Pedal boat
Nowadays, pedal boats (in Swiss : Pedalos ) are mainly used in the leisure sector. The name pedal boat goes back to the type of drive in which the energy required to move is converted with muscle power via pedals .
history
Probably the first pedal boat was invented by Joseph von Baader in 1810 and copied in 2005 by Piotr Ramczykowski as part of a thesis at the Munich University of Applied Sciences .
Design features of typical pedal boats
Pedal boats are usually driven by two people using a kind of crankshaft leg force. The leg strength introduced is passed on via a drive chain to a paddle wheel, which is usually located at the stern of the pedal boat. At the stern there are also the rudders , which are synchronized via a linkage and controlled via a steering wheel and cables or a linkage. Sometimes the paddle wheel sits directly on the front of the crankshaft.
Pedal boats are usually characterized by the fact that they are built very robustly so that they are not damaged even when used by inexperienced users . The hull of a pedal boat is usually made of aluminum or glass fiber reinforced plastic , which makes it very resistant. Further measures to limit possible damage to people and boat are the very robustly designed paddle wheel, as well as the hull shape, which limits the maximum speed of a pedal boat to about walking pace.
Regatta pedal boats
In addition to these robust lightweight pedal boats, there are also sporty regatta pedal boats . These are lightly built in order to achieve high speeds: as a displacer up to 10 knots , as a hydrofoil up to 20 knots, i.e. over 35 km / h. The drive train is designed as simply as possible in order to minimize friction losses. Propellers are therefore preferred , but also paddle wheels controlled by an eccentric (which has a high degree of efficiency) are e.g. B. conceivable for displacers.
Championships
Further distinctions are, according to the IHPVA, single and multi-person boats. The regattas are held as European championships in even years and as world championships in odd years. The world championships are held alternately with Europe in the even years in the USA.
There is also a student championship (International Waterbike Regatta / IWR) in spring (mostly in April / May), which serves to exchange experiences and network among European shipbuilding students. In 2016, the 37th edition took place in May on the New Danube in Vienna.
A world record for 24-hour driving with an hourly crew was set on April 28, 2013 at Weißensee in Carinthia by 42 athletes from the Trieste Waterbiketeam on a three-seater catamaran with a distance of 270.5 km.
Extreme athlete Ingo-Kai Schoffer from Esslingen am Neckar set the world record for 24-hour driving non-stop on September 2, 2001 on his canoe bike, a pedal boat designed as a recumbent bike, on the Neckar. After 24 hours, the then 31-year-old had covered 194 km, surpassing the old best performance of the American John Howard by 28 km - a new world record in the Human Powered Boats category .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Baader water sledge . In: Annals of Physics . Volume 38, Number 2, 1811. pp. 234-235.
- ↑ http://www.iwr2016.at/Welcome.html XXXVII. International Waterbike Regatta, May 26-28, 2016 in Vienna, iwr2016.at, May 26, 2016, accessed on May 26, 2016.
- ↑ http://kaernten.orf.at/news/stories/2581983/ 24 hours pedal boating: world record, kaernten.orf.at, April 28, 2013
- ↑ kanubike.de - World record 2001 ( Memento from August 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) The canoe bike world record was brought to Germany: World record, September 2, 2001