Rik, did'nt the early Dana drives [used on late 60's house boats] have a set up like that on there mechanical shift drives,, that later became Stern Power drives ???
This single engine Magnum DOUBLE VISION had a hand clutch and two speed manual trans back in 1980. Back then we did not know about venting a prop to get on plane. Break the prop lose in low gear than shifting up once you were moving. This set did not work very good & failed many times. :eek:

? My friend has a Ron Jones Hydro with a Hemi that he put a transmission in with the hand clutch. He built this on a tilt trailer back in the 60's.

There are a lot of the "Schiada" boats with a turbo 400 transmission and a turbo charged motor. I do not know how they run the transmission as there is no torque converter in this setup and I've heard they remove 1st gear as it is to short to use in a boat.

I ran a turbo 400 in my Barron Sprint flat bottom V-drive for many years. Just took it apart last week. I am now setting the boat up as a K boat, that is a circle race boat and to make left turns the engine has to be turned around and made into a snout drive with a Right hand prop.
The trans works great, I used 1st gear in the harbor and no wake areas, then pulled out in second and shift into high. No converter, you use a marine coupler that doesn't slip as the prop acts like a torque converter. My trans had a manual valve body and reverse shift pattern. Very trouble free. You can see pictures of it at:
http://www.performanceboats.com/part...ml#post1538477