The Least Practical Boat You Can Buy

After seeing what was done with thin plywood in this thread it gives me real bad ideas for the coolest yard kart on earth....

The shape of that cockpit and top deck is amazing.  Great work.  This thing looks fun.

In reply to nocones :

The kart body is a great idea. 

To be fair most builders use plexiglass now for the front cowl, it's one of the toughest parts of the build and was a real piece of pride for the guy who did the woodwork. 

More sanding but I think I'm done with the 320 and ready for 600 grit then finally paint. Pretty excited about my colour choices.

Tried spraying clear for the first time today. Couldn't get it to lay out just right. Was unable to get the gun to put out enough clear. The finish was a little marble-y. 
Going to try with a different gun next time I'm up. After a quick re sand with 600.

Clear really makes the wood come alive.

Why not leave a wood finish?  Some mylar stripes and numbers, done.

In reply to 914Driver :

The boat will be mainly natural wood finish. Just minimal stripes and a white background for the numbers to be placed on. Oh and the name. I suggested vinyl instead of paint, but was told paint is light...and I hadn't painted anything in a while. 

Hard to tell from the pictures but the bottom came out much better this time around. The sponsons and sides are great. The middle is still a little marbley but I think I’ll leave it for now and start on the top next time I’m up.

What engine are they running? They look like a blast, they ran the old school, outboard ones on the local slough, ran them again in 2018 IIRC.

In reply to java230 :

Mine will be running a Yamato 80 racing outboard. It makes about 30hp and weights under 100lbs full of fuel and oil. 

1SlowVW said:

I think we all have memories from being a very young child that standout with clarity. I can remember being quite young and my uncle setting off fireworks in our front yard. I remember ridding on a snowmobile when I was so young the helmet seemed heavy. I also remember my father stopping on a highway bridge for a few minutes so we could watch the GP hydroplanes throw up 100ft roostertails in Cocagne New Brunswick which was only half an hour from where I grew up. They stopped racing in Cocagne in the late 90's due to insurance costs and other reasons. I remember my father took my brother and I the next year for at least part of the day. My father even pointed out that when a boat called "the rocket" won it's class that he knew the driver. 

I remember thinking those things were just so cool...but there were non around. Fast forward a few years and I ended up going to a larger school as they shut our small country school down. While there I ended up making friends with a great guy who would occasionally make mention that his father used to race hydroplanes. It took me a few years to put it together that his father was the guy I had seen win a few years earlier in Cocagne. 

But alas with Cocagne gone the nearest place to watch hydroplane racing was Valleyfield Quebec, a full 10 hours drive away. So for years me and my group of friends just kind of knew that there were some hydros in old barns around and that it would be cool someday to find one. Fast forward to 3 years ago and my friend invited me to come up to Valleyfield for his bachelor party. I was no prepared for the level of mechanical awesomeness that I was going to see. The modern race boats are really cool, composite hulls with blown big block power taking turns with no banking at insane speeds. But what really got me were the vintage boats. I saw mechanically fuel injected alcohol burning big blocks in wooden boats that would blast around the course like nothing I had ever seen. I was enamored...captivated and of course like many of you could relate to I needed to try one. 

But you don't go to an F1 race and think you can jump right into one of those monsters right? So whats the kart equivalent. Well turns out it's stock outboard hydrplane racing. Like many on this site I have a little experience putting a motor together. So when a friend who has gotten into racing stock outboards a few years ago offered to sell me a blown motor I thought " I can fix that". So I started with that. Tearing down 

 

 

Of course a motor itself can be pretty exciting, but like any good drug dealer...er I mean racer my buddy offered me a free hit. He said, come on out and try a couple of my boats. Next thing you know I was doing 66mph in a 108lbs boat. Let me tell you it's the fastest 66mph I have ever felt. 

 

Next thing you know I was hooked. This was the motivation needed to finish my motor, and by the next time I got the call to go and use his spare boat with another 2-3 hydros. As fun as it was with two boats on the water it was even better with a few more. 

At the end of a long day of racing my buddy (the same one from middleschool) said "I bought a motor last week to rebuild and it came with a boat....but its rough" . Of course it's rough can't mean its that bad right? 

 

• 

 

Stay tuned as I tell you the story. It won't finish until spring now but it's going to be one heck of a ride when this thing is complete. 

Super cool project!  I enjoy watching them at Valleyfield and the regatta near ingleside.  The noise made from these are wicked!

In reply to racerboy000 :

They really are something else.

Also I see that the old hotlinked Instagram pics have disappeared. 
Just to give an idea this is where this project started. 

In reply to 1SlowVW :

Thanks, I figured I was missing a lot of detail!

Ran out of time yesterday but did get the stripes taped out and a vase coat of white paint down. 

 

Due to a small miscommunication between the clean up crew and myself we all get a sneak peak. The newspaper was supposed to come off the tape was not. 
Cant wait to get the green laid down now.

Couldn't be more excited , next trip up clear coat and application of the name.

Some clear coat fell on it today. 

Wow that's nice! I'd be happy just to hang that on the wall as art!

In reply to 2Girlsracing (Steffi) :

Thank you. You could do that, it's probably the nicest object I own. But it was built with a purpose. 
Testing starts in may. Step one is make it stable, step two is get it to 62mph straightaway speed.

One more just because.

That looks awesome. You have done a really nice job on this. I keep looking at boats because of this thread and my wife keeps saying why are you looking at boats ..

In reply to 1SlowVW :

That looks amazing.  I’ll say it, 43 in a ‘17 Whaler feels fast to me.  62 in that while kneeling, well that’s just got to feel like the jump to light speed.  

In reply to 11GTCS :

With no other boats and smooth water it's deceiving. There's so little boat touching the water , maybe a couple inches, that it's very smooth.

But even with one or two others it gets interesting. 
I did 66 on gps in a friends (one class up from mine) when it was set up for my weight it felt fantastic. 
 

NewyorkNick

I'm sorry? You want me to put you in touch with someone in New England to get you out to a race ? That should help clear up the problem. 

A really neat piece of the puzzle came in the mail.