# Electric Hydro Demolishes Previous Records



## lohring (Apr 22, 2008)

On Sunday, October 12, 2008 Mike Bontoft drove his electric hydroplane to a new American record of 98.25 mph and a new world record, pending UIM approval, of 98.8 mph. The previous American record was 70.6 mph set in 1995. The previous world record was 50.8 mph set in 1989. It is nearly unheard of to exceed such long-standing records by such a large amount. 

Video can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76e19SxVzXE
Pictures can be found here:
http://www.intlwaters.com/index.php?autocom=gallery&req=user&user=123&op=view_album&album=542
An article can be found here:
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/10/10/this_day/doc48ee89457882c382558572.txt

Lohring Miller


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## jim h (Oct 20, 2008)

Thanks for the links. a fine accomplishment. will you be going to oroville,ca. next spring for the kilos? It is fast water and the approaches at both ends of the traps give you plenty of room to line up. not that you need much room with all that torque.
jh


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## lohring (Apr 22, 2008)

Actually we plan to go to the Salton Sea the beginning of December. The water there is salty, so the boat will ride higher and the prop should have more bite. The low altitude won't help us as much as an internal combustion engine. We still want to average over 100 mph. The boat will do it. The data loggers have shown speeds of up to 103, but Mike had to let up due to rough water.

Lohring Miller


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## jim h (Oct 20, 2008)

It has been many decades since a kilo event has been held at salton sea.
with some luck the timing equipment and officiating crew and of course the weather will all come together. I may drive down and watch if my schedule works. would be great to see an electric boat exceed 100 mph.
any thought on adding a rear cowling or is cooling a problem on that motor? 
jh


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## lohring (Apr 22, 2008)

We think motor overheating is the main reason our return runs are slower than the first pass. Battery voltage stays constant, and nothing else gets beyond warm except the motor. We are thinking about waiting between passes for the motor to cool down.

Lohring Miller


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## TX_Dj (Jul 25, 2008)

Very nice!

I wish I could have similar results converting my jetski. Alas, it takes just about all of its 170 HP to break 70 mph on glass smooth water and is already a heavy beast as an ICE at just over 700 lbs wet.


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## lohring (Apr 22, 2008)

Actually, our power plant is lighter than an equivalent IC power plant. The boat is 14 feet long and weighs about 500 pounds without the driver. The big difference from an IC boat is run time. We have enough battery for about three runs through the kilo course. The weak link is the motor which is showing signs of overheating. The batteries are easily capable of producing 900 amps at 125 volts for 112 KW input power. The most we used continuously was around 560 amps at 125 volts or 70 KW. That's still over 70 hp to the prop. 

Lohring Miller


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