Volga Hydrofoils Messageboard

Hello Gents,

it's wonderful to see there are other gearheads out there as crazy about the Volga 70 as i am!!

My Mighty Hydro was owned by my father from 1984-1999. My father is a boatbuilder and used to build classic mahogani/oak raceboats, which somehow shows.... I was only 6 when he bought the boat, but he said it was "butt ugly".. so he put his own personal style on it...like it or not..

The boat used to be here in Denmark, but my father brought it to Lake George NY some time in the late 80's when he moved there, and i brought it back in 2006.

Hi there!

Nice thing. Your dad is real boat lover.
I've got Volga as well and very much excited that it is so well known around the world.
Your boat is 'Volga' with GAZ-52, 77hp/2800rpm petrol engine with 'V' drive originaly.
'70th' model had Volvo Penta diesel with 'Z' drive.
So she is really overpowered now. Don't 'fly' more than 70km/h-it is dangerous and one thing more:
over 80km/h starts 'cavitation' process which 'eats' wing.
What kind of paint exactly did you use for the hull? I'm going to refurbish mine this autumn.

Hi Sandflite,

Thank you for your info about my Volga, i am sure you can understand more litterature about the Volga than me, since you are Russian! I don't have any documentation for my boat except the American title, and i cannot find the hull number...

There are some things i would like to change on the boat, but i know i have to be careful. i have added vertical stablizers to the center of the fwd lower foil, and two on l/r side of the aft lower foil which has helped a lot at high speeds. My plan is to extend the rudder 12-15 cm for manouverability at slow speeds, of course this must considered when going fast.

I have painted the hull with Epifanes lacquer. below the waterline i have used Hempels Hi-Speed Alusafe white paint.

Why does the cavitation process eat the wings, the big hydro ferries travel at those speeds and above all the time?

Kind regards

Michael

Hi Mike!

This project was oriented on 60km/h, all technical calculations and design devoted to that speed. It is 1950th! Don't forget about materials-It is '60th. Sure this boat has a safety buffer but all the guys who use these boats nowadays say It could go a hundred but you shouldn't...the problem is that the stabilizer goes out of water beyong 80km/h and in case of a kind a disturbance or in a turn it hits the water (incompressible material) and produces a great danger of overturn!
Unquestionably R.Alekseev was keen on speed but the main reason he gave up the hidrofoil is cavitation. The most powerful vessel of him had two aviation turbojet engines and can reach 110km/h.
The main difference is that big crafts have deep under water foil but small vessels like Volga - shallow. It works in upper boundary layer catching some air so cavitation starts earlier. Anyway that's theory, I think it is not so crucial as the high speed safety reason.
Good luck to your experiments!

Paul.

I really never thought, that someone will attack a site like our's for selling shoes and bags. The question is how sick has someone to be for doing this. There is no relation to our boats or so... Hey! Sales adict git off of our site!

George,

who is the strange post you wrote w shoes and bags for??

Mike

Hi,

It's gone... I think our admin removed the annoying chinese advertizer!
I hate these guys! I get everyday 50 Junkmails sometimes 100.

Hi Mike and Georg,

Indeed, there were a bunch of spam messages again, and I removed them. For most of the messageforums I get an email message when new messages are posted, so I can remove them ASAP, but sometimes I miss them and they stick around for some time. You can always contact me if I missed on of those pesky spam-posts....

Maurits

Hi,

Happened to read this thread and later stumbled into a good video demonstrating the cavitation problem with a hydrofoil. You can find it at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DijdU0rmDdc

Regards,

Jouko

Hay Jws, welcome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_w3gcvA87I

Here another great cavitation film..


Mark