MISS NICKEL EAGLE

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Miss Nickel Eagle is a 3 point hydroplane hull built by Bill van Steenwyk at Festus in Missouri.  She used a 180 lb General Electric motor turning at 6,500 rpm to generate 94 horsepower.  The electronics division of the Eagle Picher battery company of Joplin, Missouri supplied 152 cells to be series connected for 196 volt supply, weighing some 320lbs.  

 

 

Miss Nickel Eagle

 

Darryl Goade's  Miss Nickel Eagle - Pictures courtesy John Paramore

 

 

The battery pack was good for two minutes per charge with a life of 10 charges.  When testing the system at Big M Lake, South-West Missouri, the team found the General Electric motor had to rev to 4,000 rpm before achieving a 60% duty cycle from the controller.  This meant the motor would never receive 100% of the battery's power.  The batteries reached 180 degrees F. so had to be cooled to 90 degrees before they could be charged.  This process taking three hours, then another three hours to re-charge to an optimum 1.88 volts per cell.  

 

Fourteen charge cycles were used for trials, meaning the boat went for its record run with batteries well past their prime.  This record was never submitted to the world authority, although, the American Power Boat Association were present to time and sanction Miss Nickel Eagle's records.  Therefore the record of 45.76 mph set in 1978 remains a national record only.  

 

 

 

Right to left, Will Paramore, Don Crabtree, Rich Rudman and Steve Cloud

Closed circuit race 1996

 

 

 

When the next team came to race An Stradag to try and beat this record, they realised they should raise this matter with the UIM and in fact the UIM finally created an official class within the sport.  An Stradag raised the record to 50.825mph (81.793kph), but this was beaten by Cloud Electric1 in 1995 with a speed of 70.597mph (113.61kph).

 

 

 

BATTERY ELECTRIC WATER SPEED RECORDS

 

MPH

Craft

Motor(s)

Pilot(s)

Location

Date

--

--

--

--

--

--

45.76

Miss Nickel Eagle

General Electric 196v

Darryl Goad

USA

1978

50.83

An Stradag (spark)

Lynch 48v

Countess Fiona Arran

UK

1989

55.91

DeSilva runabout

Prestolite 144v

Norman Boddy

U.S.A.

1994

68.09

An Stradag

Agni 48v

Helen Loney

UK

2005

76.80

Ringwood

Agni 60v

Helen Loney

UK

2008

98.80

72v runabout

Prestolite  72v

Michael Bontoft

USA

2008

   99.00

Top Gun

Mercedes electric

AMG

Offshore

2013

 

 

SOLAR POWERED WATER SPEED RECORDS

 

 

MPH

Craft

Motor(s)

Pilot(s)

Location

Date

-

-

-

-

-

-

   3.45

PlanetSolar

140kW total

Raphael Domjan

Circumnavigation

4 May 2012

   -

TU Delft

Solar

Solar hydrofoil

Cross Channel

August 2019

 

 

 

 

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