Whelp.

Things have escalated quickly.

Going to go rob the engine out of my old white boat tomorrow. Got one week to swap everything over. We leave for Florida on Saturday.

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Damnit that sucks. What's the second picture showing though? I do not see anything obviously broken.

Is your only filter that metal mesh filter? Let us know what the damage is from.

We had a deposit on a Scarab 215 (with the twin 300's) right as covid hit, and the boat was delayed til after summer 2020 (ultimately was available spring 2021). We had a 18' seadoo jetboat before kids and I wanted another due to the shallow areas where I boat, and the scarab was the next obvious answer since is uses Rotax gear. After the delay and canceling the Scarab, we used the deposit money on a 79 hour freshwater 2011 stingray 195 (just had to drive from central NJ to buffalo go get it). 20' sterndrive with a 4.3. We are very happy with this boat (actually could use something larger, but we'd need a bigger tow vehicle then). It should do upper 50s with the carb'ed 4.3 but max gps I've had was 48.0 full tank/3 adults, 49.1 1/3 tank solo. I think/hope it's the autotabs I have on there to help kill the porpoising. They are basically drag brakes haha. One of these days I'll pin them up and see how it does solo.

But anyway, this thing sips gas. A week at a shore house a month ago, we only went thru 21 gallons of 87 octane. Out there every day, tubing, cruising for hours. We were worried about the sterndrive but it's been great. You may want to consider a small sterndrive bowrider.
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A friend picked up a new yamaha jetboat at the same time. Single engine supercharged, same length so around 19-20 feet. Same speed but his rides a little rougher. And loves to go thru gas I hear.

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Ended up with a supercharged yamaha 195. Love the interior and layout. It's very big for a 19ftr. Cant comment yet on the gas usage.

it got so hot it melted the valve cover gasket.
we haven't even begun to diagnose. Got it ready to be pulled last night. Driving to get new engine right now. We had absolutely no reason to believe it would die like this before it went out. Engine was low on power and when bringing it back my driver decided to shut it down. Racepack data still can't be opened. I'm so pissed about that. And yeah that's my only oil filter.

Anyone in or around Lakeland FL?

We'll be racing next weekend on lake Hollingsworth. We're leaving tomorrow, spending a week at the resort and hopefully finishing off the season WITHOUT another bang.

Some of you may recognize this engine. haha

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4afa6b074c.jpg

That is an AWESOME picture...

Manifolds?
We don't need no stinking manifolds!

A 5 second video would be better...
Bet that was noisy
Flame thrower!

Guess I get to hop on board this thread now. Next step is to learn how to sail it, it can't be too hard, right?
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Love this. Time for some new sails! Surprised the originals are so intact.

Actually, the originals are just fine, gonna be looking into sending them to sail care for reconditioning and patching. The Jib really only needs a cleaning. Overall, everything is in very good shape for it's age and use.

Got my new engine back from the builder a few weeks ago. Not every day you see an old school SBC revving higher than a Miata. The chip is set at 8300 but they weren't thrilled about revving past 7500 on the engine dyno.


General RV is our title sponsor for 2022. They may as well be. Especially with a rig like this going down the road.
Probably be a shorter season this year. We're going to be following the unlimited series around(for some of the races). I built a simple little website for the series. www.prolitehydros.com

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e55f16f578.jpg

All you internal-combustion-engine powered "boaters" are compensating for something. Allow me to show you how to go fast on the water without turning dead dinosaurs into noise.

1990 Hobie 18
Special Edition "Formula" (I read that Hobie only made a dozen H18's... just white crossbars/mast/rigging/wings with a grey tramps and a special set of sails. Regular 18' rig, not SX. They made about 2 dozen H16' Formulas.)
It was in absurdly good condition last summer when I bought it from an estate charity donation. I gave the hulls a quick polish and replaced all the soft-lines, and added a mil or so of gelcoat to the bottom of the hulls.
This summer, it got a new tramp, shrouds, wing stiffening plates, and some basic tuning. I also found a used set of "Cat Fever" because the wife wanted some "pretty" sails. She's ready for the water now... beast.

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Back in 1980(I can’t believe I’m so effin old) my buddy bought a Hobie 16 that he kept in Stonington, CT. There’s a barrier island and a peninsula that give you a sheltered run between Stonington and Watch Hill, RI, so there was a clean shot of relatively smooth water with ocean winds for a few miles both ways. Had a cooler with clips designed for the tramp that held 8 beers. The two of us would get high, take some beer and spend afternoons going back and forth, taking turns in the trapeze while flying a hull and just being happy young assholes.

I hope you have as much fun. Better than my power boat experiences.

That is such a sweet hobie man! What a find. You're giving me poor financial ideas for a coming move out to the DMV area...

Any reason you didn't keep the upper trampolines/trapeze on there?

Sometime in the 90's, due to the steel wing mounting bolts oval'ing and then pulling through the aluminum crossbar, Hobie developed a steel mounting bracket that reinforced the location and took all the pressure off the bolt and transferred it directly to the crossbar. My boat did not have the upgrade, so I took the wings off last summer when I got the boat, when that picture was taken. For this summer, I got a new main tramp and installed the wing-brackets... wings are back on, just haven't been out on the water yet. I'm hoping to get through this season with the 1990 original grey wing tramps... please, lord, just one more season! Doubtful.

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https://imgur.com/Hvd3Tgm

There's a guy on a local inland lake that I frequent who has a Hobie. I'm always super jealous. I'd love to take one out on lake Erie and really catch some wind. I can't imagine how much fun that would be.

"200hp" dyno. ;)

Nice Hobie Sam! I wasn't aware of that model. We had a H16 20 years ago; definitely supremely fun WHEN you know what you're doing and/or with someone who does. A coworker raced them and taught me the basics, but the first time out solo I flipped it and couldn't right it, and almost got hit by a sandy hook ferry. Wife wouldn't go on the trapeze after hearing that story even after I rigged a lever pole to help my 130lb ass right the thing solo, and we sold it soon after. I still want another some day.

First sail yesterday with the wings... gamechanger. Wing tramps aren't gonna las the whole season... another $500 to the canvas shop coming right up! Best news is that my retirement hair is coming in strong.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ab68839f8d.jpg


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I literally can't win....

Rocker fell off, stupid fucking set screw setup. Should of been a jam nut at a minimum.
Beat the piss out of the lifter and in turn wiped out the lobe on the camshaft.

That was last weekend. Thank god i found the debris in the filter and tore it down Tuesday, because i was about to toss the rocker back on and raced it this weekend.

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Looks cool though...

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Chris is still using his 2021 copyright lol

Oh yeah and then Gary chopped me pretty good. Messed up the boat a little and broke a gopro off. Shockingly the gopro on the suction cup mount stayed on.

Seesh, what a wild couple weeks.

A lot has happened. Most notably, a first place finish and a perfect weekend at the Owensboro Hydrofair US nationals. This was a huge win for us.

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We got a couple weeks off then we're off to San Diego for the final race in the Pro-Lite series. An Ohio race and season finisher in Lakeland FL. If we can keep it together i'll finish with decent points and probably region high points.