Boating, biking & boarding – in Southeast Asia

Another great day on ‘Lake X’ as more secrets of flight unveiled! For starters, the hazey atmosphere gave the photos a bit of a surreal effect – this one was my favourite. The session was for ‘testing’ 2 F3000’s with te Simpson Marine boat being piloted by Kane Fernandez. He’s the Top-Gun and posted a balzing 138kmh across the lake. Kane has innate skills with the F3000 effortlessly pivoting through turns and then firing out onto the straights! Mind you, speds were down due to the absolute flatness of the water! Err like billiard table flat!

Although it looks easy when Kane or Robert are in control and there’s a lot of input happening beneath that polycarbonate canopy.
Roberts been a great coach and I’ve slowly been able to up the ante’. Kanes done a stack of work on the motor and they’ve both coached me up and over 7000 rpm. NOW it’s getting interesting!

Basically it works when you jack the motor up and mash the peddle to the floor. The F3000 will leap out of the water and give you a mighty shove in he back as it screams toward 7000. You need to trickle the trim down at this point so that air drag is minimised. Too much trim down and, you plant to much boat in the water and slow down. Stay pitched up however and you might just experience a bit of prop-walking as the whole craft generates so much lift that you can simply pull the skeg out of the water.

I had a moment like that!
At ‘max’ I encountered the wake from the boat running in the opposite direction. I guess it it just picked up the sponson enough to get more air around the prop. A nice little step out was the result but nothing untoward! Like any racing craft, inside the cockpit is full of concentration… and timing! My cornering is just getting to a stage where I’m happier doing shorter circuits with tighter turns.

F3000 corners are an amazing thing!
Keep hard on the gas, then trim down a prescribed amount. The boat will ‘land’ and settle then it’s into the turn – that’s where the timing comes in. That’s where Robert and Kane will pull distance out of the bag every time. I’m just getting to where I can feel the boat gripping the water and when it does you find yourself shoved up against one side of the cockpit – good thing the whole structure is a tight fit then!

But watch the next post… and you be even more amazed. Nothing about me just the next rising star of F3000! Kool. Very.

Click for more posts on F3000 Malaysia

Subscribe to boats, bikes & boards – in Southeast Asia by Email