Tiny Speedboat Build
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 4:36 pm
Hey all, new to the forum and to boat building. I just finished modifying to a great extent a PowerWheels Dodge Viper for my small grandson and was looking for a new project.
I saw youtube videos of a father in Australia who designed a very small, weedeater motor powered speedboat for his 4 year old grandson and thought what the heck, that would work.
So as I was sitting in a hotel room on the beach in Santa Monica last November, I designed a 6.5 ft foam, wood and fiberglass mini cigarette boat powered by a Zenoah 320 4.5 hp RC boat motor coupled to a 3D printed 70mm jet drive.
The first picture is the pile of foam and wood I started with. These next two photos are after cutting the sections of foam out with a hot wire and glueing them together. Yes I know using this type of foam isnt the best for structural integrity and in hindsight, should have made the boat out of wood entirely. But after 3 layers of epoxy and fiberglass boat cloth and a whole bunch of epoxy thickened fillets in the joints, the boats looks pretty rigid for its use in a very calm pond or lake setting. Besides the kid is only so small for so long.
I'm just about done with the boat so I can post a few pictures a day until I catch up with the actual progress.
I saw youtube videos of a father in Australia who designed a very small, weedeater motor powered speedboat for his 4 year old grandson and thought what the heck, that would work.
So as I was sitting in a hotel room on the beach in Santa Monica last November, I designed a 6.5 ft foam, wood and fiberglass mini cigarette boat powered by a Zenoah 320 4.5 hp RC boat motor coupled to a 3D printed 70mm jet drive.
The first picture is the pile of foam and wood I started with. These next two photos are after cutting the sections of foam out with a hot wire and glueing them together. Yes I know using this type of foam isnt the best for structural integrity and in hindsight, should have made the boat out of wood entirely. But after 3 layers of epoxy and fiberglass boat cloth and a whole bunch of epoxy thickened fillets in the joints, the boats looks pretty rigid for its use in a very calm pond or lake setting. Besides the kid is only so small for so long.
I'm just about done with the boat so I can post a few pictures a day until I catch up with the actual progress.