Other Drive Systems? V-Drives? Jets?
 

Just curious, have any offshore performance boats been built with drives other than sterndrives or surface drives, such as V-drives or Jets? I got to thinking about this after reading about all the expensive Merc Bravo repairs.:eek:

Michael

Unfortunately, everyone here is going to complain to the high heavens about their Mercury equipment but at the same time they are going to bash any alternative to such.

heres a couple. the Jet one i heard did not work out to well. they take a tremendous amout of power to run and dont return the performance. not sure about the V drive one but i think it was an older boat when thats about all that was avaliable.

There Was An Artical In Hot Boat About Some West Coast Builders Doing A Few With Twin Jets.

Hit the nail there Rik!

It's hard to believe there has been so little development of alternatives to the fragile outdrive. The Bravo handles a measly 400 ft-lbs, and even an expensive XR is only rated at 600 ft-lbs. The aftermarket drives (BMax etc.) handle a bit more (about 800 I believe), but the cost sky rockets. And forget the #6 unless you have a very large boat to spread the cost over, and you want to hang a huge drive on. Even surface drives handle a surprisingly low level of torque vs. cost ($/ft-lb), and the props are outrageously expensive since they often use #6 drive props. The other drive systems, inboard, v-drive, and jet, can handle far more torque at a very reasonable cost.

Michael

I used to own a 1979 cobra jet jet drive,17'9",with 500hp it went 62 mph,was no where near as effiecient as a outdrive. I had a buddy who was enamored with jet drives,he also had a jet boat,a south wind drag tunnel that did mid 80's with 550 hp bbc power (but the bare hull weighed about 600 lbs and was only good in calm water).He had heard about a twin engine jet drive v-hull with big blocks (1 of 3 built) and became determined to track it down and buy it. It was in the mid 20 ft range,after talking to whoever built it originally they told him it was something to avoid,it rode terrible in rough water,cavitated,wouldn't carry the bow well,burned a ton of gas and would on a good day barely break 50 mph.Last I talked to him he had located one and the owner was eager to sell it to him but he started getting second thoughts. Another buddy of mine bought the southwind drag tunnel from him and put a pontiac 455 I used to own in it,was fun ,like a jet ski- for about 20 minutes driving around the lake- but was pretty useless. Jet drives are not the answer on v-hulls,Smitty

And a helluva lot slower.

Surface drives are the best way to go. Mine are 21 years old, and I've not had a lick of problems with them in 4 years.

´Cuda have to agree on that one.
So you kept yours after all, Nice.

Europeans have always favoured surface drives and look at P1 racing.
People tell about docking problems but why does the Navies use them then?