The Freebie Zip

[Bill CNC]

It's raining boats in the desert.

On Sunday, my oldest son and I went and picked up the free Zip that was in the classifieds.

Had to pull the Spartan off the trailer and switch things around a bit and loaded her up. The gentleman that graciously offered her up had started it 5 years ago and decided to let her go. Thank You Gil, ... I'll treat her right!

Thankfully, ... she's pretty far along, and I like what the builder had in mind so I wont be changing anything much, if at all. There are a couple of areas that I think needs addressing, ... but nothing to serious.

1). Opening for the motor well.
2). The skeg is in the wrong position. It is at the transom and should have been positioned another 2' forward. It should be an easy fix.

Other than that, ... just some reinforcements for the decking, leveling the hull and getting it ready for painting. Time to think about the interior

Whew, ... I'm already tired.

[Canoath]

Nice score! I love the curved cockpit openings. Particularly for the front, I've had the mindset of using or making a curved windshield on the Malahini and would want the deck cut away to follow the contour of the windshield. Seeing an example like this has convinced me. Add to that a curved dash it should make the boat go faster surely and look great.

Why no transom cutout yet? Did Gil have something other than an outboard in mind for powering the boat or was it just a case of doing the motor well later? I'm not overly familiar when it should be done except I thought it would've been done before this point. Gotta admit the Zip looks great with a clean transom.

[Roberta]

Not bad for a freebie!!! Make it an inboard or powered by a jet ski motor.

Roberta

[rocker]

Nice grab lucky dog!

[Bill CNC]

Yea, it was a pretty good score, ... To bad their all not like this.

[Buckeyesmith]

What a find! Looks like he did a nice job of what he got to. I thought the side planking was not supposed to be fastened or glued to the frames. How will it affect the boat if you do shim and fasten as planned?

[Bill CNC]

Not bad for a freebie!!! Make it an inboard or powered by a jet ski motor.

Roberta

Roberta,

The original builder said he was looking for a vintage Mercury outboard for it, ... as to why he never made the cut out, ... I didn't have the heart to ask him considering it's an easy fix, he might have been thinking the same thing. Build and cut.

It is very tempting to to leave it and go inboard or jet with it, ... but what inboard would I use if I went that route? I have a Mercruiser 140 inboard outboard setup, ... but just the 4 cyl 3.0 engine is 900 pounds, ... but it's way to much for this boat to carry. My little Geo Metro engine, 1.3L 4 cyl , ... I can pick up the engine with the tranny and carry it 5 yards or so, ... but it wouldn't have the power it?

All,

So everyone, ... let's here some options for power. Since the boat was free from this forum, ... might as well incorporate some forum ideas, ... I think this boat is all of ours, ... it's just being stored at my house!

[Bill CNC]

What a find! Looks like he did a nice job of what he got to. I thought the side planking was not supposed to be fastened or glued to the frames. How will it affect the boat if you do shim and fasten as planned?

Buckeyesmith,

I haven't looked over the instructions yet, I just got them from Gayle yesterday by e-mail. I have the 4 sheets but the full size pattern sheet is gone, Something tells me I don't need that one anymore.

Not sure if the side planking gets fastened to the frames for the Zip, ... But the other two boats I have/am building they do (Super Spartan - TNT).

If you don't first succeed, .. try reading the instructions!

[Roberta]

The booklet of instructions mentions not to fasten the side planks to the frames. I think you get some telegraphing of the frames through the planks if the frames are up against the planks. Unless the gap is really excessive, probably better to leave it,

Roberta

[Bill CNC]

Thanks Roberta,

I took it off the list.

[matt167]

I would use an old Wiscosin VH4D/V4FD... 4 Cyl flathead ~20HP-40 depending. Air cooled. They were used as industrial, stationary/ constant speed engines so the only thing that would really need addressing would be the carburation/ ignition would need to be 'protected'. Beyond that, they are cheap, sound cool and parts are available and they were made from about 1947-1976 so they are very period correct. Plenty of them around. Bobcat used them in their skid steers for years. This saw mill is built running 1 of the more powerful motors http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb09g0vOdH4

You could probably rig it and couple it with a Mercruiser outdrive with a belt and the end snout from a 3.0L crankshaft to get it to fit up.

[vupilot]

Not fastening to the frames is covered in the boatbuilding with plywood book. In short each screw hole into a frame through the curved planking could be a place where the planking would try to "fold" more than "curve". Try to curve a piece of cardboard over something round like a trash can or barrel, it will fold after just a little bit of curve, same idea.

[jprice]

That was my understanding as well. You don't fasten the ply to the frames when building the hull because you don't want it to form any hard bend or uneven curve at that point. But after the planking has been applied, the boat form/shape is already in place, so it should be fine to fill any frame gaps and glue them to the planking. Right?

BTW, really nice find. Where are you gonna keep all these boats??

[Andy Garrett]

[quote="jprice"]That was my understanding as well. You don't fasten the ply to the frames when building the hull because you don't want it to form any hard bend or uneven curve at that point. But after the planking has been applied, the boat form/shape is already in place, so it should be fine to fill any frame gaps and glue them to the planking. Right?quote]


That's what I did Jeff.

[Lil Jon]

You might consider the all aluminum 215 cu in Buick/ Olds/ Land Rover V-8 with a Velvet drive 71c tranny with 1:1 ratio. A stock 215 ranges from 160 hp/ 2 barrel carb- 200 hp/ 4 barrel and only weighs 400 lbs with tranny!
I put one in a 12' Tiny Might with great results.
As far as marine hardware for the 215, I am casting manifolds and bellhousings for them this winter and will have them ready by spring.
Your Zip would look cool as a rear cockpit inboard with a v-8 sticking out of the deck!