Yamaha 50 racing in Alaska

[arcticracer]

A few of you have probably seen some pics of the unique race boats and setups that are run here in Central Alaska, the Yukon 800 is coming up June 25th and 26th. It is an 800 mile river race, 400 miles Saturday from Fairbanks to the town of Galena, then a return on Sunday. The boats must be 24 feet long, and power is usually a Yamaha 50 swinging a 12 X 20 to 22 cleaver. Motas are stock with nosecones, and rev limiters removed. A perfect days run (rare) will mean no stops, about 45 gallons of gas is carried. Speeds are up to 78 mph, hard to believe for a 1500 pound rig with 3 people aboard. Record day time for 400 miles is 5 hours 35 minutes. If you want to read more check out www.yukon800.com

Have a safe summer!

[2fast4u2]

That boat is wild lookin!!!

[WATERWINGS]

.............those speeds ARE hard to believe.

[arcticracer]

The 1500 pounds includes boat, fuel, engine and crew. The 78 mph I talked about is the fastest anyone has gone, sustained speeds of 70-75 is more realistic, after some fuel weight has been burned off.

[AlaskaStreamin]

It's getting warm up there isn't it?? How are the bugs?? The sun is just going behind the mountains at 10:00 pm here. Sunrise is around 5:00 am.

[SleeveA]

That would be a blast!!!

[arcticracer]

Hey AlaskaStreamin, nice to hear from you. It is getting hot here (by our standards), 75 to 80 with good thunderstorms each evening. It never gets dark and with Solstice this week we are at around 21 1/2 hours of daylight. The bugs are same as always, the skeeters seem to peak in June. The stories you have heard are true they can be nasty.

It looks like between 10 and 13 boats will be in the 800 on the 25th, it is a major summer event in the villages along the river. Once they leave Fairbanks, the only signs of civilization are Nenana, a town of about 500 55 miles into the race, the next town is Manley at 140 miles, the last town on the road system. Next is Tanana at 210 miles at the confluence of the Tanana and Yukon rivers, then lots of nuthin until they reach the village of Ruby at 350 miles, then Galena the finish for day 1. Galena puts on a big party and softball tournament during the race weekend for surrounding villages. All travel is either by boat, or air.

[Bill Gohr]

Those guys are nuts, I built some parts for those guys back in the early 90's. When I got the call, it was like, "you want to do what". I didn't believe them. They sent me pics of the boats and told me how and where they ran them and I was like whatever.
That race originated way back when as a survival race. Not mention they do carry 3 guys, all that fuel, a spare G/C, parts, and survival gear (food, rifles). Then take a 50hp. engine and run high 70's. You break down out there and there absolutely nothing. Pull it up on the bank and fix it. What a ride........

[Yamaha 225]

Those boats are maybe the most special ones I have ever seen! How is it possible to get that speed from only a 50 hp? Are you using different brands? The Merc 50 has 150 cubic centimetres more displacement than the Yam. I guss that would affect the durability and speed? What does the hulls look like from underneath? Any steps? How is the boat running and at what angle of attac?

More pictures and info please!!! And how far north are you guys racing?

Erik

[arcticracer]

Hi 225, your comments that the Yukon 800 boats are the most specialized you have seen is on the money I think. The race started as sort of a bar room bet around 1965 I think, in those days they raced standard Aluminum river boats. Soon guys started building boats from wood, and gradually the design was refined to what you see now. Along the way there were pilots, engineers, etc. who took up racing. They experimented and kept pushing the speeds up.

The boats are very light, the bottoms are flat, up front there is several inches of lift built into the hull. There are full length air traps on most boats. The engines are running cleavers that tend to lift the transom, and the boats are designed as one long and narrow wing with a huge surface area providing lift. Frontal area is almost nothing. Check out the tanks, years ago one racer discovered that hanging streamlined fuel tanks off the transom finished the "wing" of the hull perfectly and more lift was found. There are nylon fairings over gear and the front two crew are under a fairing partly, the bow has a bubble formed in it, some racers use a small innertube under a cover this creates lots of lift.

Once they are up to full speed the boats are very nearly prop riding, only the rear few inches is wetted, they do spend part of the time airborn tapping off small chop and waves. They reach speeds that are nearly equal to the FE boats and tunnels, but with stock powerheads. The weight of the boat is basically nulled by all the lift, the boat is basically flying.

The club insists on stock engines, and the rules limit size to 45.3 cu. in. That rules out the OMC triples. In the old days they were allowed to race the Stingers etc. but they were getting too fast so they were outlawed. The OMC twin is legal, one racer was dominating the field with one recently but reliability seemed to be a problem. Same as the 45SS powerhead.

I will throw in a few more pictures I took last week, if there is interest, there is more also at the club site www.yukon800.com

Have a wet and warm weekend!

[Mark75H]

They reach speeds that are nearly equal to the FE boats

A FE update: a FE that doesn't run 90+ isn't competitive. 80-ish would have been a few years back :) but 80-ish is damn impressive considering the much greater weight carried. My FE is one of the heavier boats at 550 lbs.