KAAMA racing teem
 

I just bought a1965 bellanca airplane n8889R and was looking through the old receipts and found one from KAAMA racing teem, 936 sunset drive costa mesa Ca. 92627 signed by John Connor, dated 7/20/1981.
He must have liked airplanes also.

I use to work for Kaama, and have flown in that plane a few times.

WOW that is so Cool.

What'd you do with Kaama?

Still a good address. Home of Archer Marine.

It is still a pretty good plane, just need to do some touch up.
Maybe I will have a chance to fly it to one of the reunions.

I worked at Kaama for a little over six years. My main job was engine quality control. I dynoed all of the performance engines,checked for leaks etc.

The engines that came in mine were from Innovation Marine. Seemed like good engines and lasted a long time. I heard there were some problem engines though? What's the inside story on the different engines used over the years?

I'm not exactly sure what you are asking for. Kaama did not want to get in to the engine business. They only wanted to sell drives. Boat builders didn't want just drives. They wanted a complete engine/drive package. So therefore Kaama had to supply engines. We used the basic Chevrolet 454ci/405hp long block, and did some modifcations for different horse power applications. Although Paul Pfaff did build some of our higher horsepower engines. Hope this helps.

I am having a repower of a 40 year old boat right now and the only choice for me was Innovation Marine. The boat is the very first 24 foot Banana Boat with a sport deck we made.

My son found it a few years ago and he has been restoring it slowly. We are taking out the big block and putting in a new Innovation Marine small block with injection and fresh water cooling. We expect higher speeds with the small block than the big block we taking out. Innovation has some really good people and products.

I was just curious who built the engines for Kaama over the years. Like I said my engines said Kaama by Innovation Marine right on the valve covers. I guess there were a few different companies that built the engines for kaama.

Hi Jim---I know John-and I know the Viking---I think it sat outside on the ramp at LGB for a few years (wooden spar?) John is still in business in South Florida---(Conner Marine Engineering, Inc.) Homestead Florida--33034--

Connor Marine Engineering was founded by John Connor in 1985 as a specialist in custom marine hardware and preparation of custom performance and racing boats. In 1990, it's headquarters were moved from California to Fort Lauderdale, Fl, the hub of large powerboats. One of their most recognized projects has been the Gentry Transatlantic Challenge, which resulted in setting the world record of 62 hours 7 minutes for crossing the Atlantic from New York to England.

Connor Marine then re-designed this ocean racer into a luxury yacht designed for personal use, a very complex task. The re-fit was so successful that Showboat Magazine nominated Gentry Eagle for top honors. Even with the extra weight of luxury accomodations, she was still able to hit 73 m.p.h.

The history of Connor Marine features involvement in many of the boating industry's major successes. John Connor, the company's founder, has participated with manufacturers in developing successful hull designs throughout his carreer. He was an integral part in the development of offshore tunnel hulls and surface drives. Connor Marine's model testing projects have ranged from megayachts through race boats and performance yachts down to inflatable boats.

Why utilize Connor Marine? The answer is simple - it takes the most qualified talent to produce the greatest products. Connor Marine offers a combination of abilities that are rarely found under one roof.


disclosure from the web site

Mine were Innovation as well.

Yea setting outside is not good for a wood wing, one of the wings had to be replaced quite awhile back but the plane is in good shape now and has been hangered.
I watched the YouTube video of the gentry boat that crossed the ocean, what a ride that was. Looked like John had a big hand in that effort.
It would be an honor to meet John.

I have spoken to him a couple times. I called him out of the blue and he does not know me from adam BUT was VERY helpful in helping me setup my KAAMA boat I had!

John committed himself to that project for over two years---everything was BIG!!!

http://i67.tinypic.com/sv19n7.jpg

Wow what a sight, I think that arneson drive would sink my boat!!!!

That's an ASD16... #2,000 lbs with the trim and steering cylinders

---And capable of handling the 4500 HP from the Lycoming TF-40


http://i65.tinypic.com/nwzm21.jpg

That's a great video! I've never seen it before Thanks for posting.

Gentry eagle vid.

And 16,500 ft/lbs of input torque

Rik
I'm checking in from down under in Australia, have a budget project under way (well picked up tools in weekend) with installing Arneson ASD 17.20/17.22 (bronze) inline setup into ski boat 21 ft
Previously the boat as far as I can make out started life as 26 ft and was cut down and sides lowered, end result is 21 ft x 7.5ft at rear.
The boat was racing some years ago with outboard, and then was being groomed for a leg and that's when I purchased it. My choice of power will be 556 ci BBC, Daytona crash gearbox mated to the Arneson 17.20 drive, with K-planes . The good news is have all the running gear.

Having taken off the outer pod in weekend wanted to measure the transom angle, which is close to 20 degrees
The question I have relates to the transom setup, (bearing in mind I have no manual, or setup template)
1. Can I keep the 20 degree transom angle and use a wedge to bring the transom back to 12 degrees which is what I have heard to be the desired angle?
2. If wedge cant be used to adjust the angle of ASD mounting then I suppose I have to do some massaging of the transom to get the desired 12 degree transom angle.
3. if the wedge will work then I could fill in the transom lower section so that the drive sits on similar plane as rams
4. I planning on cutting down the centre keel a little to get the motor as low as possible, however not sure whether this would be sufficient to get correct alignment and may need a Z drive, of dropbox to help to get motor aligned
I uploaded some photos of transom
My boat is a little smaller than majority of this forum
The technical stuff is great on offshore only,
before removing pod: https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1Q...rYoa7PVqA7edxM
after removing pod: https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1Q...f__NrgSQtS-B_n
top view of transom: https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1Q...sheCjAwL4YZ-a4

cheers
Brett

Brett, yes you’re going to need a 7-8-degree wedge made where the drive socket mounts to the transom to bring down the effective mounting angle to 12-13 degrees. You only have to make the wedge for the socket housing mounting not the cylinders as they do not care and they do not affect the installed engine angle.

#3 concerns me as I cannot see anything in your photo links.. What are you going to fill in? Is the transom notched?

#4.. YES you’re going to need some sort of drop box or Z box. Originally when we made these drives we didn’t have an external drop box so we used a “V Drive” to handle this. Helps keep the engine at the farthest rear mounting as possible for CG. Then on the larger boat, we had Casale make a Z box and mounted it internally. The boat was large enough that the engine placement wasn’t a concern as it was a stagger install.

Unless you’ve got boat loads of torque you’re going to best served with some reduction ratio to increase the torque and also slow the propeller rpm down to the point where you can find a propeller as finding a 15” X 17” propeller isn’t as easy as once was.

Rik

thanks for your reply, I was a little worried there, that I would have had to rip out the transom, so wedge is best option...cool got that covered

The ASD needs to be mounted low on the hull and as you can see I have a step, so assuming this needs to be filled, I made some comments on attached photo
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1Q...ixXeLlXOtsww0d

Is the template for setting up 17.20 the same as ASD 6 with the difference being the drive socket mounts?
I was hoping to run the inline ASD as is, however the drive need to be mounted on the transom, and pending clearance issue decision to use drop/Z of V drive to position motor

I have a few props sitting around, all 3 blades: :RH: 16.5"x25", 16.5:x27", 18"x18" and LH: 17.5"x28", 17.5"x ?
I noticed that in the selection of ASD 17.21 there were ration from 0.98-1.58
Therefore will need to get some help on calculating the ratios to use on the dropbox, Im assuming 30% would be too much to start with?
Were the Casale Z made for Arneson the standard box or modified?

seems I need to get tape measure out and calculator and see how the centre lines all match before doing much more

For some reason I cannot view the photos on my computer. Says it's an invalid link??

If there's a notch then it's going to need some attention on a single engine boat.

As far are reduction, 30% under is fine.

The Z Box was something that Casale made that we installed after the transmission. We ran counter rotating engines so the boxes were just two gears.

Pitch.. Run them all and see what it likes.