Yes I balanced on that tightrope for quite some while.
I had a traditional water pickup on all my boats just aft of the prop which was very efficient. I did all the modifications to the engines of the day; I made a fixture( still have it)
to mount a cylinder on my lathe to turn down the fins and I would sweat on an aluminum water jacket I made. I would run the cooling water through the head and inject it into the
exhaust manifold just past the muffler. It help cool the exhaust pipe and break up the noise.
My most fragile setup, and the only large boat I still have is a Sterling ( yes blasa ) ChrisCraft Corvette. I covered the hull with fiberglass and coated the engine compartment
with resin. That boat was the first I built and I ran it nearly every weekend for at least an hour for about 8 years. It's one of the boats powered by a KT12AD. It started life as
an electric, moved up to a Kioritz 14cc ( with clutch) and finally the Kawasaki. It weighs about 24 pounds.
Here's a couple of photos of the old girl currently in a corner of a spare bedroom. First photo has a 1/10 scale truck sitting on it( ersatz Opel Blitz) and the second with the top off. The engine in this boat was a used one I bought from a tool rental place who was getting rid of their Kawasaki weed trimmers, I bought a whole pile of engines and parts from them for about 80 bucks as I recall. The engines were great in a boat...
I first built the model in 1977 when I was living in an apartment in Burlingame California...just about the same time I bought my first 1/10 scale tank. Even though I ran boats for more than 10 years; loved working on the engines and also was a member or SFMYC and the national model boat association( NAMBA?? ) we can see which hobby ultimately won out....
Jerry
