies, tighten the carbie bowl screws up (don't burr the screw heads).

5. Remove kill switch from motor, put motor into neutral.

6. Pull motor over until no water is coming out of the crankcase nozzle(see step 2 for nozzle location). This could take upto 30 tries.

7. Attach crankcase hose back onto its nozzle.

8. Undo fuel line from fuel pump. Thats the line going to the bottom carbie from the fuel filter.

9. Undo Carbie air box cover (6 phillips head screws).

10. Clean your spark plugs with fuel from the undone fuel line by gently squeezing the primer and washing plugs in fuel. Sit the plugs in the sun to dry off.

11. Squirt a small ammount of fuel into each carbie throat.

12. Reconnect fuel line to fuel pump and prime the carbies ready for a start.

13. Replace the top 2 spark plugs finger tight (you might have to remove them again) and connect them to the coils. Leave the bottom spark plug out for now. (Thanks to Mark Pantarotto for that tip)

14. Attach kill switch.

15. Full choke, throttle on 25-50%

16. Try to start motor, if you hear it cough and splutter like it is about to start, back the choke right off and try again to start with 50% throttle.

17. If motor starts, give it a few revs - it will run very rough as water will be forced out of the bottom cylinder spark plug hole. Do not run the motor for more than 15 seconds! If the motor does not start, you will have to go back to step 1 and start again.

18. If the motor did start, put the third plug in and tighten all three with plug wrench, double check your carbie screws are done up, put carbie air box back on and check everything is back together.

If you cannot get the motor running after performing the above steps 2 or 3 times then you may have bigger problems than simply water in your motor.

[mrp750racing]

Hi Tom,

Looking forward to racing against you in the new season and i'll try to catch up with you on saturday.



All the best

Sam

p750racing.com

[thomas]

Sorry did i read that right- you are looking forward to racing against me and trying to catch up, aw yes im looking forward to it!! haha missed you at the drivers briefing and clinic but im sure will meet you on the practice run in two weeks?

[mrp750racing]

I was saying i catch up with you on Saturday! But that didn't happen due to work commitments i cam down for half hour but only for a medical but my Pilot is as useful as kick in the teeth, so he didn't hold back the Dr. for me.

As for the racing i am looking forward to it, good to see some new blood in the ranks and i'm sure we'll have a great seasons racing!!


Cheers

Toolbox