How come I see people putting turbines into boats all the time but nobody ever puts jet engines into boats??? I am in the aircraft business and can buy old run out GE CJ610's for almost nothing.......I would figure the jets would be easier to set up and rig by just adjusting the angle of the thrust than the turbines with the drives and what not......anybody follow me?????

The speed record guys have no problem using them.

burn the docks down? suck sea water through them? kill the person behind you? how are you going to hold the boat still when you fire it up.. with the brakes?? how are you going to back up or sit idle for that matter? not to mention first time you catch a wave wrong there is no way it would end well

around the docks and idling around you could run a little outboard motor like i have seen them do with some of the turbine powered boats......and i dont see how catching a wave wrong would be any different than a conventional boat with the drives in the water as long as it was set up correct as it would still have trim trabs and a rudder in the water......

Like the turbines there would have to be a secondary propulsion system for around the docks they would have a single purpose Speed not everyday use!

Their thrust would be desirable in a lot of cases as for brakes they have that!

Sorry 302 I was writing and did not read your post!

steve, the turbines that have brakes are free turbines like a lycoming or a pratt, they are basically jet engines mounted backwards with the thrust pointed towards a free spinning turbine disk which is hooked to the prop, the exhaust is the thrust from the jet after it has gone through the free wheeling turbine and spun the prop. So, if you put a brake on the turbine disk, the shaft hooked to the props will spin. This is different than a garrett which uses a direct drive gearbox, this is way more efficient but it cannot be slowed down and idle on a garrett is like 50%......

No I was refering to thrust reversers they use on Jet engines.

ohhh haha i thought thats what you might have meant but if you ever deployed a thrust reverser on the back of a boat you wouldnt have any friends at the bar, it would look like what a helicopter looks like when it hovers about a foot off of the water, mist would be going everywhere......i just got back from alaska where i was rigging reversers on a snow covered ramp, and everytime we deployed them is looked like a blizzard around the plane......

Buy one of the crapped out old 40' hulls that are in the bone yards and rig up an experimental model. I want to see video. If you caught a big enough wave, it might just keep going to the moon.