Boats’ Rotary Engines Turning Heads

WOODRIDGE, N.J.--Safe Boats International is buying rotary engines for its line of 11- to 50-foot long foam stabilized hydrodynamic hulled watercraft.

Rotary Power International Inc. will initially supply three 2013R 2 rotor 70 Series diesel fueled marinized rotary engines for demonstration purposes. Later Safe Boat plans to buy at least 75 engines a year in a deal worth $1.5 million.

“The twin RPI rotary engines combined with our high lift hulls will propel Safe Boats’ performance significantly ahead of its competitors,” said William Hansen, Safe Boats’ president and CEO. “The small size, low vibration, light-weight-to-horsepower diesel fueled rotary engine will ignite a new trend in boat manufacturing.”

Hansen added that “our boats have proven to be the overwhelming choice of agencies such as the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and other law enforcement agencies for their fleets. As a result, purchase orders for our boats now exceed our current production schedule...”

“We are excited about our relationship with Safe Boats and with the watercraft that will result from their patented foam stabilized hulls powered by RPI’s rotary engines--which incorporate leading edge technology, including coatings and ceramic seals made available through space age technology,” said Conway Davis, RPI’s president and CEO.

The rotary engine, which can operate on a variety of liquid and gaseous fuels, was first demonstrated in 1954 by Dr. Felix Wankel, a specialist in the design of moving seals. (Engine parts, not migrating sea lions.)

According to Davis, in the 1960s the early rotary engines experienced serious problems with gas sealing and poor reliability. These problems were primarily caused by the unavailability of materials that would permit the principles of the rotary engine to be successfully translated into competitive performance engines.

Over the years, enormous progress in materials technology, such as the development of advanced ceramic material, has significantly contributed to the solution of past sealing and reliability problems. RPI and Mazda Motors Corp., utilizing advances in material science and machining technology, “have independently addressed and solved these early problems,” said Davis.

In addition to more than 50,000 hours of test data and proprietary process knowledge accumulated over many years of research and development (much of which was directed by key people still associated with RPI), the company controls some 24 patents and patent applications covering the design, materials and manufacture of its rotary engines. These patents cover not only the design currently used in the engines, but also those concepts that have been identified for future research and development.

Currently RPI manufactures and markets four different lines of displacement rotary engines.

For more information, contact www.pegasuspower.com and www.rotarypowerinternational.com