35 Mistress Maiden Voyage
 

Hi All,

I've only put a few details over the last couple years about this project on here, but I finally got it done and in the water yesterday. '79 35' Mistress with #5's on boxes. Worked the hull bottom over, new rigging, new Ateco EFI blower motors. Drives have 3" spacers, props are 16.75 x 32 4-blades. Comes out of the hole fine, only need to turn 4000 until they hook up.

Anyway, we didn't wring it out on the first run, but it pulls like a freight train, and the setup feels just awesome. The boat feels insanely heavy, as it is, but we have the power to push it. The motors are on drivelines with 11" shafts, and I put in a bigger (100 gal) bow tank. It will porpoise a little bit in the 60's, but if you drag some tab, it goes away. The boat arcs through turns like a waterski. Honestly it handles better than anything else I've run, and I think driving it is the most fun I've ever had. Whoever said you can't have fun in a straight-bottom boat is wrong.

Pretty much everything worked fine. I need to do some tuning as the motors were set up a bit rich, and I've got one oil temp sender to sort out. Need to play with the load anticipate routine, as we don't have enough oomph to swing those props into gear right now. I had to do a little crash-box style docking, but lucklily there was no wind, and no one else in the way at the docks.

Another older boat back on the water, love it!! Looks good, post some more pictures if you got them!

I bet it felt good to put it in the water for the first time! Congratulations!

Awesome man - congrats!

very nice

Congrats!!! Glad to see some one bought at it I looked at it many times before I got my bullet!
Brett

Here are a couple shots.

Tailpipes are my own handiwork. Dry all the way to the tip. I did the drive guard and pylons on the trailer as well. I went to the trouble to make the rear beam swing open, but in hindsight, it was unnecessary, because I can launch right over the top of it with no trouble. Engines had to go on 36" centers b/c the Eickert two-piece valve covers need 1/4" spacers in the exaust flange to get the E-tops to clear + tall deck motors make them a little more bulky. I beefed up the centerline girder, with a bunch of carbon, with a blue/black kevlar/carbon twill top layer, and gave it a knee that goes way up the transom.

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Very nice. Love the old school projects. -Is that Ratman's old boat?

Nice job! I would still open the trailer gate to make sure you don't modify your props on accident:drink:

Very cool! I've always been a huge fan of the way the #4 and #5 drives look sittin on boxes. In my opinion, looks bad a$$ old school.

Looks good, thanks for posting the pics.

How did you determine to start with 3" spacers? Seems like a lot.

Yea, you're probably right. Although I can see the relative depth of the trailer from the pylons. If the tops of the pylons are below the gunwales, it will clear. When I launched, the pylons were more like 3" above the waterline, so the trailer was long gone.

Thanks for all the positive feedback. Owning something like this takes a lot of work, as you all well know. When I started the project, there weren't fully rigged #6 Top Guns on the market for under $100k. As I've said before, though whatever you buy, if you want high-performance at a low price point, you are going to be re-working a lot of stuff either soon or sooner. When I bought this boat, the previous owner had taken his power out, and just bolted in some 454 MPI's, but not done any rigging. The transom had never been drilled for exhaust, so I had a clean slate there. The main reason we got it was because it already was drilled for speedmasters. I doubt those were the original drives, because I don't think they came around until '82.

Well, I went through the highly complicated process of just putting them on the way I bought them. I got them from Gary Kollofski (the SSM gear guy in Minnesota). He advised me to try them with thes spacers first. I figured better to start deeper and go up, because the props I got were a little shy on diameter. They are a bit deep right now, and after I get to see what it does on the top end, I may pull 1" or 2" out this winter. We're not racing, so I don't want to make a setup that really has trouble getting out of the hole. I think I can afford to go up some.

The handling seems so nice right now, part of me is afraid to mess with it. I know these boats need a ton of bow lift, and If I start pulling the bullets partly out of the water, they may start lifting the stern, so that may be going backwards.

Congrats! Nice to see some serious iron running in the PacNW. Boat looks awesome. Randy

Looks very nice. Great job!