I was considering building a 10 Meter Fountain with a single 1400HP Lycoming Turbine and runing a surface drive like the Arneson #8. I was curious about what everyones opinions are and how the boat would handle rigged with one engine and drive instead of 2. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. This would be a pretty big build for me and I want to make sure it's worth doing.

Thanks,
Matt

You need to talk with Rick at arnerson. Thet have experience with one large single. We installed twin T58s in a cougar cat and are still sorting out issues several years later. But when it runs right boy it is sweet. I will tell you this, It is no longer a PLEASURE boat

Wow ... Turbine Marine has done some very nice stuff. Looks like the ticket there. I'll give them a call and see if they can point me in the right direction. Thanks Guys for the info.

1400hp single has got to be hard to keep straight . i had 450 in a 21 ft donzi and the torque steer was noticable. i know a guy had a single arneson with big hp he to complained to me about the torque steer being scary when flying the thing off waves as the azz end of the boat would wove away from the prop when the hull left the water.

I was wondering if it was going to be squirly. A guy replied to me from arneson and said I might be better off running a splitter box to two drives. Im not sure that Ive seen this before and dont know who makes them. I think the spliter box does the shifting as well.

check out IMCO...they just put two drives and one motor in a 35' Nordic with good results. There is an article in one of the boat magazines.

you beat me to it.. I think it was in last months EBM. that would be the hot set up. they tested it with a 1200hp motor and the splitter box and it went like 109 or something nuts

If you made a single engine boat that size with one motor, would offsetting the drive help? For instance, your prop spins clockwise, would mounting the drive to the right an 1" or 2" help?

i would think that you wouldn't want to offset the cg of the boat like that, a chine walk could get out of hand in a hurry

Not sure if Eric ever finished his.... Jo
http://turbineboat.com/