Boats
F1 racing uses tunnel hull catamarans that are capable of both high speed and exceptional maneuverability. Overall, the boats weigh 860 pounds (390 kilogrammes), including 260 pounds (118 kilogrammes) of engine. They are 20 feet (6 metres) long and seven feet (2 metres) wide, keeping weight low through extensive use of carbon fiber and kevlar. The tunnel hull design creates aerodynamic lift due to a 'wing' formed by the deck and under surface of the hull. This increases lift and reduces drag, so that at speed only a few inches of the boat touch the water, leading to the high speed possible with these hulls.
F1 boats are powered by a Mercury Marine V6 two stroke that burns 100LL Avgas at a rate of 120 liters (32 gallons) per hour, generating 350 horsepower at 10,500 rpm. This engine can propel the boats to 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than two seconds and to a maximum speed of over 250 km/h (155 mph).
Read more about this topic: F1 Powerboat World Championship
Famous quotes containing the word boats:
“Three miles long and two streets wide, the town curls around the bay ... a gaudy run with Mediterranean splashes of color, crowded steep-pitched roofs, fishing piers and fishing boats whose stench of mackerel and gasoline is as aphrodisiac to the sensuous nose as the clean bar-whisky smell of a nightclub where call girls congregate.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Fortune brings in some boats that are not steer’d.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Away down the river,
A hundred miles or more,
Other little children
Shall bring my boats ashore.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)