Small aluminum jet boat kit - has anyone here built one of those?

[swatski]

Group buy?

Just kidding of course, but must admit this fascinates me. I don't know much about it, sure welding aluminum is not as easy as they make it look.
I would think there must be more outfits making those kits here in US or Canada? This looks like too much fun.

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[Bill D]

Man, I really wanted to see that little thing out on the water! That thing looks awesome!

Edit: Found it.

 

[Julian]

Looks like a blast!

 

[blacksapphirez]

thats right up my alley. how much? and how can he take off from such a shallow waters?

 

[swatski]

thats right up my alley. how much? and how can he take off from such a shallow waters?

I know! Would be perfect going way upstream in my river. He is using a Yamaha engine, I didn't have time to check it out, simple, simple drive/pump, MASSIVE intake grate, I love that whole idea!

 

[Micah Thompson]

Holy crap, that is straight up bad-ass awesome! I've built a few things in my day, but hats off to that guy, including the way he drove it, right up on the rocks! lol

 

[Julian]

thats right up my alley. how much? and how can he take off from such a shallow waters?

The intake grate is large and the tines are very close together, so it can only suck small stuff through. Still surprising that small stones arent jamming the impeller. But perhaps that river only has larger rocks exposed?

 

[gsbrown]

No problem fitting that into a garage!

 

[itsdgm]

I love it. If using it on a lake, it would need a bit of foam for buoyancy though.

 

[Ilmmct]

@swatski I went through that fascination with jets phase recently:

http://www.mokai.com/

The closest I got to a personal build, was to put a trolling motor and wheelchair battery on my kayak. Get 5 a whooping 5mph on that contraption.

 

[Britboater]

He's got to be a crazy Kiwi , interesting build, not sure I'd butcher a perfectly good 2016 Superjet though, you can have way more fun on one of those. The intake grate interested me, and as mentioned small stones, there must be some.

 

[swatski]

I love it. If using it on a lake, it would need a bit of foam for buoyancy though.

I agree, that would be my major concern from what I've seen so far. In one of the vids they actually swamp the boat and need to be rescued by the helicopter in a remote location. If I were to built one, probably think of using it as a sound barrier as well, inside the engine box.

He's got to be a crazy Kiwi , interesting build, not sure I'd butcher a perfectly good 2016 Superjet though, you can have way more fun on one of those. The intake grate interested me, and as mentioned small stones, there must be some.

The superjets I know of around here do not do too well in shallow, gravelly-bottom river and wouldn't stand a chance to go as far as those guys take their little rigs.
That grate design must be really good.

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