A relative of mine (a very, very close relative) has a boat.
His first boat was for the family. Weekend and Holiday outings were part of the dream. Somehow the family didn’t buy into the dream.
So then it was a boat that was less family “friendly”. A faster boat. A hull design that uses air to lift it out of the water yet maintain stability. A boat with a perfectly balanced engine to give lots of speed.
Then it was a bigger engine with fuel injection. The engine includes spark advancing technology to give optimum performance. The boat purrs.
To go faster you need a tilt system to trim the engine to the perfect angle when the boat is near top speed. Add a backplate to raise the engine up and down to assist the tilt technology and you have a “hummer”. It goes fast.
Then you buy or trade for 15 different variations of props for the engine until you find the right one. Three tines. Four tines. Welded tips to increase cavitation. Welded tips to decrease cavitation. All the experimentation with the blades on the prop must include pitch angles from 19 to 24 degrees. The boat now goes really fast. But alas, it must go faster.
Top speed is attained riding in the boat alone. It reduces the weight in the boat to the bare minimum (no family members here) so that the vessel rides as high in the water as possible.
But the boat just doesn’t go fast enough! What can he do? What can he do? Then his life partner (his wife) says, “why don’t you buy a bigger engine”? Huh? It is obvious. A bigger engine will of course produce more speed. How many wifes have told their husband they need a bigger engine? It sends chills down your spine.
So Grasshopper No. 3’s dreams are alive. The answer is obvious, “get a bigger engine”.
My question is “how fast do you have to go”? I guess like everything in life, just a little bit faster.
Love,
Dad