Just finished getting my Licenses for excavater/loader/grader and backhoe and was chatting to my trainer about what it would cost to build a channel 50m wide 1.5m deep and 2km long.
He said the best way to build it would be to use a Scraper the approx cost would be $1000 a day and it would take 3 weeks to complete, if the ground is easy to dig in alot less time.
With the federal election coming up governments have a tendency of throwing around money especially to sporting clubs and groups it wouldn't be a silly idea to get a proposal put together and submit it for funding,all we need is a suitable location to build the thing.

Sounds like an expensive option.....
What about just buying some of those oil slick booms from BP after they have finished with them in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tow 1.5 kms of those out with your boat and you can have your speed course wherever you want.
The booms will probably be well soaked in oil which will leach out and calm the water further.

Been waiting for Mineral to bring down one of his big Cat's for a wee demo on a low tide, could sort it out quick smart

Choco - If your trainer only wants $1000 a day for a scraper then book him now.

Your talking about shifting 150,000m3 of dirt - you wont do that in 3 weeks with a single scraper. From memory a CAT 623 is about 17m3 a lift so thats 8823 lifts in 150 hours.
Methinks your trainer is a little off the mark.

Ben 555 said...

Choco - If your trainer only wants $1000 a day for a scraper then book him now.

Your talking about shifting 150,000m3 of dirt - you wont do that in 3 weeks with a single scraper. From memory a CAT 623 is about 17m3 a lift so thats 8823 lifts in 150 hours.
Methinks your trainer is a little off the mark.

Couple of scoop racers useing 657E's, a Cat skinner, and two scoop chasers should get it done smartly.

Ben 555 said...

Choco - If your trainer only wants $1000 a day for a scraper then book him now.

Your talking about shifting 150,000m3 of dirt - you wont do that in 3 weeks with a single scraper. From memory a CAT 623 is about 17m3 a lift so thats 8823 lifts in 150 hours.
Methinks your trainer is a little off the mark.

In all respect he didn't sit down and work it out i just wanted to hear a $$ figure.
I think it would be easier to just build earth walls by pushing them up instead of digging a trench as long as the topography is nice and level.
Andrew how big was the MI canal going to be?
There are plenty of sporting Grants on offer it would be great to get something put together and get funding for 3 speed canals one in WA - SA and NSW,my brother in law is a member of the South Australian Hellenic Shooters Club and they recieved over $60,000 in grant money from the state government!
Surely we could milk them for our sport.
The ASF project scope for a feasibility study is limited to $50,000.
grantsearch is Australia's original and most comprehensive funding database, detailing $8billion distributed to 18,000 recipients every year.
http://www.grantsearch.com.au/
www.asf.org.au/how_register/apply#Facility

choco said...

There are plenty of sporting Grants on offer it would be great to get something put together and get funding for 3 speed canals one in WA - SA and NSW,....blah blah blah

WTF - where's Queensland come into your equation numbnuts.

Has to be built where the wind blows its arse of consistently I think

good thing at henty (Tas) it has is own digger for free.....the length in September 2009 was around 800m now around 1.7km just need another year of record rain on the west coast and theres easy over 2km and it was for free and still growing.

y bother digging it out .. plant a **** load of explocives and blow most of it away .. uses the scrapers and equipment to clean up

choco said...

izaak said...

good thing at henty (Tas) it has is own digger for free.....the length in September 2009 was around 800m now around 1.7km just need another year of record rain on the west coast and theres easy over 2km and it was for free and still growing.

Can't beat nature,but a purpose built canal you can have nice grass rigging areas right on the waters edge,toilets and oh yeah a hotdog stand at the end of the run

yes your correct, well we have a nice grass rigging area 2m away from waters edge......and, well, argh, nothing else,(civilization about 30min away).....

Problem with chop killers is that the upwind chop still kills the wind at the surface. They are good for smoothing off the sharp bits of water but the swell gets straight through. They had something like that set up off Port Beach when they were dredging Fremantle Harbour over summer. It was pretty fast if you were lucky enough to get a gust within 50m of it. The rest of the time the wind was being killed by the sausage, which was sitting 50cm off the water.

greenleader said...
you guys would be stuffed if the speed run was in the "bay of cocks" weipa far north queensland, speed bumps galore!!!

Yep, that would be an absolute "CockUp" Greeny

One of those in the middle looks like Scooby Doo's head

Here's a shot of that sausage (pipeline) that was off the coast of Perth this summer. It started off in a straight line then they put a bend in it mid summer - this was taken in a 12-18 knot seabreeze so you can see it really has knocked the chop down but swell still sneaks through. Total length of pipe was about 3-400m?.

Spotty said...

One of those in the middle looks like Scooby Doo's head

Good pick up Spotty.

Ben 555 said...

Choco if you get this one up I will come and work on it for free

and I'll come and sail on it for free