Glen-L.com

This is my first post so I guess I should give a quick intro. I'm Michael, I'm a family man, and we love the water. I grew up skiing and my dad used to have plans for us to build a Glen-L boat. He ended up building an airplane instead so the boat never came to pass, but I'm still all over the idea of building one for my family.

I slalom and wakeboard and assume my young children will grow up wanting to do a little of both as well. I know those two are odds with one another, but I wanted to ask if there was a way to safely add water ballast to the rear of one of these wooden boats like the Stiletto or Rebel. Can these boats be beefed up to handle several hundred pounds of ballast at the transom? Thanks for your time.

Another question I forgot to ask, can you extend the sides of the two aforementioned boats to add a little more freeboard to them? I've got small children, so it would help! Thanks.

What about an Audeen? It would create a bigger overall wake due to its wider beam. Also since it is rated for an inboard engine that out weighs any similar outboard at the same hp, I'm sure it could handle some ballast tanks. I came across some ballast bags at one point when searching for an internal fuel tank for my Tuffy.

Modification: You could make it an open bow and close the stern opening which in the picture is occupied for seating arrangements. Making a walk-through cockpit would be useful. Also you could get a ski pole without the seats there.

Engine: An outboard for skiing is a key idea, not so much for wake boarding as the slower speeds kind of kill the engine slowly. Inboard Chevy small block 350 V8 or diesel power for the extra weight and maybe not needing those ballast tanks.

Beefing up: You could use heavier more dense and stronger woods. Or get aluminum brackets made up and use epoxy glue for strength.

Overall: You would have a open bow inboard wake boarding/water skiing boat for the family and enough seating for the family and plus some. Powered by either gasoline or diesel.

Just and idea man. Have a fun build!

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Tuffy with '75 Merc 650 SS.

Thanks for the reply! The Audeen would be great, but I'm trying to stay away from a gas guzzler at this point in my life. My dad has offered to give me his '75 Sleekcraft that I grew up skiing on and I think it would do great as a dual purpose boat with it's rear engine v-drive setup due to all the weight in the back. However, it's powered by an Olds 455! That would be fantastic to tow with, but I don't know how long I could keep fuel in it! I was hoping to come up with a bit of a compromise, and also use a smaller and more economical engine like a 90-115 outboard.

Well no problem. I see your point. Suzuki just released a lighter weight four stroke outboard the DF70/80/90/100hp series. In fact the 90hp weighs 350 pounds, instead of its predecessor 410lbs. No doubt, the motor is worth double your hull. In an alternative find a Mercury Optimax with low hours and a good price and attach a five blade stainless steel propeller on there for pulling up the kids and yourself and you'll be set. That is what we have on my dads fishn'ski w/ his 135hp Optimax and the propeller is called Highfive. Pulls myself (170lbs) out of the water when I'm wake boarding in under 5 seconds.

I wouldn't bother with a regular 2 stroke. I would turn to a DI or 4S outboard. A little more expensive but fuel efficiency is important these days. Others have different opinions though as you will see. Telling you now, EFI 4 strokes have great acceleration on the right hull its powering and the engines are getting lighter year-by-year. But DI such as Nissan, Mercury and Evinrude have better acceleration and holeshot and of course top end but are louder.

In my opinion a 4 stroke would be a great learning engine because of its quietness and less intimidating sound. You wouldn't haven't to yell over the outboards sound at idle plus its amazingly quiet at idle.

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Tuffy with '75 Merc 650 SS.

When the time comes, I'm really hoping it will be a 4 stroke. I agree with you, they are so much quieter! I am at our local marina every day and we have a guy there with a new Contender with 3 of the new Yamaha 4S 350 V8's on the back and you can't even tell the thing is running when he's idling up to the fuel dock! Very impressive. Plus they told us that, at least with the Yamaha's anyway, the 4S has 40% more TQ than a 2S. That seems like a lot and I haven't verified it, but I'm certain it is better anyway.

I need clarification, what is a DI?

DI is probably direct fuel injection,DFI,Optimax forMercs,TLDI for Tohatsu/Nissan(same motor),E-tech for Evinrude.

I have a 150 Optimax on a 21'walk around cuddy & I love it.It gets better fuel economy than my 75 hp carburetor motor on my 16'SeaRay.

I think it's very quiet at idle too.

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Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

Yes DI is DFI just thats what they call it now. Evinrude E-TECs provide lots of torque. Type Evinrude E-TEC 40 into you tube and there is a video showing a skiff powered by a 40hp E-TEC pulling three skiers. But they are not so great with the top end speed unlike Optimax.

As a Merc fan I'll probably tell you to go with Optimax because all of Mercurys 4 strokes are being taken over by Nissan/Tohatsu including the 1.3L by next year. Mercury are coming out with 80/100/115 4 strokes soon as well. Unfortunately my 2007 40hp 4S EFI was made in China and I'm not too pleased with that. Still a great performing engine though. Also next to that Yamahas are also great because they are legendary bulletproof engines.

Evinrude E-TEC 75/90 are lighter than Optimaxs by a couple of pounds. Still the 115 Evin is the same weight as the Optimax 115hp also.

You probably want something with lots of torque and nice top end if you like speed as much as I do. Couple a DFI or 4S outboard with a 4 or 5 blade SS prop and the right hull and you'll be set.

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Tuffy with '75 Merc 650 SS.