Buccaneer Battle opens at Six Flags Great America

I can't believe there isn't more buzz about this.

After reading a few first-hand reports and seeing a bunch of photos, this looks like a hell of an addition...and a lot of fun. Exactly the sort of thing people eat up. Make it a hot summer day and the popularity of this thing is going to be nuts.

^"I can't believe there isn't more buzz about this."

Could NOT agree more - oh well, it's not a rollie coaster. This thing sounds fantastic, it's going to serve the park VERY well (way better than DV).

I still think those "theoretical capacity" numbers are higher than optimal, and might just be pipe-dreams...

I think most "theoretical capacity" numbers are pipe dreams. :)

What are they saying? 1500pph? I'm sure that's high, but 14 boats moving 8 people each...

I don't exactly think it'll be a nightmare.

I'm surprised more waterparks aren't adding these...seems like a natural fit.

Dollywood put one of these in last year, didn't they?

The theming looks terrific from what I saw on mothers day. The park was empty for Mother's day. Got on everything multiple times in 6 hours. Longest wait was for American Eagle, which was 15 minutes (2 trains on RED, no blue). And since Ragin Cajun added a single riders line, there is no longer a very long wait for me!

I guess this thing will be packed by the time I get there in June, looks great though!

WildStangAlex said:
And since Ragin Cajun added a single riders line, there is no longer a very long wait for me!

Sweet! They need to do this on more coasters.

On some rides (Borg and Farenheit, for instance) the single rider line moves at a crawl and pretty much defeats itself.

Apparently, this thing has a capacity of 1500 PPH - which is ridiculous and insane. Count that with all of the people shooting from the sidelines, and it seems like a pretty worthwhile attraction.

Does it have multiple stations or a rotating platform? At 8 people per boat, 1500 is about 187.5 boats an hour which is less than 20 seconds per boat. If it's single station, I would bet that's more than twice the actual capacity.

Maybe they're counting the people on the "sidelines" who can also shoot water at the boats, as riders??

I'm not entirely sure, but how long can the ride be? It's got to be pretty long if it's got 14 boats.

Apollo Andy I believe your math is wrong. With 1500 people and 14 boats that leaves each boat completing just over 13 cycles. This means each boat must dump and pick up new riders every 4 minutes and 34 seconds. This seems quite accurate as the ride cycle itself is reported at 4 minutes long. Since the boats are constantly moving in the station I would assume that a 34 second load/unload time is reasonable.

IntaminHater said:
Apollo Andy I believe your math is wrong. With 1500 people and 14 boats that leaves each boat completing just over 13 cycles. This means each boat must dump and pick up new riders every 4 minutes and 34 seconds. This seems quite accurate as the ride cycle itself is reported at 4 minutes long. Since the boats are constantly moving in the station I would assume that a 34 second load/unload time is reasonable.

Nah, Andy is right...and so are you. Look at your numbers again.

In that 4 minutes and 34 seconds all 14 boats have to cycle, not just one. :)

4:34 divided by 14 boats = (you guessed it!) 20 seconds per boat.

Well look at it the other way. If you take 60 minutes and divide it by the total ride time and station time of about 4.5 minutes you end up at a little over 13 cycles per boat. You take 14 boats multiple 8 riders per boat, and assume each boat goes on 13 trips, you end up with 1456 riders, or just about 1500. The rides a capacity cow, and to me the theoretical capacity seems correct. Now getting 8 riders on each boat without stopping is a challenge but they do have 2 separate lines, one for 2 or less one for 3 or above. Should be interesting to keep an eye on.

The ride's cycle time doesn't matter to riders per hour. The only thing that matters is vehicle capacity and dispatch interval.

Let me sort of repeat what Gonch said already:

In the 4:34 all 14 boats must enter the station, unload, load and leave. 14 load cycles in 4:34 is 20 seconds per load cycle.

But AA, you're assuming that the boats stop - they do not, even in the station they are in continuous motion.

It looks very fun!

-Tina