Homebuilt Personal Watercraft

Incompetence is it's own reward.
Gas engines have been around for a long time.
There doesn't have to be an issue.

 

I would like to take you up on your suggestion and for it to happen
would be for me to rent a PWC at a local inland lake area. Now what
happens if I cant find any rough water ? Seriously though.... is what
I am asking for any different than that PWC guys have been doing for
forty years ? I did make the connection that a lot of PWC guys
allow some shock absorbtion by supporting weight on their legs as
opposed to sitting in a mini speedboat. Maybe I need to get creative
and think of a straddle seat like a horse saddle or a PWC/motorcycle
seat setup and put that into the mini speedboat.

 

A small boat can be a lot of fun and I would suggest that first you give a lot of thought to what you want I guess they call that an SOR. I know of many people who spend a lot of money to buy a PWC only to use it for one summer and then sell it a big loss and then buy a boat. You will probably find that a boat that only one person can ride in will be a lot of fun to start with but unless you have a few other people with the same type of equipment you will probably get tired of it pretty quick. You mentioned not using a trailer I don't believe that would be possible because of the weight but if you can build the boat and figure out how to use the 25 horse motor that should be pretty simple. As far as having FNR you might consider adding an electric trolling motor that you could use when you need reverse and for emergencies in case the main motor fails then you wouldn't need a transmission and if the motor would start at an idle with the prop in the water you wouldn't need a clutch. My boat is a 12' wooden boat that I built without plans from my own design and this is its fifth summer on the Mississippi and for me it's the perfect boat I originally powered it with an 11 horse briggs engine that I mounted on an outboard leg, now I have a 70 horse mercury out board on it. Take a look at my thread (A boat a motor and a trailer) in boat building.

 

look for the plans you want on the vintage small hydroplanes here:

http://svensons.com/boat/

they are rather dated, most were designed to be built with "hardware store" fittings, but they are fun to look through. It might be a reasonable thing to do to up date the design and make a more modern version of them. OTOH, might be much faster and cheaper to buy a used personal water craft.

 

As you reasoned,in water that isn't too smooth you take a beating,and it becomes not a lot of fun,really quick. In my area,the seas are very rarely calm however in your area,the lakes and rivers may be very calm much of the time.
I've taken PWCs to the Bahamas from Florida,in quite rough seas and it was fine.


If you want to build a boat for fun and to learn things and do it with what you have on hand,IMO that's the best way to go...go for it!

I looked on Craigslist Atlanta and there's a few small boats around for not a lot of money...this one sparks my fancy for some reason:
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/boa/5714978644.html

And people have been known to buy used PWCs with blown engines and swap in other engines,not wanting to go fast. That said there's a bunch on there for $500 to a grand that run and go.

 

You might want to take a look at this site www.airboatfun.com

 

Nice to see you were able to get something out of all the "competing" suggestions.

Good luck, and keep up the reports, please.

 

Funny I know but I do not know what "BOAT" really means. Please enlighten.
I do know that when the wife says she is "fine" .... I know that means she
is "freaked out, insecure, neurotic and emotional"

 

Break Out Another Thousand ?

 

Bring Onboard Another Thousand

 

do not even try to explain it. There is no rational reason to own a boat at all. They are nothing but expense, and the maintenance hours to actual use hours are very large.

Most of us have just given into the irrational impulse and do not question it, and go about it in a way that will not bankrupt us (hopefully). So no need to explain anything to us here. We already know...it is a form of mental illness related to masochism.

There are just some things best left unsaid...

 

To the original poster.

Pay no heed to the nattering nabobs of negativism.

The journey is the reward.

Artificer.

 

I built this a personal watercraft from the swesons plans, but made it in aluminum. It beats you to death in over 6" chop but is a blast at 32 mph with a 15 Yamaha 2 stroke.

I have a machine shop so making a stuffing box, shaft and any other parts for your project would work for me, but would be very costly for a walk in customer. Scrounging stuff that can be adapted may be a way to make your Kholer motor work. If it were mine I would make a mud motor out of it and mount it on a 12' plywood jon boat.