Well we are celebrating our 25th in Aruba today and my 338 just went into the paint booth so after 25 years and Skater number six I think I hit the lottery too! I was at Douglas the week after you guys had been there. She left quite the "impression" on all the guys. Have you guys set the date? Good luck.

Congratulations on your 25 years and your new 338!
My wife does leave a wake wherever she goes! The kicker is we've been married over 10 years now. She's cool with all the boat stuff, and like I said, encourages me to stick with it

I ran across this of us in the gulf back when the spectre 30 had twins at the Mercury saltwater testing site in Placida (1999)

That's a great picture, if you don’t mind me asking what type of speed gains did you see from adding the third motor and did it change handling very much?

Thanks, when I added third engine on the Spectre I had a dramatic increase in acceleration and a solid 10 mph on the top end, also when it had twins there was a slight constant oscillation above 100 mph that would occur on flat water. That went away after adding third engine. keep in mind that I used the short shaft 15" mids which no doubt had an effect on the handling too

Good Morning David, is it time for a new picture and a progress report yet? :D

WOW! I just spent three hrs reading this thread!
CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!!
Dave, hands down!! your SKATER is a piece of art!!!!
Very educational thread, thanks much for sharing the progress till completion.
Looking forward for videos!!

:thankyouthankyou:

I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures of your 338! Are you planning a trip to LOTO this year?

:thankyouthankyou:

Well my 338 took a detour on the way to the paint booth. So it should be there soon. Hotel is already booked for LOTO and I'm prepared to camp out in Douglas MI this spring if that's what it takes to get her finished for LOTO :lolhit:

Well I happen to know a good Hotel there at Douglas, if you need it. The Americinn is literally right next to Skater. That's handy!

its time that I post some pictures of the rigging that Skater did for me awhile back. Peter reccommended that a redo was in order for the fuel system in the bilge, using catch tanks

Also as you can see Skater added four low pressure fuel pumps

"Lookin Good" Hey David did you put power assist on the steering?

Thanks,
No I kept the original Latham hydraulic system. It will be interesting to see what that's like without power assist.
The good thing for me is, I've never had power steering on past multi-engine boats and I was ok. My thinking is then, I won't miss what I havent had before

I like your thought process. Can't wait to hear how it runs.

fuel system
 

how did it not have that set up from the beginning? where they just running high pressure only? i have some nice 280 drop ons you may like? total of 4, what a coincidence?

During the resto period of time that everything was taken apart, I was encouraged to add power assist to the capalano helm / Latham steering system. Trying to hold down costs, I opted to just put the original system back on, but of course I had to have the tie bars custom cut to the shorter length and add another to accomodate the 4th engine along with different wing plates.

A good while back, someone built a new 36 with tripple 280's and ran it on L. Simcoe. The steering pump that the boat was rigged with suited the application but it was too heavy for the owner's wife/ GF so they changed it out and the tame handling went away on the top end - boat sold shortly thereafter

I Have really enjoyed this thread and Love how your 36 finished up. The quads make it a show stopper but your work (and Skaters) brings it all together as a really beautiful piece.

good question, Originally it did have the low pressure pumps and catch tanks too.
During the resto It had been reccommended to me by a very reliable source to just simply eliminate the low pressure pumps and run high pressure only with water separators straight from main tanks, so thats what I asked Glass Dave to do. It made it simple with the Quads to have two engines drawing off of each of the 2 fuel tanks, unlike the original triple setup where you would need the extra pump catch tank to help keep both fuel tank levels balanced.
Upon further review at Skater we decided to go all out and go the extra to make sure
Here are some pictures starting with the top of the stbd fuel tank, showing the the efi return lines going into the top of the tank sharing a fitting. also you see the 2 fuel supply hoses as well as a vent hose. You can trace fuel system back with the pictures here. I like having a fuel pressure guage on my high rpm outboards, so you can see where the pressure sender ended up, right next to the fuel rail on powerhead. note picture taken under sender showing fitting. last picture shows junction fitting for the efi return lines from the 2 stbd engines

Looks great Dave! Peter knows whats best :cool:


I'm with you, fuel pressure gauge is a must.

fuel system
 

the only downside of the big boat is the length the fuel line needs to be to supply the engines, that being said, try to ensure that distance to be at a minimum. my experience with the electric sender fuel psi gauges was very hit and miss, for some reason they are not very reliable? the mechanical gauges have been much better.

Thanks Dave, All that I have to do now is make some adjustments in the control cables, put the props on and be ready for spring!

You're right motion, everything was done to keep lines as short as possible and also brought filters and pumps down as far as we could in the bilge area to ease fuel flow through the system. Marty at Diamond has alot of helpful info for guys rigging the fuel systems for the Merc EFI outboards. especially about pitfalls to avoid when it comes to the style of fittings to use. The guys at Skater did a fantastic job for me in this regard

Haven't been over here for a while... Boat looks great! :drink:

-Artie

Hey Artie, I might see you on the mighty Buckeye Ocean this year!

Can't wait to get out there with all of this. This project is only 4.5 years now:eekdrop:

"Damn Dave" thats a lot of guages to read. Beeeeutiful rig.

Very inspirational post, I guess I have no excuse, I can somehow start looking for a 24 and start on it. Great job on this 36, thanks for sharing the progress made through the whole resto.
Looking forward for videos of the first trip. :ernaehrung004:

Beautiful boat Dave! Good luck with it, hope to see it in person one day.
Jim

We'll keep an eye out for you. Somehow I don't think you'll be too hard to miss!

Thanks Jim, I hope to see you at LOTO this year!

Is it just me or is your Boss's Mom named Cher?

Yes its funny that you say that Velocity V, the Boss's mom in real life definitely looked like Cher. You've got a good eye!

This winter is dragging out so I've been anxious to do something on the Skater, so I pulled it out and started tinkering with some of the details left to do before water test.

wont be long now :D

36 Skater project
 

Yep the weather is warming up a bit this weekend, hopeful enough to trailer to lake and resume the break in process.
Here are few pictures that I took when the sun came out last week

Lookin' Good Dave !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The weather was great yesterday, so hauled it to Buckeye to back it down launch ramp. The outboards need some adjusting to idle right, gearcases seem to shift correctly.

Lookin good Dave!