Jet Ski Hull Mods and install

As I have removed a section of the battens to make room for the ski hull aft of frame #1, I have added additional stringers by profiling them to fit the shape of the ski hull, these will be bolted to the transom and frame #1 in place of the removed battens.

Having some spare time while the epoxy dried I thought I would make myself a steamer using an old kettle I had laying around. I bolted a hose fitting to the lid then used Silicon to seal the lid and spout. After a trial run it seems to work quite well getting over 30min of steam from a full pot. Might have to rig up a easier way of filling it though.



Modified Kettle



DIY Wood steamer

 With both additional stringers now in place and the module squared and straightened on a panel saw I have been able to fit the keel and ski hull in position. I have had to fit it with the pump in place for I discovered the ski hull is off centre to the pump by 6mm.

 

Plans and where I'm at

With very little to no knowledge on boat building I found reading and viewing pics of other builds an essential source of information, especially when I decided to modify the Squirt hull to suit a jet drive rather than the original outboard motor. Reading and viewing others blogs really helped me with my ideas of how I would go about it. So I thought it might be good to share my project with fellow amature boat builders also.

I have been building on and off now for about 6 months and haven't really been tracking my progress with pics, although, I do have some which will give you an idea of where I'm at and how I went about it.

Working on a site that uses a large amount of Oregon(Douglas fir) I have been luckly enough to get my hands on any off-cuts that maybe suitable to rip down and use as my frames, I made all the frames to the drawings and assembled them the Glen-L way. While doing this I was constantly keeping an eye on the local Classifieds for a used, worn but mechanicaly stable Jet ski, preferably a Kawasaki for they looked a little easier to work with and have been a proven power plant for other Squirt builders on the Glen-L forums.

A few weeks after I had received the plans in the mail I found a 92' Kawasaki TS 650 Jet ski on EBay which I thought would do the job quite nicely and with a newly reconditioned motor I was crazy not to place a bid. Turns out I was the only one to do so and won the auction at a bargin price.

Kawasaki TS 650

I moved it to my brothers place for I had no room in my garage and started to dismantle it over a few weeks.
After stripping it down and removing all the useful items, I cut my way through the hull until I had the section I needed which I cut over size for I didn't know what size it was to be at this stage.

Rear underside of the Jet Housing

Inside of hull motor mounts

 With all the frames assembled and the building form constructed and levelled I was able to start laying out and positioning the frames to determine how long I was going to cut the jet ski hull.

I thought the easiest way to achieve this would be to do a quick CAD drawing of the lay-out. As you can see I am extending the length of the hull by about 150mm, this is to accommodate the extra length in the jet ski hull.

Now because the Squirt has a flat hull and the Jet ski is a V-hull I needed to flatten the jet ski hull to ensure it matches the profile of the Squirt. This was done by clamping strips of Oregon and thicken epoxy into the groves of the ski hull then later planning them down.

I have recently picked the tools up again after having a few months off and have now positioned, aligned, levelled and secured the frames in their correct location. I will now be working on securing the ski hull to the Transom and frame #1.