Originally Posted by
Ron Hill
Living in Seattle, you probably remember when the bigger hydros were all cab overs until the Sid Crafts showed up. I don't recall their name, but Mike Raich seems like one name that stands out. 1960, in Beloit, two Sid from Seattle were fast as hell in D Hydro.
California Catamarans were big, strong, heavy boats with flat bottoms. Each sponson of like the Style Craft had a 14 inch or wider bottom. In those days, wider bottoms were faster.
In Europe than ran much rougher water, and flat bottoms just beat the **** out of you. So, light weight wood hull were build to "Fly" over the water.
Switzer Wings had flat bottoms, the DeSilva Wing that won Parker 1970, had 12 inch wide redwood bottoms....I put them on the angles runners.
As speed and power came up, less bottom was needed to support the weight.
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