Thank you. Here's another view, based on the analysis in Neil Sheppards's book. They question how effective the Water Brake actually was, when DMC deployed it towards the end of Run 1 4Jan67. It didn't seem to do much initially - perhaps because the Boat was hovering (or bouncing) and the transom was too high out of the water, for the WB to really dig in....? So deploying on Run 2 might have done little to help. All just conjecture....Renegadenemo wrote: ↑Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:36 am Having seen how violent and effective the water brake is by resurrecting it and actually using it at speed I'd say there's little doubt that had Donald been able to fire it down as his 4th Jan event developed it would have slammed the nose back down, likely destroyed the main spar fairings and blasted a ton of water into the sponson tops whilst pulling his eyeballs from their sockets with the deceleration forces and the front end would have stayed firmly buried in the water until way below any speed where the boat would have blown over. Pretty much all I know about the theory of the water brake I learned over lunch with Lew Norris and much of what he told me he never had answers to because it was never really tried, the rest we learned by making it all work again from a pile of scrap parts that lay rotting on the bottom of a lake for 34 years so to see everything Lew envisaged proved correct is a real thrill and very satisfying.
But, as you say - the Water Brake does live again - and works pretty well, when operated at low(er) speeds. I think Lew N would be pleased, with your work..
A further related thought, for you & the team. Accounts from '67 mention engine flameouts - DMC having to relight towards the end of Run 1 - successfully. Also an apparent Flame Out during Run 2, just before the problems. Noting that Flame Outs also happened at Loch Fad, is there any understanding of why this happened, yet...? Seems surprising to me - my hunch being there is something fundamentally not right in the configuration of K7's Fuel System - as redesigned for the Orpheus. Again, just guessing here, based on reading books....
IM