Aluminum 12' twin sponson boat

[fun4now]

sorry to here you are having medical trubles. take your time and heal up proper. getting back at it too soon can cause sereious long term problems.
the boat can wait. i imajen its hard to pass it and not grab up some tools, i know it would be for me. but take the time you need to get better first so you can realy injoy it later.
keep us posted, hope the checkup goes well.

[Doug Doty]

I have been a boater since birth and have navigated from Lake Michigan to well up the Ohio to the far side of Cincinnatti Oh. but do not have the boat racing experiance and a more than general feel for all of the forces at work here. I had anticipated that the top speed with a 40 merc might be 40 or less and did not think I needed to be all that concerned about most of it. I have wondered though about the outer edge of the outside sponson digging in a turn and if it does, that will be a great reason to buy a slugger saw and modify it to add a 45 degree angle on the bottom half of it.

We have sold off our motorcycles in the last 2 week2 and just picked up a pair of honda turbo watercraft to take on vacation if all works out. My surgery was supposed to be a simple out patient Vas. and the boys relapsed into swelling, aching and just plain pain again last Friday afternoon. It originally took me two weeks to be able to work a full day without coming home and iceing down but then it all got better for for about 3 weeks, and now I am back to it again. Getting a second opinion tomorrow.

[trstek]

Looking at the shape you should be ok, just knowing about the potential is all that is important here for the first few runs. I wouldn't change it until you determine in testing you need too.

The propeller depth, shape and pitch will have a lot to do with how the boat handles.

If you have to you can always put a throttle limiter on when you are not driving it.

Finding where the edge is, is half of the fun. If you are not sure, wear a good life jacket and a helmet... A helmet is not truely broke in till its been wet.

You are going to have a blast, wish I was closer to come give you a hand.

Tom

[SundownIII]

trstek,

Where'd you get into the boat racing?

I started at 5 when my uncle gave me a little 3 point hydro with a 7 1/2 HP Wizard (Western Auto). Started driving the 90's (Crosby engine) at 6 til 8, then moved to the 145's (144 CID Falcon engine). Ran them for 2 years, then moved to the 225 boats (ford engines). Drove them til I was 13, when I signed on to drive for OMC (Outboard Marine Corp). Drove for OMC til I was 19 and finished college. Little skirmish going on then (1967) over in SE Asia. Kinda put my boat racing on hold.

When I went back to grad school (U of Miami) in '73 Checkmate gave me a 15 to play with. OMC sent me a BP engine (300+ HP) to play with. That boat was one of the scarriest, hardest to drive boats I've ever been in. Over 80 she had a mind of her own. Would just as soon blow over as run straight.

Oh well, enough bs about me.

[trstek]

Sundown,

We waterski'd early at grandpa's cottage. When he left us Dad picked up some land in the north woods. dirt bikes, sleds and horses. 81 graduated hs and started working for a specialty coating company, guy had a sprinter and race boats. Ran a 25 merc run about, hammercraft. Jerry gave me a busted up boat and Walter taught me how to fix them. Had a parting of the ways with that company, got away from the racing. Did mostly skiing. Picked up a hydrostream viking with a 175 merc, was warmed up a bit. Eventually blew that up, went looking for parts and Jerry, the guy I used to work for put me in a formula lite tunnel (45 omc 2 cyl ) 1996. did some local races, Saskatoon and St. Louis with the formula guys and madison indiana with the unlimiteds. we filled out the show. Decided that starting a business would let me race more, and the business edged out the boat racing... What was I thinking...

Great bunch of people in the sport. I miss the weekends with them. Those folks were the most alive bunch of people I have ever had the good fortune to associate with.

Tom

[Doug Doty]

trstsk,

I could have watched you racing in Madison from my deck, The house over looks the river above town.

Doug...

[trstek]

That is one fun event. The local boys in blue would follow us close to let us know our equip and us were welcome, but better mind our p & qs.

Was a lot of fun, something about a fish, 34ft with a rooster almost hitting the bridge, that makes a person sit back and smile...

That was the first time I saw the cranes in operation. When I pulled in to pit, was thinking to myself what are they building that close to the water? usually they use barges for that...

One of these years we should get back down for the race.

Sounds like you have a nice homestead. Keep us posted on the project. Will help where we can.

Tom

[trstek]

Doug,

How is the boat coming along?

Tom

[Bert]

I learned how plasma cutting leaves an oxidated edge and i made it hard on myself by getting it all tacked up from the inside and not being able to adequatly clean after I realized I needed to dress all the edges that were done on the HD plasma table.
Doug,
what did you do about the oxidation to weld the next pontoon faster?
thanks,
bert

[fun4now]

i dont know what he did , but i would just runa flap disk along the edge befor assembling it.