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Lubriplate & crew sock prop bags...
Smitty; Here is another old tale, fairly interesting in general. I may have just one more left from the weird past.
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This is an 8mm movie extracted photo of Entrop’s new (and last) -FOH- course hull on its first outing at the season opening race on Lake Sammamish. I think the year is the one following the Nationals in Casper, WY. (Can someone help with the Casper year, maybe 1963?). The first test was for ride attitude without the added weight of new siamese pipes. We bolted on the pipes and the ride balance remained stable. Short course prop gave 94 mph on speedometer so about normal. New deck curvature gave increased aft lift as expected so a more safe corner entry mode.
http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forum...attach/jpg.gif
The next race for Hugo was mid season Capital Lake in Olympia, a large 1 mile course. This story is about a very interesting discovery during that race and a later mystery.
Hugo used high shear strength aircraft bolts with a formed metal aircraft lock nut rather than standard shear pins. He wanted to retain the prop if the shaft failed at the threads. He used a torque wrench on the prop nut. I assumed that there had been a failure in early times.
Hugo coated his props in Lubriplate grease and kept them in crew sock bags, the few stored in a nice simple tray which fit a trunk space below where he laid the 75-H in his 1950’s Desoto. He pulled out the prop for the day at Olympia and mounted it, white grease included. Ran the first heat and set it on the stands for refueling.
I noticed the prop nut was missing, the shaft had broken at the threads. Hugh decided to run heat two but wanted to change to a prop for running at lower rpm & less throttle plus would be less concerned if it was lost.
I removed the prop as Hugh got the next one and then I saw that the forward face of both blades was still coated with white grease. A small band of grease was washed away for maybe 1/2 inch or less behind the leading edge. These are typical clever wedge type props as used on Inboard hydros.
Hugh was fascinated so got his nice 35 mm Pentaflex camera out to get a picture of the grease markings then set the prop carefully aside for later photos. We put on the second prop, shear pin bolt drive only, and Hugo said that he would use full throttle at the start and throttle back for the rest of the heat; still ran in front.
That prop also had the grease remaining on the forward face but a wider wash band behind the leading edge. More photos, close up, of both props. He said that Doc Jones would want to see the photos.
Talking with Hugh, maybe the next year, he told of getting a call from Doc Jones asking when he could bring the boat south for some test runs. Hugh had vacation time and the model shop was not busy so he made the trip. I did not know this at the time, no one was supposed to. Doc Jones had contacted someone at an “agency” and they wanted to set up a straightaway course in salt water where they could take high speed underwater movies of Hugh’s prop at his normal speeds. Probably coated with something a little more exotic than Lubriplate.
The course was quite narrow to allow for proper placement of several cameras and sound equipment so was a little spooky to run through but Hugh did the many passes as needed. The agency crew said thanks, Doc & Hugh left. Some time later Doc received a report from the agency telling that there was excellent new information about high speed prop micro cavitation from those tests, no more tests needed, and thanks for the outstanding service.
That’s it folks. You will have to guess, just as I did, where application of that new cavitation data was so critical. Doc & Hugh were either restricted from disclosure or did not know. Underwater noise is created from even minor prop cavitation and who knows just what that odd separated flow across the forward face of Hugo’s props looked like and what sound was generated.
Those props of Doc’s & Hugh’s were surprisingly efficient, calculated using simple pitch, tac rpm, and indicated speed. Much more so than those on typical outboard hydros of the time including the props I ran in -D- on Entrop’s 1955 course hull.
I think enough time has passed that my speculation and this story is of little importance, just interesting to think about.
R.R.
Entrap's craftsmanship & photography
Dean; Good that you found the writing interesting. I only have these few memories from my short time in racing outboards so that’s far too little material for more than telling tales. I generally know little or less about other noted outboard racers outside of Region 10 other than name recognition. I “disappeared” after the early 1970’s except for the random contact with Hallum and attended only a couple races any decade. That whole era was special for me so I never lost interest or curiosity though.
You asked about Hugo. When he called he would say it was Hugh or Hugo. Most often Hugh would ask if I had time to help lift the hydro to or from the car top rack sometime that week. When it was Hugo calling that meant soon going to the races.
I really don’t remember enough details about how he arrived at his long employment in the Boeing main Wind Tunnel Model Shop. The critical thing I can say is that the skills acquired by anyone working in that shop result in exactly those type of abilities that folks outside of that field admire and often think are Engineering. They are not wholly ‘self taught’ either due to the broad training of a Wind Tunnel Model Maker included in all of the experience.
I think Hugo graduated from Ballard H.S. as a regular good student, must have been about 1940. I cannot remember if he told of a first job being at Boeing in aircraft assembly but the timing sure would have been right because of the WW-2 build-up. I do vaguely remember something about the later sudden need for Wind Tunnel Model Makers because of the new Boeing Transonic & Supersonic Tunnels becoming operational, or soon to be so for the Supersonic.
Many Wind Tunnel Model Makers were also hobby model fliers since childhood. The Tunnel guys used the term Toy Models whenever they were talking about their hobby modeling while at work. Hugh was one of those who had done hobby model aircraft building & flying since his young years. There were so many of these early Toy Model Aircraft people involved in all aspects of the Wind Tunnel operations that Wind Tunnel managers went looking for more of them when the need grew large. If Hugh was already a Boeing employee and one of his many Toy Model friends already in the Tunnel operations told management that he was out there then I will guess that was his entry point to being a Model Maker.
Hugh’s photography enthusiasm got a sudden start in that year of the Outboard Nationals at Casper, WY. It was a circular trip, first to a demonstration run at a boat race in Paulson, MT the weekend previous to Casper. He opened up two fitted camera cases to show me his very new 35mm Pentax and a whole range of new premier lenses from short (macro) focus to 800 mm, no variable tele-photo types. This was no low cost operation! He had studied the operation manuals and a beginners guide but didn’t yet know details or have experience with good practices in photography. I think that he set up a full dark room for B&W prints almost immediately.
In 1962 at Everett J.C. I had taken courses in photography to help raise the struggling grade point. Also was one of the Yearbook staff photographers after that. So on the Casper Nationals trip there was much conversation about the details of using all of Hugo’s nifty new photo gear in the best ways. He took a ton of pictures through Glacier Park, then Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, then over a 9,000 ft. pass to Cody and on to Casper. There was no shortage of hilarious tales about Krazy Karl along the way too.
One of his Wind Tunnel and Toy Model friends was Herm Dittmer, a Model Design fellow, photographer, and amateur astronomer. He built his own larger type reflector astronomical telescopes and ground the precision lenses, a seriously involved task. Hugh showed him his photography and Herm showed him his latest telescope and the celestial photographs. Herm’s tracking mechanism for that telescope was a commercial unit I think and had operation issues of some sort but did OK.
So that was Hugh’s start point for celestial photography. He purchased a premium small reflector astronomical telescope, a Questar if I remember correctly. It was then the time for him to build his first powered tracking platform which could be adjusted accurately for Earth rotation and didn’t have whatever that issue was with the commercial unit of Herm’s. He showed it to me one afternoon in his back yard. That first unit did not appear complicated but did have all needed adjustment & rotation planes solidly set in place. I think that Hugh made modifications later to improve the nearly exact tracking.
The telescope maker set Hugh as an advisor for their products I think, used his photographs in their literature, etc. He became maybe even more generally known world wide for his photography than his earlier boating & model airplane record efforts. As with his speed records, it took years and maybe decades before his super sharp celestial images no longer amazed even professional astronomers or were equaled by amateurs.
R.R.