TNT Teen wrote:
Erik gave a pretty good background on the boat, but I figured I should give a more detailed history on it, since it is mine.
Found it on S&F late 2007, and drove down to Long Island the first weekend of December to pick up a beat up, empty shell of a race boat, and brought it back driving through 6-8inches of snow at some points. Over the next 2 years we gutted what was left of it, replaced some balsa, new stringer, ribs and floor, for some reason not the transom, so I'm replacing that next winter, since this winter I'm repainting my 16' sidewinder/clone. The allison went to SML the weekend before Victoria Day in 2010, and since then I'm still tweaking the setup, and trying different props (since the best prop I had threw a blade...). It gets 69mph on gps, but I've got low slip so I'm raising the motor when the boat goes into storage, I need to get back over 70mph. But for a 28 year old ski motor, its not a bad speed.
Also as Erik said, my dad had speed boats since back in 1972, he had a Checkmate MX-13, then he had a 16' sidewinder ss that could have been the fastest sidewinder at the time, he claims 72 or 76 was the fastest speed he got out of it, and when you see pictures of it, you can believe it. He got out of fast boats in the 80's, and then in 2005 bought a fully restored 1972 Checkmate MX-13, with a 1996 Johnson 56ci longshaft 70, and when I drove it at 12 years old is where my addiction started, and it shows no signs of slowing down.
Good work!!! That boat looks beautiful and runs clean....really nice to see. Thanks for posting this Hydroids...
