Fri, 29 Apr 2005

Glen L,

Sorry it has been so long for an update on my Minimaxed but I have been having too much fun with it. I launched it on April 4th with Great success. It floats. Unfortuneatly I only had a 2.5 hp motor for it and the motor was too small to plane out. I have since installed a 9.9 hp Evinrude and WOW! it will move out just great. I was worried that it would be too heavy of an engine but the boat handles it very well. The 2.5 was way too light and the boat would nose down in the water when you let off the gas. This would get the driver all wet and leave about a gallon of water in the bilge.

This was my first boat building experience and now I am trying to talk to my spouse into the next project. "A bigger boat" I have included some pictures of my Minimaxed including some contruction photos. The only thing I would do different would be the finish. I filled the bow, port, and starboard spaces with spray in foam from a can. I thourghly tested it with water saturation, and gas contamination. It is great stuff and I would recommend it to other builders for small boats.

Thanks Glen L for a great time,
Mark Ballantyne