Hydro Junkie

Okay everyone, time for one of my few changes. Here are two pictures showing a redone bottom profile and the difference in height between the designed height and redone height.

Hydro Junkie

Yesterday was a slow day on the build. The cut lines needed to reprofile the bottom were laid out yesterday so today I'll be cutting off the excess material and cutting out lightening holes in all the frames. I should be able to post pictures tonight or tomorrow for you all to see the difference.

kgibson4

My Feedback: (4)

HJ,

I'm not familiar enough with this kit to know what the designed framing looks like (I don't have a kit) so my questions may be kind of weird.
What is the purpose of raising(?) the bottom? Are you moving the "break point" of the bottom aft? Or making the tunnel deeper?

Do you think you could show the elevation (side view) from the Dumas drawings with the changes you're making?

Thanks,
Ken

Hydro Junkie

You're ahead of me on that one Ken. My plan is to take one of the sponson insides and place the reworked cross frames into the slots cut at the factory. For a comparison, I'll have marked the original bottom in some way, probably masking tape to show how it's been changed.
As for the why, this comes down to when the kit was designed. Dumas designed this kit approximately 30 years ago when engines weren't as powerful and the hull designs were very crude as compared to now. To compensate for this, the bottom was angled up very sharply from the back of the sponsons to the front of the center section. With the new engines generating so much power, that sharply angled up front section now is a liability as it can lift the front too much and cause the boat to blow over. What many people have done, me included, is move the break in the bottom, were the two bottom panels meet, from the back of the sponsons to frame 6 in the middle of the stock radio box. This causes the rear of the boat to be supported more by air pressure and moves the pressure point further aft, greatly reducing the chance of the dreaded blow over

kgibson4

My Feedback: (4)

Gotcha,

Thanks

Hydro Junkie

Okay, here is the approximate difference between the stock bottom profile at the top edge of the lower tape and the new profile, shown at the bottom of the upper tape line. At the sponson transom, the difference is 3/4 inch, so it's quite substantial

Hydro Junkie

And slightly more was accomplished tonight with the filling and sealing of the porus side of the cross frames with mixed microballoons and epoxy to keep the weight down as much as possible. For those that are familiar with Dumas kits, you know what I'm talking about
To keep the glueing areas clear of microballoons, I taped off all the areas that epoxy will be used later before spreading the filler mix.

Hydro Junkie

After 24 hours of cure time, the tape and clamps (in the case of the transom) have come off. I placed the transom on a scale and found it to weigh in at .55 ounces, a full .5 less than the 5 ply 3/16 inch transom used on my full race hulls. At this point, I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not. The sponson insides and engine bay walls will get the same treatment tomorrow so it's getting close to the start of assembly. Pictures will be posted after I finish sanding the parts down and get all the lightening holes cut

Blackout

Good work HJ. Looking forward to seeing how it runs.

Hydro Junkie

You and me both. I"m hoping the boat is a good runner since the wife has claimed it already

Blackout

Wow, your wife runs boats, mine could care less... You got to teach her to build them too.

Hydro Junkie

Her building ain't going to happen. The wife and tools are like oil and water, they don't mix. What is funny though is she's already picked out a color, IT HAS TO BE PURPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kgibson4

My Feedback: (4)

Yeah, but what SHADE of purple!?

Hydro Junkie

I don't think she has a clue. I"ll probably have to take her to Wesco Auto Body Supply and let her pick one

Blackout

Paint it Yamaha Racing Blue and tell her it's purple.

Hydro Junkie

She's not color blind so that won't work. My problem is I have to get her to find a color she wants and then figure out the graphics package that she wants, not an easy task as she will want to see the paint on the boat before figuring out what she wants on it[:@]

joseywales

Have somebody draw one out and color it to see what it would look like. I could be a nice guy and draw one up for you without any colors on it? Then you can copie it,then you can color it in and draw graphics in it. Its best thing to do is make 5or 6 copies of it.

Blackout

Yamaha Racing Blue looks like purple in the right lighting. My sons used to say my Super Jet was purple, until I explained to them, "No, it's Yamaha Racing Blue!"

Blackout

joseywales

Dont think she'll go for it. Women arent stupied on colors. Why? who do you think picks out all car company's paint colors?? Women!! The car company's will sit a bunch of women down to look at a color chip books to pickout what paint color's they like. Why? Ok,you take your wife with you to buy a car. Then she'll let you get it,but she gets to pick the colors. Learned that lonetime ago at severial paint clinic's and schools. So just think of all these new wild colors that hitting the paint market's are picked by women.

R.J. West

Here's a nice shade of purple that wouldn't look too much out of place on a boat......... that hasnt been built yet

res3567

Darker!

Hydro Junkie

No, darker AND lighter, that is too midranged for her taste

R.J. West

I honestly think thats a great shade of purple. Add some white stripes and maybe some numbers, clear coat over it, it would look sharp.... maybe throw in some metal flake while we're at it.

But the thing is..... You gotta build it first!

Hydro Junkie

Darker for trim color, lighter with silver metalic for the deck and cowl accent color. Can't go to wild or she won't want it. BTW RJ, if I have my way, she will be bringing it along on our road trip this summer so she will have a boat to run as well.