old hydroplane racer restoration

[enderx475]

OK Folks, here's the deal:
After about 30 years of being stowed away, I pulled this out of the garage and decided to give a go at restoring it. The hull seems to be in perfect shape, but the transom looks a little rotten and will probably need to be replaced. I need to get a new steering wheel and a new fin for it. What I really need help on is the motor. Back in the day, it had a 20 HP motor on it and it went decently well. Right now I'm looking more at 30 or more HP to make this baby really fly. I assume I'll probably need a short-shaft motor so that the prop is just in the water when I'm up on a plane. If it's of any help, the boat is about 10 feet long and weighs about 180 pounds (this is only the hull, the engine, steering, throttle, are not mounted) Anyone give me a hand on how to find a motor (or what motor for that matter) for this little craft?
Heres some pictures (link to my other thread on another forum):
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=208093

[Fast Jack]

old boat

there is an active antique club in Maine, give Ken Hall a call 1 978-256-4795. looks like a Mark 25 would be a good bet.

[enderx475]

oh thats good because the boat is at my summer home in maine.
forgive me, but i am not a very advanced boater....what is a mark 25 and how much does it cost?

[Richard Duncan]

Racing motors

Hello,
Good you are restoring a hydro. If you need a short shaft outboard racing engine I have KG4-H, KG7-H and the "costly" 20H in the stable ready to race.
Also have 30H and 55H which would appear to be too heavy and powerful for your boat. Would like to see these motors on boats and not gathering dust. Have fun! Let's see more racing boats in Maine!!
Still a Maineiac.
Dick 39P 717-379-3779

[jeff55v]

Omg!

Hey, That boat is missing the air traps!!!
(kidding)

[Al Peffley]

Suggestion

Hi,

I owned a homemade Scatcat-design wood hydro back in the early 1960's similar to your hydro. I agree with the comments about running a 20-25 hp motor on your rebuild project. I saw the other comments on the iBoat website (thanks for the link, I just joined there today!) and the Yamato motor that you might want to consider using I believe is the Yamato 80, not the 102 (because of the limited freeboard that you have on the hydro, and the shallow sponsons design.) The Scatcat hydro I had was equipped with a deeper tunnel than your project boat and did 62 mph with a Merc 30H. I believe running a Merc 30-H was not safe as the Scatcat design was for A & B-Stock racing motor, not C-Stock; I also had a lot of trouble with the boat swamping from boat wakes when the motor was not running.

I would really recommend that you look for a good used Johnson or Evinrude 15-hp racing motor (an APBA A-Stock motor) or a used Hotrod (B-Stock) motor for your project boat, as the OMC's parts are readily available through OMC dealers and this website (go to the "Buy and Sell" forum) and the Hotrod is a classic motor (but Hotrod's parts not so readily available). Direct-drive (We called them Mercury "Quickie" lower units in the day) motors are more dangerous to operate in public waters because the prop is always engaged, so operate the rig with another person on the beach who understands the boat; be sure you have a proper Keller-style hand throttle and kill switch like the ones they use on Personal Watercraft and race boats. Good luck with your project and have fun.

Al

[T Chance]

I agree with not going over 25 hp and that a Yamato would be a good choice. As a note I recently bought a good complete 15 hp Oliver (aka 10 hp Chris Craft) off e-Bay for $37.00. A motor like that would be perfect for a boat like that.

[pops67g]

Yamato as best choice???

If we are just talking about a play boat at the lake I wonder about the Yamato because of the lack of a water pump. No rewind start might present some issues as well. Any old Merc would have these.