8-8-03

Glen-L

Enclosed are pictures of the TNT I have built for my kids.

The boat was increased in length by 8 inches to originally accommodate a small inboard motor (6 horse), after running it like that for one summer we decided to hang an outboard off the end to boost the performance. As you can see we added a long shaft Mercury 25-horse necessitating added bracing to the transom which was not built to handle the weight and torque of an outboard. The deck is homemade tongue and grove mahogany, finished with spar varnish. The hull is 1/4-inch marine plywood, fibreglassed and finished with marine enamel. A skid fin was attached to the hull to eliminate skidding on hard turns.
The interior has been fitted with a CD player, speedometer, bilge fan, bilge pump, electronic water level sensor/switch and fire extinguisher built into the floorboards. To access the battery, fan, pump, water sensor/board and fuel tank the back cover was split into two pieces and hinged. All deck fittings are homemade stainless steel with gaskets to keep the bilge dry.
We have tried three props on the boat, 13.5 in., 14.5 in. and a 18 in. chopper prop, for overall performance we run with 14.5 pitch prop most of the time. The boat is extremely fast to plane and when trimmed to the max we have reached 37 mph (speedometer reading) with the 14.5-in. prop on the stock 1974 Mercury.
Overall the TNT has been a great experience for myself a first time boat builder and has been more than impressive in its handling on the water.

Regards

Richard Jasieniuk
Saskatoon, Sask.
Canada



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