History of the IVB

INVERTED VEE BOTTOM BOATS ~ THE START OF A REVOLUTION

The I.V.B. Is primarily a new form of Hull Design that has revolutionized the centuries-old principal of Naval architecture, while at the same time Revolutionizing nearly every known standard of Power Boating performance.
Its Advantages are so many , so important, so fundamental that its value cannot be judged by your experience with conventional VEE Bottom or Catamaran design.
Credit must be given to ALBERT HICKMAN who in 1914 patented the first Inverted Vee Bottom Boat and called them "Sea Sleds". These boats outperformed all other power boats in the Era and were built successfully for many years.
The Modern I.V.B. Is a much different Boat . Now constructed in Ply and high quality 5083 marine alloy with modern portafino transom and futuristic design.
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A radical boat design
"A new type of vessel, which promises to revolutionize water craft and which takes the same place on the water that the automobile does on land." -- Scientific American Sept. 26, 1914

The Scientific America quote described the Hickman Sea Sled, a radical boat design patented in 1914 by Canadian William Albert Hickman. Eight decades later the design still qualifies as radical.

The hull is an inverted V that resembles a power catamaran, when viewed from the front. But inside, the tunnel the hull sides rise at an angle toward the centerline, creating an upside-down V. Approaching the stern, the V gradually flattens out and slopes down to the waterline, creating a flat bottom at the transom. The design's purpose is to trap air and water, creating lift in the tunnel as the boat moves forward.

The sea sleds' performance exceeded that of any other boat of its era and, arguably any boat of this era. They were far faster and more seaworthy than any other boat and had spectacular load-carrying ability. They were built in every possible form -- as small skiffs, yachts, race boats and military vessels up to 70 feet.

In 1918 Hickman built a 50-foot, high speed torpedo boat in an attempt to convince the Allied navies that a small, fast boat with a huge load-carrying potential could wreck havoc among large slow enemy ships in WWI.

He proved that the boat, with a staggering 56,000 pounds all-up weight, could easily exceed 40 knots. In one test it maintained 34-1/2 knots in a storm with 12-to-14-foot-waves.

Also in 1918, Hickman built the first aircraft carrier in the form of a 55-foot sea sled. The sled carried a Carponi bomber with a 10,000-pound bomb load at 47.75 knots. To launch the bomber, the pilot and the sea sled captain both ran their engines to full throttle. The sea sled would reach 61 mph and the bomber would take flight. Landing on the sea sled was obviously out of the question.

The war ended in 1918, and with it Hickman's involvement with the Navy. After the war he licensed his patents to Sea Sled Corp., which built pleasure boats until the mid '50s.

The full Hickman story is reads like a novel about an eccentric inventor with a brilliant idea who had the potential of radically changing the way yachts and ships were built.

Unfortunately, like many inventors, he held rigidly to one point of view, which put him at odds with anyone who did not conform to his ideas.

As a result, the sea sleds never gained popular acceptance and Albert Hickman never achieved commercial success with his inverted V hulls.

However, he has inspired generations of boat builders to dream of a better way to build boats..

                              Copy from POWER BOATING November 1921 page 69
Inverted V-bottom and                                                                                            Hickman Patents
Surface Propeller Boats                S E A S L E D              in all countries
                                                                                  Trade Mark reg. U. S. Pat. Off.
Mr. George F. Crouch
Head of The Webb Naval Academy
Designer of Rainbow and Rainbow 11. One of the world's foremost designer of small boats and the leading motor boat authority in America, has decided to give up the development of all other types of boats and devote his design work to Sea Sleds only.
Mr. H. B. Greening
Owner of Rainbow and Rainbow 11. Has been working for many years on the scientific development of motor boats. He is one of the most practiced and best informed of boatmen, and may be said to be the foremost amateur racing boat owner and driver in the world. Mr. Greening wrote the following letter to Mr. Walter B. Ramsay of Montreal in response to the inquiries of Mr. Ramsay's asking for his full opinion of the Sea Sled. Mr. Greening has permitted us to publish this letter in full :-
Walter B. Ramsay, Esq.,
President , A. Ramsay & Co.,
Montreal , Que..
Dear Walter:-
In your letter of September 21st you asked me, after our experience this summer, to give you my further impressions of Hickman's Sea Sled.
First I will repeat the substance of what I said in my letter to you of April 8th.
Hickman has invented a type of boat that is more seaworthy and will carry more load, and at the same time is much faster and more efficient than anything in the world that I know of .
I have not been anxious to acknowledge these facts because I have been a strong supporter of the V-bottom or round bottom boat.
Hickman has in his hands a marvelous creation.
My boat "Rainbow" which I have lately sold, according to competent European and American critics is the finest boat of her type that has been built and when I owned her held the World's record of 41.8 miles per hour. She has since increased it to 44.02 miles per hour officially. This constitutes a record for any type of displacement boat powered with one engine. Her weight is about 15 pounds per H.P. including crew of two. She will carry five people in ordinary water , but not where it is rough. Bearing in mind that it is a question of weight per H.P. that up to the present time has absolutely determined miles per hour. along comes Hickman with a craft weighing 26 pounds per H.P. and capable of carrying from 20 to 25 men, in water that the "Rainbow" could not live in for one minute. He can run through weeds, shallow water and so forth, where the entire underworks of the "Rainbow" would be swept off.
I refer to the Sea Sled "Orlo 11" which had a speed of 47 m.p.h., with a quarter more weight per H.P. than my boat.
He took me out into the Atlantic Ocean, well into the Gulf Stream ,and ran her full speed with twelve aboard. Our mechanicians on the "Rainbow" were trying to coax her out of the harbour, but had to return owing to rough water.
After we came back from Florida I got Prof. George Crouch to design a boat for me for the "Fisher Trophy" race in Buffalo that would incorporate Hickman's surface propeller drive. While admitting the superior seaworthiness and weight carrying ability of the Sea Sled, both Crouch and I felt that the great speed resulted from the use of surface propellers. We had to have a boat that would turn quickly for the "Fisher Trophy" course, and the Sea Sled hull of the type to make quick racing turns had not been developed.
The new boat was named "Rainbow 11". Hickman licensed us to use surface propellers and they were placed in a tunnel well forward of the rudders. We wanted great turning ability and we got it. While conforming with the "Fisher Trophy" rules, the boat was practically a step hydroplane. She developed a speed of about 52 m.p.h., miles better than the screw propeller boats of similar weight.
At the Buffalo Races Hickman appeared with the Sea Sled "Orlo 111". She had about the same relation of power to weight as either of the "Rainbows" but she made an official speed of 57.8 m.p.h., five or six miles faster than "Rainbow 11" and thirteen miles faster than "Rainbow". With our throttles wide open in "Rainbow 11", "Orlo" would run away from us at the speed of an ordinary launch. To my mind this settled the efficiency question in favor of the Sea Sled form hull.
I have talked with Hickman on this subject and if his explanation of the way the bottom of the Sea Sled hull is kept free from adhesion of the water is correct, as it appears to be, it seems probable that in some of the older forms of boat where water is thrown out at the sides, can we hope to approach the efficiency of the Sea Sled.
In Buffalo the Sled ran smoothly and without pounding in a heavy chop where the other boats were badly handicapped.
Now Walter I always try to keep an open mind on these subjects so that I do not have to fight the inevitable, and after the closest observation extending over some years, I will say that the Sea Sled idea combined with surface propellers is the most efficient thing ever evolved. Hickman has, at one stroke, turned things all topsy-turvy in the motor boat world.
HBG/Y
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) H.B. GREENING
                                                     THE SEA SLED COMPANY
West Mystic                                                                                                                  Connecticut

A copy from POWER BOATING November 1921 P.14
AN ATLANTIC CITY SEA SLED
A NEW attraction has been added at Atlantic City which may yet popularize the "City of Many Hotels".
Just as at Palm Beach last February when Orlo II, carrying up to 24 passengers, found difficulty in satiating the appetite of those desirous of a ride, the Atlantic City boat has been kept busy this summer driving parties of the fair an beautiful, and their male escorts, on the open ocean. This Sea Sled is fast. It is said she is continuously crossing and recrossing the wake of previous trips, accounting somewhat for the spectacular pictures.
Curiosity, as to just what a ride in a Sea Sled is like has brought out many converts and enthusiastic champions to the side of Albert Hickman, the inventor.
Manouvering in crowded quarters, departing or approaching a dock at slow engine speed, the Sea Sled has no equal. She can revolve as on a pivot. The prime requisite, a fast boat with great carrying capacity
has been fulfilled. From the moment the clutch is thrown in there is a gradual acceleration, like a high powered car topping a hill, shooting over the crest, and down the other side of a road smoother than man has ever made. This is equally easy with a dozen passengers aboard. When full speed is reached, the throttles are closed to three-quarter opening and the two engines run without effort.
If the sea is short and choppy, there is so bumping. Imagine a runabout with a deep V section, easing into it, and consider that a Sea Sled has two such V's , with possibly crowded air between the two.
The engines in the Atlantic City boat are twin 6-cylinder Sterlings of the overhead dual valve type, total 450 horsepower which have attained 54 miles per hour in some boats. Top speed is reached at about 1800 revolutions per minute after which the engines are usually checked to about 1200 to 1400. The advanced design of the engines, weighing under 7 pounds per horsepower, the triple ignition, the oil coolers and filters, the sturdy clutch and reverse gear, all contribute a share to success.
The Sea Sled from double V bow to surface propeller, is not the product of chance or "happenstance". Hickman, the inventor is also a noted author, his patent a contribution to science, and Hickman, the man, is a philosopher. The latest boats are evolutions, based upon carefully compiled technical data, and the season of 1921 has seen them brought into prominence on sheer merit.
The Boat illustrated has a length of 40 feet and a beam of 7 feet 9 inches and is owned by the Atlantic City Operating Co.. At the close of the northern season she will migrate to Palm Beach and Miami