Glen-L.com

Pamela,

I haven't been on the forum in a while, but saw your pictures and damn near cried. I'm pretty sure that most of your boat is fom my design, and that made me so proud and happy. Hpe you are as happy with your jet squirt as I am with mine.

Peace,

TRM

I actually saw David Streeter's Squirt first and then looked at some of the others. I didn't have the hull from the jet ski so I just measured everything and built the tunnel to fit the pump. I built the swim platform across the transom to accommodate the pump and sort of hide it. If it looks too much like anyone's here I guess there are only so many variations on this design. I wound up having to trim the platform to fit the reverse gate and still have to even it out and repaint it. As soon as I'm finished, maybe even before, I'm going to start on a Stiletto to market here at a local lake. Meanwhile, I'm doing an outer keel replacement, fibreglassing and painting the bottom of a 1962 Penn Yan for a local boater. Who knew? I started building the Squirt for my son and wound up taking in work and..... But I couldn't turn down $60 an hour.

I finished the Penn Yan repair project yesterday and spent the afternoon, finally, getting some odds and ends done on the Squirt. I drilled the transom for the shift cable and installed the shift cable, water pick up line and reverse gate, and mounted the helm unit to the dashboard. The hose sticking up through the deck is my exhaust hose. To quote a line from the movie "Real Genius", "I think I used too much."
BTW, I used copper water pipe through the transom for both the water pickup and the reverse gate. 3/8" for the water pickup and 1/2" with a male sweat fitting and brass nut for the reverse gate. The total cost for my "thru hull fittings" was less than $4.00. I did cheat, though, I had the 1/2" pipe left over from a plumbing repair in the house.

Eternal pessimist checking in here..........Rigid piping on boats is a disaster in waiting. Underwater equipment needs to be the absolute best rubber hose avaliable with double clamps of stainless steel. We are talking about the vena cava of the heart in your boat so to speak.

The only rigid pipe is from hose connection inside the transom to hose connection outside on the water pickup. The original setup on the jet ski was a plastic pipe. The fitting for the reverse gate was likewise. Hard copper water lines hold up for many years under higher constant water pressure than I can expect with the jet ski system. I don't believe the pressure will be any greater than the average auto water system. It is a straight through system with no thermostat.

Internal pressure has nothing to do with rigid pipe and sweated fittings on a bouncing hobby horse.



For sure rigid pipe can be used in conjunction to flex hose. But you did not say this.

It was a productive week on the Squirt. I got all the wiring done, installed the exhaust hose and port and finally planked the foredeck.
I also bought a new toy today. I started cutting out the frames for my Stiletto build and found that my jigsaw blade was bending and not giving me a nice straight cut. So....

Just a quick update. I came in from work, put another coat of resin on the foredeck and finished filling the screw holes on the side decks.

I got my HIN numbers for the Squirt this past week. I sent the form to Albany about two weeks ago and within ten days the officer called me to set up an appointment. He came at 9:30 on Tuesday night, went over the boat for about one minute with a flashlight, came inside to see my receipts for the build (he only looked at the folder and one receipt) and gave me the form with the HIN number. I just had to tell him where I was going to place the second number plate for their records in case the boat ever gets stolen.
Friday I had the plates engraved and yesterday I spent some time finishing the lines for the bilge pumps and fuel vent, and put on the center and rear deck pieces.

I just took a couple of update pics today.
This one is for you "OLD OUTBOARD" fans.

Just wanted to post some new pics of the Squirt. Five coats of varnish on and getting ready to install the deck hardware.
BTW The notch in the middle of the swim platform is to accommodate the rubber stop on the reverse gate.

I spent the day installing the helm and deck hardware and put a coat of Johnson's Paste Wax on the deck. Waiting for the seats to come. I decided to buy two seats online rather than take the time to build my own and sepnd at least as much for materials.