self-propelled surfboard thing..

[Timm]

I'm am considering making some sort of surfboard-esque type of personal self propelled watercraft- Basically a trolling motor/car battery strapped to a long floating type of thing... Styrofoam/epoxy, Polyurethane foam/fiberglass, scrounging existing hull or deck shape... a chaos of directions this could go. I may go with a weedwacker engine but I assume this will be loud and annoying, esp to other people around... anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

[Steve_TPF]

No, but from my experience with composite structures building a board from scratch would be a major project. I'd suggest you look for an old board that you can mount a motor to.

[shetlan]

Timm,

Are you thinking about strapping your feet to this thing or are you lying on your belly?
How do you anticipate controlling it?

If I where to build something like that, I would be looking at a board (as a seating surface) over two pontoons (providing buoyancy) and a small outboard motor as the propultion system.

A bit like this:


Make it a bit longer, loose the overhead shade, install foot pedal steering - and you've got a personal watercraft.

[Delirious]

Just get a windsurfer board or surfboard and put foot straps on. A shortboard wouldn't suffice; think atleast 7 feet.
Mount an outboard engine on the back, no more than 4 horse or else it'd be too heavy. Petrol is stored inside the outboard, otherwise bring a little tank.
If you could rig the outboard so it does not turn, you should be able to steer simply by leaning. That said, you'd want the safety cord on at all times.

Keep in mind, even if it did work, you'd look like a tool, it'd be fairly slow, and difficult to maneuver. Just get an inflatable dinghy and your set.

[CHEVY_454_POWER]

I think a weed whacker would be your best option. It is light and creates much hp for its size. A 2stroke would be better as higher rpms are your friend on the water. You could even use the whole thing and put a swivel on the motor end so when you want to turn you just turn the whole motor, shaft and propeller. Get what I mean?

I made my own boat when I was in highschool. I used a 2 man canoe and used two husky chainsaw motors to propel it. It only went like 15mph but that was good enough. It did not turn for shit though. I had to throttle down and turn with the oars. It was light though, and fairly easy to build.

Chevy

[O Diskordia]

not quite what you mean, I'm sure, but this is what I've been lusting after for awhile now:
lunocet

Not only can you propel yourself to a pretty good speed, you can also breach out of the water, in true porpoise fashion. Spendy though, and I sure as hell don't have the garage tech to build one myself... guess I'm waiting awhile lol

[shetlan]

Originally Posted by O Diskordia

not quite what you mean, I'm sure, but this is what I've been lusting after for awhile now:
lunocet

Not only can you propel yourself to a pretty good speed, you can also breach out of the water, in true porpoise fashion. Spendy though, and I sure as hell don't have the garage tech to build one myself... guess I'm waiting awhile lol

That looks horrifying. What is it, some kind of anamatronic dolphin prosthetic?

A large portion of the description was cut from my view.

[O Diskordia]

It's a flexible carbon-fibre hydrofoil designed on the principle of dolphin- and whale-flukes; it will power you thru the water by kicking your feet, apparently fast enough to be able to "breach" like a dolphin and jump out of the water. It's not self-powered, obviously, but I'm told it's very good for propulsion, and great excersize to boot (not necessarily for everyone, I admit). It looks like it is to flippers what four-finger rings are to hand-adornments, admittedly.