Whippella - "whipper snipper" prop attachment

Ray

Ray

Well-known member
After Ed L's mini mud motor thread and another user posting up the photos from the Australian Design contest I went and emailed the contest folks about that design. Today they replied back with what little info they have from the 2001 contest entry. The following are two links about the Whippella attachment. The first link has some contact info that may be current. I have sent an email this morning but don't expect to hear back for a day or so. The email the design folks sent me was old and not working. The one in the New Inventors site has not been returned as undeliverable so maybe that one is valid.

If you look closely at the photo on the first link you will notice that they are hard mounting these things into the sterns of kayaks like a through hull shaft.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s1418606.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2aMX2lW0zA

I fully retract my comment that this thing probably would not develop much thrust to push a boat. This thing rocks on a kayak. I obviously know nothing about prop design. He needs to get this thing to the states where there is a larger market than down under.
 
Too bad work doesn't allow me to get onto Youtube.

I find this interesting. It is alostlike he just builds a tube around the prop osrt of like a jet ski prop assembly. Keep us updated on what you learn would you? I found the Aussie Patent application but it says it is frozen. I do not understand what this manes but am looking into it.

Thanks -

Mark W
 
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Man that moves that little kayak right along! I think weeds would kill it though. Let us know what you find out. Shawn
 
Hold the fricken boat! I just had a vision. My Navy Seal motor came with a "pumpjet" lower unit. It is basically the same as a regulat lower unit but it has a "turbine" prop instead of a 3 or 4 blade prop and a "cone" around it that focus's the thrust of the water being pushed by the "Turbine". This is almost what I saw in the glimpse they showed on the video. I can see how you could make a set up that would clamp to the shaft of the whacker with the rest of the unit kind of self contained. This wouldn't get you through mud or weeds but it would provide enough thrust to move a kayak type duck boat up and down a river and in as shallow water as the boat would float. A solid drive shaft instesd of the plastic coated wire would have to be fashoned that would slip into the "turbine fan" but that should be an easy project. I bet with Erics knowledge of 1 1/2" to 2" rockets...and the scrap pile out behind the barn where they build them...something could be whipped up.
 
Pretty much, the cone thrust multiplier would be the easy part of the project...finding the right pitch and dia. of a fan that is strong enough to withstand the hp of a weed wacker will be the hard part. The turbine in the pumpjet has about 13 blades, is about 6-7" in dia. and is made from pretty heavy alum. the turbine itself is about a 1/2" thick. I could take pics, I have one knocked down in the shop.
 
This does make sense as the shroud would direct all the thrust rearward verses a straight prop that has some of the thrust being radial which is then wasted. I'm thinking a big old Tomato Sauce can as the shroud for the prop I'll eventually purchase. Weld that sucked on like the whippella and I'm going balls to the walls with the 31 cc weed whacker motor.

I can't wait to get home and watch the youtube video Ray posted above.

Mark W
 
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The thing about the pumpjet is, you get a tremendous amount of thrust. On my 18' modv jon that I had..it would push it at 22mph..my 25 Mariner pushed it at 26mph..the pumpjet got to 22 before the 25 got to 15.Wonder if anyone makes a 10hp weed eater?
 
Ray,

I'm glad you pursued this. I tried to get more info after Anthony posted the pictures but got nowhere and dropped it.
Watching the video I was amazed at the prop wash from the weekdwacker and the acceleration. If you zoom in on the
prop in the picture you'll notice it looks a little like auger flighting fom the amount of cup in the prop.

turbo_1.jpg

Then if you look at the diagram of the jetprop like lee was referring to you'll notice it too looks like an auger.
This is more like the unit Huntindave had on his motor I think rather than the one Lee had the link to.

OUTBOARD%20JET%20DIAGRAM.jpg

I think Mark may be on to something with the duced fans and the fact that the blade is incapsulated causing the water pressure to be centralized and forced though the bore like Lee's jet. Of course the ones Mark found or $300+!!! I'll be interested in finding out what the reply to Ray's inquirery is.

Ed L.
 
Now that the holidays are behind us I am posting up some of the information about the Whippella prop attachment that the builder shared with me.

The designer/seller is Bob Allen in Australia. whippella@bigpond.com He is completely boggled as to how a fella up here in Alaska was able to find out about his invention and then to find him. The power of this "series of tubes" is still surprising some folks. I have yet to point him to this site since I have not yet determined on which side of the fence he is on when it comes to duck hunting. Him being an Australian opel miner would tend to have me think that he is an alright guy, but with duck hunting banned in most of the country down under I didn't want to risk offending him if he was on the other side of the fence from us.

The device retails in AU for $299 and comes with a clamp-on transom mount. He is still figuring out the shipping to the US. His next batch will be ready for sale in late January 2008 he is thinking. He is having them made for him these days.

The mount is made of cast aluminium and clamps much like an outboard mount with two screws. No photos of the clamp mount.

He stated that the only weed problems he has encountered is with floating ribbon weed. If you see it coming you can raise the tail up and skip over it, but if you don't you have to cut it off with a knife.

He weighs 120kgs and in his kayak he can be pushed to 6 knots.

He has tested the device on 22cc to 52cc two stroke and 25cc to 31cc four stroke weed whackers and it works well on each of them.

Here is a photo of Bob after going a few miles through a water plant known in AU as "duck weed". He states that you can't see the water under the boat when going through this stuff. He did not say what speed at which he was able to go through this duck weed. It does not look nearly as bad as hydrila in the SE US.

Stay tuned for more as the winter goes by.
whippellaweeds.jpg
 
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