Hydroplane Races

[Digidave]

I caught these Hydroplane races yesterday. First time I've ever seen them & boy can those things fly! Just thought I would share a few. I'll be adding more to my Flickr account as time goes by but here's a start. The first one, as you can see, is from the beginners class & all the boats have the same Mercury engine on them. If I remember correctly, one of them is a girl. So there you go ladies! Care to give it a go!?





Love this guys helmet! Attitude!!


This one's from a different class of slower boats but still plenty fast.

[Tryfan67]

Great set of shots, they look like they are going pretty quick, very well captured.

[ukglyn]

Great shots, love them all, not sure I fancy giving that a go myself though to be honest, look forward to seeing the rest of the set.

Glyn

[alphasco]

Exciting watercraft those little hydroplanes. My uncle owned and raced a couple of them back in the 1950's and would take me to the boat races with him. In fact, he bought my first 35mm camera for me to take pictures at the races.

And, yes, they are fast for their size on water. I have seen drivers get tossed out of them and skip for two or three bounces on the the water like skipping stones before crashing through the surface. They used to make hydroplanes from very thin marine plywood covered with a layer of fiberglass, and I have seem them completely disintegrate into tiny pieces and sink in a flash after hitting a floating beer can! I was a small, skinny lad, and my uncle thought I would make a good driver, but my father and aunt put and end to that.

[peeperita]

amazing images and such a challenge to shoot such a fast paced event.....i'd be lucky just to get the planes in the frame.....much less get them focused.....

and no, you don't want to see me behind the wheel of one of those things.....

peeper

[Angelb]

Wow that looks fun, I love super fast boats. They are alll great shots.

[Digidave]

Originally Posted by alphasco

Exciting watercraft those little hydroplanes. My uncle owned and raced a couple of them back in the 1950's and would take me to the boat races with him. In fact, he bought my first 35mm camera for me to take pictures at the races.

And, yes, they are fast for their size on water. I have seen drivers get tossed out of them and skip for two or three bounces on the the water like skipping stones before crashing through the surface. They used to make hydroplanes from very thin marine plywood covered with a layer of fiberglass, and I have seem them completely disintegrate into tiny pieces and sink in a flash after hitting a floating beer can! I was a small, skinny lad, and my uncle thought I would make a good driver, but my father and aunt put and end to that.

Yea, these things were made out of very lightweight plywood, I believe. I watched one guy get scaled after the race & He along with the boat weighed in at 412 pounds.

amazing images and such a challenge to shoot such a fast paced event.....i'd be lucky just to get the planes in the frame.....much less get them focused.....

and no, you don't want to see me behind the wheel of one of those things.....

Notice my position? I caught them as they were rounding a corner & starting to come towards me. At first I was trying the 'ol "Panning Technique". Wasn't real bad but it wasn't working well either. Then I got wise! Went to the new spot & set my camera to constant focus. That way the camera would never really lock in on 1 focus point. It continually adjusted to the moving object.