Jet Drive for 10m tour boat - weed and shallow water solution needed

Well this being a tour boat as I mentioned it will travel about 80-90% of its time on relatively clean waters and the rest of the time crossing weedy lakes and canals. My wish was also to be able do bring this boat on plane or drive it faster than my current boats so with this propulsion system it is not possible and it will be 3 times more expensive plus 50% less efficient.

The cruisers on the Danube never get to see the weeds my boats see. They use the system for the shallow water capabilities as they need to access areas up the Danube where sand banks form and during the summer. As you said the sand will not be sucked in but the weeds float and they will stick to the grid as the schottel technician said. So for the moment price and efficiency dismiss this from my plans.

@bulkhead - Thanks for the links and suggestions. The Dutch boat looks nice and the hull design is just what I had in mind only rough-er see the m-hull from M-ship in the picture below. Low wake, shallow draught, fast and slow, stable as a pontoon (a real plus for a deck boat where tourists can run from one side to the other to see the rare birds ... complex to build.

I have contacted the M-ship Co and asked for some details but they seem to be busy and unwillingly to work with you if you aren't planning to build a million boats so it sounded expensive. Thou the latest boat they have build is very close to what I have in mind. I will try to contact them to see if they would sell me the plans for the boat in the picture bellow.

I know the M-hull is controversial but from the videos I have seen it looks ideal for inland waters.
http://www.mshipco.com/commercial/moreinfo/utilityworkboat.html

Another question would be... how difficult is to build a similar hull or a copy of that? Too much trial and error?

 

Yeah we are in the EU so the prices are the same or even higher so that makes life tough. Many tourists coming to Romania expect to find a banana country with banana prices but the reality is different. Romania may not be as modern as the rest of Europe but the prices are high as hell so you have to understand why I am willing to build an economical boat. If I try to sell the tours more expensive... nobody will book a tour to Romania.

We used to have that tax free diesel here but then the crisis came in play... so now tractors and boats pay the road tax. Stupid but true.

The VW engines are good but the latest ones use the complex electronically controlled injection and piezoelectric injectors that cost a fortune and get clogged easily... cooking oil is a no no....

Steyr on the other hand uses a state of the art injection system that can be adapted to any fuel type in the Diesel range.

I have read that trying to marinise a car engine is not such a good idea and you will have to fiddle with power curves and cooling etc... I have no personal experience here. My boats use self marinised engines coming from - trucks, Russian tanks, and Italian tractors... but they are all iron cast heavy engines not the aluminium wonders they build today. Two minutes without cooling and the aluminium melts... twists... makes you put out a lot of money.

 

If you want to bring tears to your eyes...check out how much a Suzuki 150 costs in the US . Can you import ? plus 30 percent ?
20,000 USD for a pair of 150hp motors

http://www.edsmarinesuperstore.com/suzuki_outboards.htm

Also have a look at the small 18ft workboat that the naval architect Tom Wylie draws....very high stabilty and good platform for a tour boat. Perhaps he has drawings for a 30 footer ?
http://www.wyliecat.com/models/gallery/18/wylie_18_04.html
http://www.wyliecat.com/models/wylie_18.html

 

Well ... I know the prices in the US but importing is not an option as it becomes expensive as hell plus a lot of papers. I tried once to import a pontoon boat and the price was prohibitive.

The model of boat looks nice. Similar with the m-hull. I can ask Wylie about larger models.

Thanks for info.

 

Yah papers...and more papers and too bad you cant power your motors with all those papers !!!!!!!!!!!!!.....Gee...err emm... by the way.....what happens if you import thru another EU country ?.
I have friend who operates 250 hp Suzuki's on a fast inter island taxi...40 knot fast...he tells me the Suzuki outboards are a good motor...he has 2000 industrial use hours on them now and no problems.

 

Well we are in the EU so we can import from whatever country we want to but the prices in Europe are in EURO so 30% higher plus the VAT varying from 19 to 25 % depending on country that can make things up to 50% more expensive than in the US. Life is tough . I am also a photographer and I buy my equipment from US as it is 50% cheaper than here but big stuff like boats and engines don't fit in suitcases .

On some of my primitive diesel engines (45 hp 3 cylinder) I have 4000 hour and no problem. They burn just 4 liters/hour at 10km/h speed with boat loaded with 15 people total weight is 8 tons or more so this is hard to beat. I know... what I want now is a different story but just for the perspective. Diesel in commercial boats rules and are hard to beat.