2007 WISIL Hydrobowl Human Powered Boat Racing Pictures

2007 WISIL Hydrobowl Human Powered Boat Racing Pictures Races held 9/8/07 at the Pierce lake in Rock Cut state park, Rockford, IL. Thanks to Bob Buerger for organizing the event and providing the food. Thanks to Tom Murphy for bringing the Transducer 5 HPB for Len to race, and for helping out with the timing and manual labor. Thanks to our other volunteers whose names I can't remember. Weather was PERFECT. This was the 11th annual WISIL Hydrobowl Human Powered boat race. It's an "all day" event, plus Bob Buerger and I spend a few hours getting the course set up the day before the event. Hydrobowl Results
Photo by Dan Grow	Dan Grow's 20 lb hand built carbon fiber single speed mountain bike rests against his van. In the background, Dan's HPB is being assembled.
Pierce lake in Rockford, IL is very scenic, with huge oak trees shading the shores. Saturday morning Bob worked on getting the remaining buoys placed while I got people signed up. HPB races are even more leisurely than HPV races. The weather was perfect, so everyone was content just to hang out and talk about human power boats, airport security, etc. Here, Len Brunkalla and Paul Niederman cruise around.	Photo by Dan Grow
Bob almost didn't make it to the event because he was pulled aside at the airport after checking his suitcase full of HPB timing equipment (now dubbed the "terrorist kit"). A nice man in a Hawaiian shirt pulled him aside and they grilled him about the assortment of hand wired electronics, stop watches, laser pointers, and rifle scopes they found in his luggage. Fortunately he had his laptop with him and showed them the HPB pictures so he was able to catch the next flight with his luggage.
Photo by Dan Grow	Aaron Stiles and Jake free cruise by in the background, Warren's HPB is parked in the foreground. Note the spiffy new outriggers. Yes, that's bare blue insulation foam.
Sorry no professional photographers this year to take pictures of people in the process of actually racing. Dan and Len cruise by.	Photo by Dan Grow
We finally started racing at around noon, when we ran the 100 meter sprints. Dan Grow had the fastest time at about 22 seconds, which equates to an average speed of about 10MPH. That's fast for a boat! I went about 1 MPH slower. The skimmer outriggers I had made for my Necky Kayak HPB the week before worked swimmingly, and just went tappety tappety on the water to keep me upright and feeling comfortable. At these races we have events that show off the capabilities of different boats. Some are fast in a straight line, but slow turning. Some turn well but are not as fast. Others just cruise comfortably.
Photo by Warren Beauchamp	Pileup picture 1. Aaron's Red HPB in the forgound, Warren's in the middle, Paul's cat toward the outside, Jake hangs out in the shade in the background. You can click on these pictures for a higher resolution image.
Pileup picture 2. Bob's workhorse cat in the foreground, Dan's speed racer in the middle, Tom's monohull "Transducer 5" (built by Bill Murphy) toward the back.	Photo by Warren Beauchamp
Photo by Warren Beauchamp	Pileup 3. Same picture but farther away...
The next races were the slalom. This race involves weaving in and out of buoys and really shows which boats can turn well. All boats can make the turns, but some can do them at speed and some have to slow way down. I had to slow way down for the turns and then crank fast between turns to get my best time. It only took 3 tries to figure that out. Paul Neiderman had the best time in this event, at 2min, 7sec. Len had the nest best time at 2min, 15 sec.
Len cruises by on Transducer 5. You can pretend he's racing the slalom. Go Len, Go!	Photo by Warren Beauchamp
Photo by Warren Beauchamp	Paul checks out a racer while relaxing on the lake.
Aaron cleans the weeds off of his left prop, while Len cruises by.	Photo by Warren Beauchamp
Photo by Dan Grow	Paul's friend watches the boats. Bill Goldthorpe is in the background.
Bob's speedy new HPB in the background. Bob got his drivetrain bugs worked out and his boat worked well this year.	Photo by Dan Grow
Photo by Dan Grow	Paul was going so fast that Dan could not keep him in the picture.
Dan poses in front of his HPB.	Photo by Dan Grow
Photo by Dan Grow	HPBers talker with a passer-by at the timing table. L->R Bill Goldthorpe, ?, Tom Murphy, ?.
Bill Goldthorpe's beautiful HPB Dory is on the left. On the right, Bob prepares his racing catamaran.	Photo by Dan Grow
Photo by Dan Grow	Hmm. HPBs or maybe ducks on the pond. Anyway, it's a pretty picture.
HPBers gather for a group shot. L -> R Dan Grow, Paul Niederman, Paul's friend, Aaron Stiles, Warren Beauchamp, Bill Goldthorpe, Future HPBer, Bob Buerger, Tom Murphy, and Len Brunkalla. Where's Jake?	Photo by Dan Grow
Photo by Dan Grow	There he is! Jake was still cruising on the lake.
By now it's after 3:00pm and we were all starved. Bob had brought a bunch of food. All we had to do is cook it. Where are the women when you need them? Grillmaster Jake cooks up the burger and brats	Photo by Dan Grow
Photo by Dan Grow	Because the grilling tools were forgotten, Dan provided a nice selection of pliers, wrenches, and saws for us to turn our brats and burgers with. The tri-flow burgers were especially tasty. HPBer grilling tools.
Foreground - Bob's new racing HPB with folding drive unit for easy weed cleaning, beaching, etc. Background - Dan's monohull HPB	Photo by Warren Beauchamp
After eating way too much, it was time for the 2 kilometer criterium race. Urp. This is run as 8.5 laps around the outside of the buoy course. Navigation was hampered by the fact that the sun was getting very low and reflected blindingly off of the water on one of the long legs of the course. Jake Free and Dan took off like a shot, and I followed. After a couple laps I passed them and lapped everybody but them by the end of the race. Jake came in second, and Dan was third.
Photo by Warren Beauchamp	Future HPBer (Arg, I forget your name, can you e-mail it to me?) shows his slick compact twisted drive unit with eccentric in BB and at top of the twisted chain to adjust chain tension. He says next year he'll have an HPB to attach this drive unit to.
Paul Niederman displays his top secret tuna drive, which will eventually be attached to his workhorse HPB for testing.	Photo by Warren Beauchamp
Photo by Warren Beauchamp	Racers mill about on the lake in preparation for the drag races.
Bob picks up the Buoys with his practical HPB. You can see one of the concrete buoy anchors sitting on his right hull.	Photo by Warren Beauchamp
We did the mass drag race and the bollard pull (brick lift) and by then it was dark and we had to carry the buoy bricks and boats up the hill to the parking lot by Braille. Later we went to a nice Italian place afterward as our usual Tai place had closed at 9:00pm, and shut the place down. I think we finished eating and gabbing at about 11:30pm. Fun times. -Warren.