Just got a new toy! - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

JL8Jeff · 10-06-2011, 08:00 PM

I've been looking for a boat to play with for the last 12-13 months but couldn't find anything I liked. Then a couple of weeks ago, I was at the final races for the Jersey Outlaws in Lavallette and this boat was there for sale. I went for a test ride yesterday and ended up buying it. Too bad the boating season is almost over!

It has a 350 putting out 450 hp and it definitely has some good acceleration. I need to get some better pictures as the top half really bled into my other boat in the picture.

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WayFast84 · 10-06-2011, 08:37 PM

Really nice. How much bigger is it than your other boat?

sweetbmxrider · 10-06-2011, 09:21 PM

That actually looks really nice and clean, best of luck

JL8Jeff · 10-06-2011, 10:20 PM

The Jersey Speed Skiffs are 16' and my Hobie Power Skiff is 15'. The Hobie will be spending the winter outside unless I can really clean up the garage well. The new boat is a 1990 and is pretty clean. The previous owner did quite a bit of work having the inside re-fiberglassed. It's set up as a "river" boat and it does have a rebuilt transmission along with the rebuilt engine that only has a couple of hours on it. The paint does have some cracking in it but it's pretty decent overall.

BonzoHansen · 10-07-2011, 06:34 AM

congrats on your 2nd hole in the water to throw money into!

88WS-6 · 10-07-2011, 07:18 AM

Nice

Anti_Rice_Guy · 10-07-2011, 08:31 AM

YOU BASTARD I HATE YOU I WANT TO BUY ONE NEXT YEAR.

But seriously, congrats Jeff. If you want a copilot or a co-owner, you know who to call

Actual transmission, not direct drive?

JL8Jeff · 10-07-2011, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anti_Rice_Guy

But seriously, congrats Jeff. If you want a copilot or a co-owner, you know who to call

Actual transmission, not direct drive?

Yeah, it has a Paragon transmission. Forward, neutral and reverse. Reverse is somewhat limited in what control you have because the prop and torque will make it back up to the left and the rudder can't really compensate for it.

Lt1_8U · 10-08-2011, 06:29 PM

thats awesome! we have one in our back yard but its not running anytime soon haha. thats great that its not direct drive. best of luck!

JL8Jeff · 10-08-2011, 08:39 PM

Took it out for the first drive today on the Delaware River. The river is still up about 3-4 feet above normal and you can really feel the current moving the boat/rudder around a little. It's an interesting feeling as you come out of the water a little and it slows a bit and then the prop grabs again and shoots you forward! Turning is really cool as well as the boat gets up on the side no matter what speed you're doing. You can reach down and touch the water.

But I think I need some earplugs!

LS1ow · 10-09-2011, 04:37 AM

LS9 swap and make the mini-ZR48!

T69SS · 10-09-2011, 06:50 PM

Very cool, good luck with it!

Anti_Rice_Guy · 10-11-2011, 09:35 PM

Got to see the boat and ride shotgun for a while on Sunday at the Jersey Outlaws fun run. Boat is clean and runs great.

Lt1_8U · 10-11-2011, 10:57 PM

that looks great in the water, make sure you don't get out of the gas too much when your airborne, that baby will nose dive and hook and poor nick will be in the water

JL8Jeff · 10-12-2011, 07:25 AM

I'm still getting used to the feel of driving it and where to set the cavitation plate. You should have seen the boats that showed up Sunday for the fun run! The APBA Jersey Speed Skiff champion was there along with quite a few other racers. Lots of really nice boats and fast boats. It was kind of funny seeing a speed skiff towing in a race Garvey. I'm trying to clean up the boat some more, the previous owner had the interior re-fiberglassed a year or 2 ago and they dripped resin here and there.

JL8Jeff · 10-18-2011, 06:32 PM

So I spent most of last week cleaning the boat up and putting on a fresh coat of cleaner/wax. It was pretty dirty and cleaned up pretty good. Here's a picture showing the clean area vs the dirty. Anyway, I got the whole boat waxed, took it out on the river Sunday and as I was pulling away from the ramp, I saw the rope fall off the deck into the water. I shut it off before it had time to get to the prop. So I went out on the deck to untie the rope from the front of the boat and with the fresh coat of wax, I almost slid on my chest right off the boat into the water!

I barely caught onto the nose to stay on the boat. I cruised through Washington's Crossing since the river was high enough. It must have looked a little strange to the people on the river bank in the park to see a boat like this on the river. The 2nd time I came back down and went under the bridge, there were people on the bridge waiting to see my go under. But I forget the ear plugs again and 25 minutes of driving around was enough. I think this season is over and I'll probably winterize it within the next week or 2. It was too windy on Sunday to really get into it so I haven't been able to get a good feel for it yet, but it's definitely fun to drive!

JL8Jeff · 10-23-2011, 06:38 PM

Got one more run in today before winterizing it for the season. I'm sure there will be a couple more nice days but after running it today, it was easier to winterize it since it had already been run. I'm starting to get a better feel for making turns at speed but the straight speed runs are tough to feel out. The good thing this time of year is that there is only 1 or 2 boats out on the river so it was nice and open.

bandit88 · 10-24-2011, 07:48 PM

Good Luck with your new toy!!!

JL8Jeff · 03-17-2012, 11:34 AM

Took a couple pictures of the engine compartment. One picture is from up front of the boat, the other is from the side and the front of the boat is to the left and the rear of the boat to the right. You might notice the engine is in backwards! I just got done rewiring a lot of stuff as most of the connectors and switches were so corroded there was no way to save them. I tried to fire it up last weekend but found a fuel leak at the bulkhead fitting so I had to order a new fitting before I'll try firing it up again.

Lt1_8U · 03-18-2012, 06:03 AM

looks great man, ill post a pic of ours today. of coarse we need some glass work to be be done before its seaworthy but it will eventually happen lol

JL8Jeff · 03-18-2012, 05:53 PM

Got the skiff fired up and took it out for a run today on the river. Luckily, there was only 1 boat out fishing where I can actually run it and they took off as I was launching the boat so I didn't have any traffic on the river. I forgot how loud it is after 10-15 minutes of running. I need earplugs.