The current and former Hydroplane Hull designs are flawed, the inward curve on the sponsons cause the Hulls to steer when the sponsons hit the water hard landing on the inward curve of  the sponsons , I would suggest Hull manufacturers look into what I am saying..., many crashes could be avoided if the Hulls didnt curve foreward and inward, a Hydro landing on it's sponson will invariably steer to one side violently if it hits the water hard enough, I think the divorced sponson designs are best, no lift is needed from the air for the boats to be effective, and you dont want a wing changing angles in the middle of the race course because a prop left or some power issue caused the rear to lower making the boat take to the sky's., anyone wishing to debate this issue is welcome ...as long as it can remain civil

There is (or was) a hull design being built that did away will all the issues you mention!
This hull design has the best safety record in TFH history NEVER has crashed dispite countless parts failures and improper team setups.
I suggest you take a look at www.liquidquik.com and see the CURRENT ihba and sdba "1/4mile" record holder. This design also won three straight sdba TFH championships (disorderly conduct tfh).
Unfortunatly after a BS lawsuit these hulls will no longer be built by the original designer but molds are in good hands. There is always those who are quick to find flaws but very few if any are willing to ACTUALLY design/build something better!

Daniel, thank you for the info...I have been trying to get people to listen to me about this issue since before leaving Boat Racing in the 80's, my background has kept me remotely involved but I felt it was time to speak up and stop these what I consider to be unnecessary crashes, I also have discussed here about Capsule issues and the serious need to put chutes on them like the Drivers used to use, only use two to stabilize the Capsules and help orient them before they hit the water

John. Can you provide some insight as to what your concerns would be for the "Parachute" system you mention here and the "Serious Need" to have them placed on the Capsules today? The concern I would have is that ANYTHING that is left attached to the Capsule, Cords, Wires, Lines, and in this case, Parachute Cords could easily become entangled in the Motor, The W/V Drives, the Rudder assembly or any other "HEAVY" part of the boat and possibly get taken down...I have seen this before and DO NOT want to see it again. Please provide us with your thoughts and concerns regarding this potential.

Thanks, Jt

Jimmy, that issue has been raised before, let me ask why that isn't a concern for Chute Jacked drivers ?, they stand more of a chance getting tangled than a capsule, yet the safety of the chute Jacket apparently well outweighs the entanglement issue, I for one have seen all to many killed in a capsule, they are catching up the casualty numbers of non Capsule boats....yet there is No reason they should there should be an Option for drivers and owners to try the chutes, I dont believe the entanglement issue is as big a problem as most seem to think, I am more than willing to debate this issue with anyone, and while the debate is ongoing, people are getting hurt and killed....I believe the chute can be designed that are short and small like just putting two chute jacket style chutes on the boats, mounted high on the capsules much like the jacket chutes are, the biggest single issue on capsules are the spinning and tumbling, the Human body simply cannot take that , you have to orient the capsule to the water, slowing it down before it his and the chutes in the water will provide the drag to keep it from shipping and spinning and tumbling, I feel it is more than worth a try.

I was at the water line filming John Haas when he crashed, the capsule flipped, spun violently and tumbled, I am convinced though I didn't see him or have access to his medical records his neck was broken, the windshield was ripped off the capsule and his leg was hanging out....that's a Violent death in anyone's books, I have that crash on film, and watched it thru the small screen till he almost ran into us on the bank....it was the most violent crash I have seen in years, and I am also confident it could have been lessened to a great degree had the capsule been equipped with chutes to slow the capsule down, and do to the capsules what the Chute Jackets were designed to do for the drivers, Hartman was killed when his Hydro landed on him because he refused to let go of the wheel till he was thrown out just before the boat landed on him, though I wasn't there I did see the crash on Video...all his safety equipment worked but was defeated when he refused to get away from the boat...

Daniel, there was a similar boat like that here at Choteau Bend outside Tulsa, and the only issue I saw with it was boat doesn't really qualify as a conventional Hydroplane, it's riding on all four sponsons, having said that It was a very stable Hull design, one I had tried to get others interested in the early 80's, the other issue is the prop is already close to the surface or out and it makes the engine hard to tune because it isn't very loaded compared to conventional Hydro's, Joe Boghosian, the engine tuner for the Toxic Rocket has a hull like this, his problem was he couldnt lean the engine enough for the middle of the course because the hull is already up and unloading the prop..

my theory is simple, at what point does a Hydro plane become a hydroplane ?, how high in the water must it be? ....answer as soon as it's riding on 3 points, ...second, do the math on Prop eff., a flat bottom will around 90+ %....a hydro...less than 73% in most instances, the longer you keep the prop in the water, the faster the boat will accelerate if all else is equal, the shallower the shaft angle the longer it takes the prop to surface, the rear sponsons on Joe's boat should be lifted a couple of inches, it will leave harder, and load the prop more in the middle of the course in my opinion, my opinions are derived from experimenting over 5 1/2 years with Hartman, back then most couldnt answer the important questions about what did what and why.....the V Drive is the focal point of all the action and forces in the boat, the more forward you put it, the more it lifts the front, the higher the shaft angle the more it lifts the whole boat, etc. etc....the combination I ran, and feel it's still a good one today is as shallow a shaft angle as possible, (which makes the boat a tail dragger), a low first gear and a Very High Hi gear, using low to Launch the boat, the High Gear to carry it out the back, we were pulling more gear than most other boats, our biggest issue was Money, and Blowers, we had a difficult time with getting good Blowers and I feel Turbos are the fastest Boats out there, to many are trying to run electronic injectors and it over complicates the system...in the 80's, most ANY hydro with turbos had 10 MPH on any other a boats they just didnt leave well with the close ratio low gears, they needed a setup like ours with 45% split low, and and Very High vdrive ratio....upper 80's to 90's with a 17" pitch prop, to start with