[Ben]

Hello, I've got an interesting engine for you all to have a look at.
It is, as the title says, a 42 Cylinder, radial, aluminum, marine engine, sold by Yacht Boutique/Bugatti Marine/Bently Marine.

I'm aware that for those of you who've made it onto their site, you may have seen all this before, but I wanted to bring up the engines specificaly for discusion.

They do advertise a V-12 and various turbines, but it's the 42, 56 and 112 cylinder radial engines that I'm interested in, as they could be smoother and offer more torque than standard inline and V engines.

More information can be found on their site at...
http://www.yachtboutique.com/BentleyMarine/Engines.htm

You may have to register, but genuine details aren't required as they don't confirm your email address.

[Codger]

I wonder what those big radials sound like. One of my favourite tunes is sung by aircraft round engines. :-)
P&W R985 on a spring morning...

[marcusra]

Seen tha radial type before.... In a shipyard i russia!! 4 of them I think 48cyl (in this case BIG ones) 8banks 8cylinders Deep down in a russian ice-breaker.... Hell on earth to overhaul these qrazy creations... Place two of them in your yacht and it would be away for half a lifetime each year!!
There are allways problems with the cylinderbanks hanging under the engine they told me, and the only thing to do when somthing breaks is to remowe the whole thing into a workshop...

[Codger]

If there are problems with the lower cylinders then proper pre-start procedures are not being followed. On many radial engines the crank must usually be turned through at least one complete rotation prior to firing up ignition. Failure to follow this procedure has caused premature reliability issues with many radials.

[AdmiralMAI]

I wonder what the power to weight ratio is on that specific engine. If they used that configuration in aeroplanes it must offer some sort of advantage in that realm. But it may have to do with the fact that you have a high surface area relative to amount of cylinders which made them easy to cool than inline engines. I imagine a liquid cooling sytem on a fighter could sap some horsepower that could be better put to use chasing germans in a climb:-).

[Codger]

Air cooled radials were used in aviation because they were reliable. Great torque characteristics and they could be stacked easily. Want more power, just add on another 9 cylinders. The large frontal area created some drag problems but in their prime, speed wasn't the main issue.You could plant a P47 on it's nose and find terminal velocity pretty quickly, just wouldn't go any faster..:-) When Vickers and a few others came out with water cooled v12/16 they were adopted for fighters pretty quickly and the speeds shot up. The Allison V powerplants had a much smaller frontal area and those aircraft equipped with them could climb like homesick angels.

But, there is a sound that comes from a big radial that is just very special.

[YachtForums]

Originally Posted by Codger

those aircraft equipped with them could climb like homesick angels.

..... !

[K1W1]

Hi,

Has anyone taken the time to read a lot of what is on this guys website?

It seems he involved in a Herculan Battle against some big corporate power to try and regain the original names he wanted to use.

I have also been wondering just how he plans to produce some of these very large boats in the very short times he says they can be delivered in.

[nano-J]

Has anyone done serious studies on the Tesla Turbine as a porpulsion alternative for the yachting community?

[YachtForums]

Originally Posted by K1W1

Has anyone taken the time to read a lot of what is on this guys website?

Mr. Rodriquez joined YF last year and proceeded to inform us about his "high speed yacht", which is *really* a Wing & Ground Effect (WIG) vehicle. I felt his verbage was misleading and his claims were unfounded. A few other people took him to task on this as well. When I began asking more direct, technical questions regarding his knowledge on hydrodynamics, he became defensive and it was clear he had little knowledge on the subject. Specifically, I found it very disturbing that he was trying to take credit for the work that others had done... and was presenting the same as if he pioneered this work and he was some kind of authority. Believe me, if this was true... I would have been familiar with any contributions he made.

On his site, he states that he has a team of the leading scientists in the field of hydrodynamics. About the only source I could confirm is... his offices are located in the same building with Ken Cook, the president of Hydrofoils, Inc. I've known Ken for many years and he's very knowledgeable in the area of high speed hydrofoils, but his work has been mostly limited to models. It would appear the only contacts Rodriquez had with real scientists were some of the Russian engineers behind the equipment he's trying to sell.

In re-visiting his site... I found all of the yachts and equipment he has labelled as "his own" are now under an entirely new name... "Bentley". Last year, they were all named Bugatti. Sounds like he lost his battle to use the Bugatti name. Anyhow... because of Mr. Rodriquez's comments on YF last year, I thought it was best to remove the thread entirely to save him further imbarrassment, as the thread would have appeared in a Google search over time.

[RSB]

Although I realise that this is not technical, I wonder whether anybody has heard about the rumour Rodriquez is in now?