Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal Topic

[Browntggrr]

And it smelled something quite less than delightful!

Woah!

You must have been a ride op to know stuff like that!

( Sorry, Had to.)

[Gordon Bombay]

Brown, were'nt you just the one accusing delorean rider of starting up childish arguments? Come on now, were all friends here, lets just talk about KCKC instead of trying to start more useless bantering and flaming.

[Browntggrr]

^ Over a joke?

What did or suddenly take on a new meaning?

[The Interpreter]

It's okay. I think Browntggrr was just playing a game. That's the ticket!

--The Interpreter, who has been accused of being all wet at times, once for nearly a week at the WDW Resort...

[DeLorean Rider]

Brown, were'nt you just the one accusing delorean rider of starting up childish arguments? Come on now, were all friends here, lets just talk about KCKC instead of trying to start more useless bantering and flaming.

Group Hug!

[Dvo]

Does anyone know why they had the double-drop on the hill in the first place? It seems to me that the only reason it would be there is if two boats were right behind each other and a collision could occur... but I don't think that it would be possible to dispatch the boats that fast... the only way I could see it is if a boat got stuck at the very bottom of the lift hill and they started piling up right behind it.

-Dvo, doing his job AGAIN and bringing this thread back on topic

[KIBeast]

I think the double drop was for a big splash! Not sure if it had anything to do with the way KCKC was operated. I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, which is not entirely impossible.

[DeLorean Rider]

As far as I know the last time the both sides/the left side was used was 1997. I believe there was some capacity reasoning behind it, but honestly I think they did it for looks.

[Gordon Bombay]

The double drop was intended to allow for better capacity but eventually parks started to realize it didn't make that big of a difference and problems with the gate that switched between the two drops jamming boats eventually caused parks like Kings Island, Cedar Point, and Six Flags Great Adventure to stop using the double sides.

[Dvo]

^That's what I figured. I really wish they would bring KCKC back. It was a classic. And TRTR is a classic piece of garbage.

[Nate]

Wow, still alive eh? Cool. Thanks Dvo for bringing it back on topic. I'm sure boat jamming would be a problem as they are sometimes even at the kings mill which stands today so I can't imagine how tough it would be for a big ride like KCKC to operate both sides.

[Browntggrr]

^ I'm not so sure about the boat jamming thing.

Only because the gate at the top of the hill determined which side you went down. Once going down the hill, there was nowhere to get jammed up until both hills met back up into one "canal" at the bottom. So if jamming were the issue, there should not have been two hills to begin with since a jamming issue was actually caused at the bottom of both hills..

I am just wondering if it has to do with water flow. The water pumps back then may not have been powerful enough to completely flood one hill after a "keelboat" went down it. So two hills were necessary to get a completely "wet" ride.

Just a wild stab...

[CoastersRZ]

Well, most log flumes don`t float down the final drop. They rely instead on the set of wheels to carry them down the final drop. For example, on the final drop of the Wild Thornberrys, the boats are riding completely on the fiberglass structure. The water that is pumped up for the final drop is merely there for show. The splash at the bottom is caused when the boats hit the water that remained in the trough.

[Gordon Bombay]

The boats jamming at the top was what did in the double drop at KI and most other parks that had the hydroflumes. I remember myself and my dad were talking to Jeff Seibert when getting off of Son of Beast in 2002 about Tomb Raider: The Ride and my dad telling Seibert about how he had gotten stuck on KCKC and had to be evacuated by ride ops along with other guests after his boat got jammed in the gate and a few stacked up behind it. (My dad is horribly afraid of heights so you can imagine the fun he had dealing with that). If you read the link I posted earlier about SFGAdv's hydroflume, it sheds more light on the jamming problem, at SFGAdv they had such a problem with it jamming that they stopped using the outer side back in 1988:

From: http://www.amusementpics.com/Hydro%20Flume.htm

As part of an effort to make rides safer in the spring of 1988, the Hydro Flume received modifications which altered the ride's final drop for the rest of its existence.

The speed hump at the base of the drop was removed, taking away one of the most memorable and exiting parts of the ride.

Also modified was the drop itself, with the outer channel being permanently closed off to boats. This helped alleviate the problem of boats jamming at the top when they would occasionally get caught in the gates that sent them down the two sides alternately.

That article is a must read for hydroflume fans. Just like KI's hydroflume, Great Adventures began waining in popularity after much more thrilling water attractions opened up at the park, it was also one of low priorities to get open on days with bad staffing and suffered high maintenance costs even back in the 80's when it almost met its first end.

[Browntggrr]

Well, most log flumes don`t float down the final drop.

Can I throw in a "Thanks Captain Obvious" there? There is a thing called gravity that would not keep the water on the hill.

Yet, I was looking at it from the "water slide" aspect. Of coarse the wheels come into play, but the dryer the hill is, the less momentum you will have going down the hill, which in turn has an effect in the splash at the bottom.

[Gordon Bombay]

Actually the water pumped into the final splash downs of the hydroflumes and the wild thronberrys flume flow in from a seperate reservoir behind the actual drop, the splash down parts hardly rely on water coming down the drop, try to watch wild thronerry's in the morning when it first starts up and they run their first boats of the morning. You can hardly tell that the drop has any water on it what so ever and the ride works just fine.

[Nate]

First, I did think that the "show water" was real when I was a kid .

Second, I never expected this topic to reach TWELVE pages!!! Shikes!

[The Interpreter]

But, the "show water" is real water. It isn't "fake water." That'd be too expensive, you know...

--The Interpreter, who just had to . . .

[Nate]

I mean I thought real water was running down, I didn't know it was fake crap while the wheels scraped against the jagged bottom.

In KCKC was there real water actually falling down the drop or was that fake also?

[The Interpreter]

I am not aware of the park ever buying or using anything called "fake water." Even though the Mason area has had its water supply problems, I didn't realize the park ever resorted to using "fake water." Nor do I think it has. Where would you even buy such a thing?

[WooferBearATL]

I am not aware of the park ever buying or using anything called "fake water." Even though the Mason area has had its water supply problems, I didn't realize the park ever resorted to using "fake water." Nor do I think it has. Where would you even buy such a thing?

No, that's why the park has it's own reservoir's. They don't use fake water.

[The Interpreter]

Sometimes, after being blasted by that stupid elephant, I wish they DID use fake water. Dry water, actually!

[Scooter4Ever]

Hmm, that's a tough one. I like KCKC because of the bigger drop. But I actually think that you got wetter on Kings Mill. I always used to ride in the front seat as a kid and I would come off Kings Mill DRENCHED! I also remember standing in line for Kings Mill, and if a boat that had 4 or 5 people came down, the people in line could even get wet from the splash. I think I liked Kings Mill better.

We always thought you got wetter on Kings Mill also. We would call KCKC the "big" log ride and Kings Mill the "little" log ride. And yes, I know KCKC didn't have logs. We were kids. Leave us alone.

We would always lean away from the turns on KCKC so the boat would hit the sides and splash up water. And on both rides we would always make our dad sit in front so the front of the log/boat would "dip" further down and make a bigger splash.

Kid physics. Good times.

[Dvo]

Kid physics. Good times.

hahaha so true. I used to call them the big log ride and the little log ride too! We always used to lean back just before the crest of the hill on the "little log ride" and lean forward right as we went over the top for that "added edge" haha. I just remember always riding in the very front on Kings Mill because I was the smallest, and I would get DRENCHED every time. Great times. I wish KI would refurbish congo falls so that it actually makes a good splash i.e. Snake River Falls @ CP. I just rode that a few days ago and I'm amazed every time. If you sit in the back, it feels like the water is falling on you for like 5 seconds straight. That's what I call a water ride.

[Nate]

Congo falls exists now. Although unless you have a 20 person partyhouse to ride I have more fun on the Kings' mill.

lol by fake water I meant "show spritzers" not actual gushing water. The kings mill slope uses show spritzers and not a real real waterfall. Did KCKC actually drop water or use the show effect?

[The Interpreter]

The Hydroflumes actually used the water to glide down the hill. From

http://www.amusementpics.com/Hydro%20Flume.htm

Also, the Hydro Flume design utilized all the water pumped into the flume trough in the final drop, where the Log Flume design had the water bypass the drop, with a smaller pump supplying water that basically provided the appearance of the logs floating down hill, while they actually run completely on rollers. The Hydro Flume design dispersed the water by spreading it out between two channels, allowing the boats to roll down the drop safely on a thin sheet of water. the double channel drop also helped increase ride capacity, allowing the operation of more boats spaced closer together.

The Great Adventure Hydroflume was VERY similar to KCKC. There is a lot to learn and absorb (bad pun intended) at that site!

[Nate]

Good find! Thanks for answering that. FYI I found a very low quality video of KCKC. Does anyone know of another vid of the ride? (A little clearer lol)

[Gordon Bombay]

How about sharing the vid you found.

[jzarley]

Kid physics. Good times.

hahaha so true. I used to call them the big log ride and the little log ride too!

Yeah...me too. I don't even recall knowing that they had other actual names until I was twelve or so

[DeLorean Rider]

Kings Mill Log Flume or the Wild Thronberrys River Adventure still has water on the drop it just goes over a bunch of steps and such to make the water look more like it's rushing. Similar to how congo falls uses chain link fence to make the "rush".