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First off, good to meet you all. I discovered this forum at the boat show in Toronto this weekend and am looking for some advice or any input as to what exactly this is. I found this boat shell in my friends backyard and offered him $80 bucks for it. It looks to me like it was suppose to be some sort of jet boat. It's roughly 13ft and I'm guessing the circular hole in the transom is for a pump and the rectangular cut out is for an intake grate. I'm not new to boating but have never dealt with a project like this and would like to get this thing in the water and running. I was thinking of patching the existing holes, reinforcing the transom and throwing on an outboard. What do you guys think?


DSC_0437 by BryanHynes, on Flickr


DSC_0436 by BryanHynes, on Flickr

Welcome aboard, throw a 50 on it, race t-750,.. that is one funny looking boat?or whatever it is lots of info here, we'll help you get er wet.

lol yeah it definitely has an interesting look. Any recommendations for a mechanical steering system? I'll keep my eye out for an outboard.

Yes you are correct, it was born as a jet drive. I recall seeing one of those (or something very similar) in a brochure for either Berkley or Jaccuzi 25 or so years ago. If I remember it was powered by a motorcycle engine.
Kinda funky looking but not really practical.
Have you thought about using the driveline out of either a SeaDoo jet boat or a Merc jet boat?
Hangin an outboard on the back of that thing may COMPLETLY mess up the balance and handling. If you're gonna try the outboard route get a motor hung on it and drive it before you put a pile of money into rigging and finishing touches. Hate to see you put a pile of dough into it, get it all pimped out only to have it be a death trap at speed.
As far as steering goes, string would be pretty easy to set up or you could go with push/pull cable type. I put a new setup on my little tooner last year and I think it cost me about $350 for everything except the wheel.
Best of luck.

I see you found your way here. Like I said at the boat show, I haven't got the slightest clue what that is but I'm sure someone here can figure it out. Any pictures of the bottom?

I had a 95 XP 720 and the thought of using this driveline definitely crossed my mind. I'm just leaning more toward the outboard route because I figure it would be more cost effective, however, I do understand how this may produce an unbalanced boat. I'll do some more research and have a look at Berkley and Jaccuzi. Thanks for the info.



Yes thanks for letting me know about the forum, seeing your boats at the show definitely motivated me to get going on this project. This is as close to a picture of the bottom I have, it is basically flat.


DSC_0439 by BryanHynes, on Flickr

i think you could rock a small outboard on that, but i do agree 100% with northbase you want to make sure it will be safe and fun before you sink a ton of cash into it, i have a single cable teleflex steering system, if you end up needing it. cable and pulley would be the best option like kevi suggested.

I just checked out in the shop.
I've got a cleaned up single cable rotary teleflex system as well if you need it. 12' cable I believe.

Cool looking boat. And welcome.

Was talking with 3BP about it a couple hours ago asking the question- what would we do with it if we had it... GP1300 motor and drive system came up... Would be quite the weapon. Maybe not safe though.

Very cool project where ever it goes.

I think a small outboard, probably 50hp, is where I'm headed. I'll let you know about the teleflex steering system, I'm just going to do some more research before I start pulling the trigger on parts. Is there a specific outboard that is recommended for this type of application? Johnson? Mercury? Yamaha? I'd like a solid platform that I could possibly modify in the future.



Thanks, I'll let you know if I need the steering system.



Yes a GP1300 would be awesome. I've got a few other projects on the go right now but I'll update you guys with where the project ends up going. I'm sure I'll have more questions.