Looks great. Are you going to integrate the old rear seat into this new one?
Looks great. Are you going to integrate the old rear seat into this new one?
In reply to bgkast:
Yes, the top of the new seat will be sitting on top of, and fastened to, the old seat. It will also extend back to the transom.
Toyman01 wrote: In reply to bgkast: Yes, the top of the new seat will be sitting on top of, and fastened to, the old seat. It will also extend back to the transom.
That should give you a good stable place to ride and shift your weight around for rallying around the lake.
Nice progress. This looks like such a fun project! I can't wait to see it on the water.
I'll be fabbing up a temporary seat top, a engine cover and hitting the water ASAP. I needed the seat front installed for strength in the sides and the engine cover for steering/throttle placement.
Tonight is out and the next couple of weekends aren't looking too good either. People keep scheduling my free time for me. 
What's the "driving" position for this thing? Astride like the water-craft or more like the small boat where you sit on a bench?
Bench, to the right of the engine.
Challenge class for watercraft?
Toyman01 wrote: In reply to singleslammer: David Eddings, The Malloreon, Volume 1.
How is it? That is pretty much in my wheelhouse. I am currently working on the second Hyperion book.
In reply to singleslammer:
Eddings is one of my top ten favorites.
Not overly complicated and a fun read.
A busy weekend, brought work on the boat to a screeching halt, but I'm back on it today.
The seat front/bulkhead is in. I got it faired and glassed this afternoon.
Next up is steering.
More to come.
I'm not sure how plausible or realistic it would be, but have you done any before/after weight and stability/rigidity assessments with this thing yet? I'm merely curious, as I'd imagine this thing has to be pretty bombproof now with all of the added glasswork. Amazing project regardless.
Stability and rigidity assessments will be done on the first launch.
If it throws my ass out of the boat, it's not very stable.
If it breaks in rough water, it's not very rigid.
My biggest worry is the narrow hull, with a hard chine, might trip in a fast turn. We'll see.
I don't think rigidity will be a problem. The bottom is probably over built. My form of engineering is over engineering. There is a gallon of epoxy and several yards of glass cloth in the bottom. At 30mph water is amazingly hard, I don't want it to crack.
add a keel to the hull that's a few inches deeper? should really help it in turns/stability... or a double keel... (or could cause the boat to flip in a turn if it grabs TOO much water...)
Toyman01 wrote: ... There is a gallon of epoxy and several yards of glass cloth in the bottom. ...
HOLY E36 M3!
Who's your supplier? Marine epoxy is obscenely expensive, if you've got a line somewhere and want to share I'm all ears.
Mad_Ratel wrote: (or could cause the boat to flip in a turn if it grabs TOO much water...)
Most jet boats seem to turn by sliding. The hard chine and/or a keel will stop the slide, sometimes violently. We want to avoid that. Handling is really going to depend on the speeds and I have no idea how fast this thing is going to be.
Spinout007 wrote:Toyman01 wrote: ... There is a gallon of epoxy and several yards of glass cloth in the bottom. ...
I'm using MarinEpoxy from here. http://boatbuildercentral.com/proddetail.php?prod=E_kit_1.5gal
It's a good bit cheaper than West Systems and works perfectly. Still $96 for 1.5 gallons.
Mad_Ratel wrote: add a keel to the hull that's a few inches deeper? should really help it in turns/stability... or a double keel... (or could cause the boat to flip in a turn if it grabs TOO much water...)
Hence his note about hard chines. Jet boats tend to have rounded chines so they don't do silly things like grab water and cause you to do barrel roll after barrel roll. With no skeg to help stabilize it, flipping is a distinct possibility there, especially if you get to sliding around a turn and catch a wave just right. The other drawback of no skeg or rudder is you only have steerage under power.
Then again, a captain should know the limits of his craft. 
One way to find out.
And steering is pretty much worked out.
I started with this, the handle bars and steering shaft from the jet ski.
It's going to sit something like this. The plywood is a temporary seat top.
Naturally, it's too long, too bulky and to ugly so, chop, chop, chop.
Whittled down it looks like this.
And mounted, it looks like this.
I still have to weld the lever on the bottom and attach the cable sheath, but this is pretty much how it will hit the water the first time. I'm hoping two weeks.
More to come.
There's an easy solution to any stability issues, fill the seats with foam and maintain a kill lanyard.
Though for how fast it will probably be, I doubt you'll be able to flip it short of running it into just the right wave as hard as possible, even then you stand good chances of swamping it instead, back to that foam and kill lanyard.
It will have to get some foam and the kill lanyard from the jet ski will be installed. I honestly don't think it's going to be fast enough to flip. More likely is taking a wave over the stern and swamping it.
Easy button for concerns of swamping via wave over stern.
They come in bolt on variety for fiberglass boats. I'm thinking of a pair for my next shallow water boat just to get the draft of the back end a bit less. Each one supports something like ~225 lbs or has ~225lbs worth of sealed air floatation. However you want to put it.
Edit: not sure how well that would work with a jet drive. hmmmmm
Also, might we get a shot of the whole thing again? I'm starting to get a little disoriented.
Toyman01 wrote:Spinout007 wrote:I'm using MarinEpoxy from here. http://boatbuildercentral.com/proddetail.php?prod=E_kit_1.5gal It's a good bit cheaper than West Systems and works perfectly. Still $96 for 1.5 gallons.Toyman01 wrote: ... There is a gallon of epoxy and several yards of glass cloth in the bottom. ...
Is that shipped? I added some to my cart, and started the check out process, but no shipping charges showed up. If so, that is a REALLY GOOD deal for shipped epoxy. I found a shop in ATL that sold it for 60-80 a gallon depending on "options" but shipping was the killer. I'm wanting to build a "plyak" type boat with my niece this winter so she can get some time in the springs with it around the sea cows and such. The epoxy costs are more than doubling the cost of the boat.
Resorcinol is just a pain in the rear to find. As I would rather use that anyway to avoid the epoxy.
In reply to Spinout007:
Shipping to me was $18. That puts a 1.5 gallon kit at $114. West System is about $140.
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