1/10 Spirit of australia.

[drwayne]

I made space in my beer fridge for a party of one...worked well till the beer supply ran out. B)

49.3'c in shed( fkn hot)... 43.2c in shade on rear porch/verandah( bloody hot ) .. 28.4c inside house ( feels wonderful, compared to outside )

and the weatherman says this is the start of a heat wave !

woohoo.... !!

[srislash]

I made space in my beer fridge for a party of one...worked well till the beer supply ran out. B)

49.3'c in shed( fkn hot)... 43.2c in shade on rear porch/verandah( bloody hot ) .. 28.4c inside house ( feels wonderful, compared to outside )

and the weatherman says this is the start of a heat wave !

woohoo.... !!

I used to have an urge to visit "down under". But I don't even enjoy the Okanagan here at 32+ Celsius.

[drwayne]

I used to have an urge to visit "down under". But I don't even enjoy the Okanagan here at 32+ Celsius.

Ha ha you pussy !

Our spring is a great time to visit.
Arrive here Sept-Oct and the weather's nice.
Though our winters are not as cold as some, Im not a fan of cold toes.
We live in the driest state on the driest continent on earth. Fact. <10.5" avg rainfall per annum.

http://www.sa.gov.au/subject/Water,+energy+and+environment/Water/Water+resources+in+SA/Rainfall

Our summers are legendary ( as is our beer drinking for rehydration )

[siberianhusky]

LOL moved from Texas to Canada almost 2 hours north of Toronto, during the summer, thought I was going to die from the heat!
Give my 36-40 any day with no humidity, 32 with 100% humidity in Ontario is sick, you're dripping wet and don't dry off, feels like you're trying to inhale a thick viscous soup of air and water. 6 months later it's -30 and so dry you need to keep your guitars in a humidor! You go outside and your nose freezes shut and eyelashes freeze together!
Cool boat by the way, can't wait to see some video, have to live rc through the southern folk for a few months more.

[Richie the shipwright]

Dude, dont listen to doc....Bikini season is the best time to visit..... Youll soon forget all about the heat... ;-)

[srislash]

Dude, dont listen to doc....Bikini season is the best time to visit..... Youll soon forget all about the heat... ;-)

Ahh,bikini's. Boy I gotta get a girlfriend. Or just come down single,LOL.

[drwayne]

Dude, dont listen to doc....Bikini season is the best time to visit..... Youll soon forget all about the heat... ;-)

Ahh,bikini's. Boy I gotta get a girlfriend. Or just come down single,LOL.

Stick the bikini's in ya ear, mate !

Go South .. at Maslin's they wear nuthn but skin .. tanlines only from sunglasses !!
Hafta watch for sharks tho' .. patrolling the beach and frolicking in the surf !

Application of sunscreen is quite an adventure down there !

[Richie the shipwright]

Lotsa sharks ON the beach down there too.... :-) Filthy pervert.... I love your work doc..... Gunna have to start callin you jaws??!! If you do bring your own girlfriend mate youll be getting slapped in the head too much to enjoy your "winter holidays". Might wanna bring a wingman instead!! (and some beer for jaws... oops i meant doc). :-)

[srislash]

Do they allow one to "import" Canadian beer? We have a good selection.And strong compared to some.

[drwayne]

Lotsa sharks ON the beach down there too.... :-) Filthy pervert.... I love your work doc..... Gunna have to start callin you jaws??!! If you do bring your own girlfriend mate youll be getting slapped in the head too much to enjoy your "winter holidays". Might wanna bring a wingman instead!! (and some beer for jaws... oops i meant doc). :-)

hahahaha

If Srislash makes it to Oz, we'll fill him to overflowing with local Cooper's Ale, spray his drunken carcass with sunscreen, then leave his intoxicated ass on the beach at Maslin's for the birds to squawk at. [ substitute video, no nudity]

Same applies to any US rc boater buddy keen on some 'Southern exposure' !

[drwayne]

not offensive, not po.rn .. a seaside shot of summer surfing.

enjoy !

http://photos.peacefmonline.com/photos/news/201205/683709983_224596.jpg

[Punisher 67]

Welcome to OSE Richie and congrats on the boat build

Ken Warby has been my all time hero for quite some time or better put from the first time I ever heard his story - Against all odds the man builds a wooden / fiberglass boat in his garage and powers it with a gas turbine bought for $65.00 at a military surplus and goes on breaking and holding the world record for the next 36 years .

Below is the full Warby story well worth the read .



Ken Warby was born in Newcastle, Australia on May 9th, 1939 to Neville and Eveline Warby. He is the middle of three boys and has an older sister. He attended his hometown Manual Arts School as a teenager, then went to Newcastle Prep for training as an tech apprentice.

While still a kid he heard about Donald Campbell setting a series of 200 MPH plus World Water Speed Records and was so impressed he announced to his mother he would someday do the same. He found drawings of Campbell's boats, the Bluebird, and made a model, which he powered with the small jet cylinders that were available to kids in those days. “I frightened a lot of frogs down at the park,” he says.

Warby built his first boat at age 14. It was powered by a 1934 Ford four-cylinder engine. “It was poorly made... wrong wood, wrong glue, and the wrong engine.” The boat’s top speed was 20 MPH. In 1957 at the age of 17 he acquired a second hand boat with a side-valve Ford motor and continued to mess with it until he was drafted into the Australian National Service. There he was assigned to the Royal Australian Engineers. Upon release went into training in the steel industry as a mechanical engineer.

Rekindling his interest in boats, Warby and a friend acquired a Rebel Skiff, which they raced for four or five years. These were mainly club races, which provided a good boating and racing education, but he needed a better boat. In his early 20’s he acquired a black hydroplane Raider. Equipped with a 272 Ford V8 it was capable of 80 MPH. He won a number of races with this boat, but drove it into the ground. He also raced for other boat owners, sinking a couple of them in the process, and spent his extra time as a boat race referee.

In 1965, with his friend Mike Crawley, Warby purchased a boat named the Monte Cristo. This fine handling rig with its powerful Ford V-8 engine became the terror of the club racing circuit. It ended up winning just about every important race in Australia. Finally he won the APBA 266 Cubic Inch Australian Championship. Warby kept the boat for three years, which was so unbeatable that he claims, “If the engine fired, I won the race.” Warby continued to work in the steel industry, got married and had three children.

In 1968 Lee Taylor Jr. broke Campbell’s world record setting a mark of 285 MPH. Shortly after that Warby he drew up the first sketches for what eventually became his world champion jet hydroplane, the “Spirit of Australia.” For power he went to a military surplus sale and bought two jet engines, Westinghouse J-34s, which had once powered Lockeed Neptune antisubmarine airplanes. He paid 100 dollars for each of them. His bid may not have been the highest rendered but the surplus dealers were impressed he wanted them for a boat, so they worked a deal

In 1970 Warby moved to Sydney to take a job as a sales manager for a company dealing power tools and industrial gear. That year he began putting down the Spirit’s keel. He had so little money for the project that when he traveled for his company he would sleep in his car and pocket the hotel money so he could buy materials. Altogether Warby invested only $10,000 in the boat.

When it came time to address the engine, he realized he knew very little about them. So he called Australia’s Richmond Air Force Base to ask if anyone could show him around a jet. Two volunteers came forward, Peter Cox and Rex Crandel. With their help his boat became jet powered. He also sought the help of professor Tom Fink of New South Wales University who had some involvement with Campbell’s Bluebird craft. Fink helped Warby wind tunnel test a model of the Spirit. When it tested even better than the Bluebird, he asked Who designed this." I did Warby replied. At first Fink thought his leg was being pulled, as he was dumbfounded that a “novice” could have come up with such a design achievement.

The Bluebird's design flaws caused the craft to lift off the water when reaching speeds over 250 MPH. Once airborne it is all over but the funeral, which is how Campbell lost his life in 1967. Fink’s design advice resulted in a new metal cowl over the engine and the placement of a tail from a Cessnea 172 airplane. Warby's good basic design combined with these improvements produced a boat capable of staying on the water at speeds over 300 MPH.

By 1974 the Spirit of Australia was completed and a number of high-speed runs were made. Very quickly Warby broke the Australian Water Speed record with a run of 162 MPH, soon followed by another at 166 MPH. But there were mishaps. After striking something in the water and sinking, the first of the $100 engines was ruined. Having no sponsor Warby was still financing this project on his own, so this was a considerable loss. Fortunately he still had the other $100 engine. Shell Oil eventually helped him a little by providing free fuel but no one else wanted to become involved.

[Punisher 67]

Continued

In October of 1977, at Australia’s Blowering Dam the second engine carried the boat to a new national record of 245 MPH. At that point Warby decided he needed a windshield installed.

More misfortune... a misplaced screwdriver ruined the second $100 engine just days before Warby was to make new record-breaking run at Blowering Dam. Back home, sitting in the mud in the back yard, he had a spare engine he’d purchased for 65 dollars. After transporting this engine to Blowering, the team worked night and day cleaning, installing and getting it operational. The next day Warby raised his national record to 265 MPH. Fink noticed a certain amount of drag on the rudder so two-and-one-half inches were removed. This resulted in the Spirit of Australia setting the world record of 288.60 MPH, November 20th, 1977. Warby has always found it remarkable that he set the record with a sixty-five dollar engine.

Now gaining some attention, a sponsor came forth. Soon Fosseys, the name of an Australian linen store, was painted on each side of the boat. In truth, the 7,000 dollars they contributed did little more than pay for feeding the Warby team.

Warby’s world record resulted in him being named Australian Sportsman of the Year. Noting this fame, Royal Australian Group Captain Bob Bartram contacted Warby, asking him to come to visit his base where the Air Force refurbished jet engines. While visiting he met Lt. Wing Commander David Appleby who today as retired Major Appleby is in charge of Warby’s boat crew. One thing led to anther and soon Appleby and his apprentices was looking at the $65 engine in the Spirit. The examination found it was 30% rusted an corroded, so it was not operating at full power. The official story is that Bartram’s operation rebuilt that motor, but it is more likely that they swapped it for a newly rebuilt unit then, so government auditors would not raise an eyebrow, switched the I.D. plate. Warby says, I’ll never tell. Whatever, the Spirit of Australia was now at full power. October 8th, 1978, at Blowering Dam, Warby and his craft raised the World Record to 317.596. The record has remained there ever since.

Now the endorsements came. Bill McRae, Chairman of Speedo, an international bathing suit company, invited Warby to a board meeting where he handed him a 50,000. dollar check. Shortly thereafter Australian leader, Malcolm Fraser, made arrangements for Warby and his boat to tour America. Before departing he took the boat through a run of over 400 MPH, but because it was a one-way trip, it did not count as a new record. To achieve any such record a run must be made each direction, producing an averaged speed.

In 1980, while Warby was in the U.S., American, Lee Taylor, attempted to break the record in a rocket-powered boat on Lake Tahoe. He died when at nearly 300 MPH the craft went airborne, broke in half and disintegrated. In 1991 Craig Afrons, a good friend of Warby’s but who had little experience on water, met the same fate at Sebring, Florida. He also went airborne. That's the big problem, says Warby, These are boats, not airplanes... they do not fly very well.

In 1983 the Australian National Maritime Museum purchased the Spirit of Australia where it hangs on display today. No longer having a boat, Warby began to pursue other interests. For a while he raced jet dragsters, quickly becoming the terror of Australian drag strips. After that he messed with jet-powered trucks, but because there were banned in America this did not become a successful venture. In 1990 he disposed of the dragsters and the trucks and moved to the United States. Today he still lives in Cleves, Ohio, where he owns a redi-mix concrete business.

Around 1997 Warby began making plans to build a new boat. Working in his spacious garage in Cleves, he eventually produced the Aussie Spirit. It too was fitted with a Westinghouse J-34 engine for which Warby admits he paid far more than $100. In 2003 he took the boat to Taree, Australia, where he put it through a number of runs. Water conditions were unsuitable for full speed operation but were fine for proving runs that revealed the boat had rudder problems. You do not want to drive at 300 MPH when you can’t steer, he says.

While in Australia Warby was honored with the presentation of a permanent plaque at Blowering Dam commemorating his world record. Back in Cleves he reworked the rudder in time to take the boat to the Crescent City Kilo in Florida. The lake there was too small for him to attempt a world record, but considered it worthwhile to have America see the boat run for the first time.

Ken Warby is now 67 years old but finds himself guided by the same spirit that drove him as a kid when shooting those model boats across that frog filled lake. He admits the sport of pursuing the world’s water speed record is dangerous, in fact with its current 80% death rate it is the most dangerous sport in the world. And yes, it is expensive, and requires considerable wisdom and technical expertise. But for those who might consider achievement at this level, Warby says, You have to ask yourself, ‘How bad do you want it? When you find yourself sitting at one end of a measured course with an 8,000 horsepower jet engine just a foot or so behind your head, and realize you have about a 50-50 chance of reaching the other end alive, you have to ask yourself ‘How bad do you want it?’”

Having held the World Water Speed Record for almost 36 years, one has to surmise there have not been many boating enthusiasts in the world that have wanted it as badly as Ken Warby did, and apparently still does.

[srislash]

not offensive, not po.rn .. a seaside shot of summer surfing.

enjoy !

http://photos.peacefmonline.com/phot...983_224596.jpg

Thanks for setting my goals for the day Doc.

[Richie the shipwright]

Peter, thankyou so much. Awsome read. im really enjoying hearing everyones personal views and opinions on this remarkable story, almost as much as im enjoying the build. Stupidly hot weather is slowing the build atm but im itching to get her done. 1 am here now and 23°C... im off to the shed (cool as its going to get for a whole week!), 36°c tommorrow.... #%&*#@!!!! is it beer oclock yet?