Thought some of you might find this pretty cool. I certainly do.
My Father-in-Law began building a custom air boat a couple years back, and recently had it at the lake while we were on vacation for two weeks. He has changed the hull design, motor (several times), and prop since he started, but I'll give you some details as it sits now. I think he is done tinkering.
To begin, 100% of the fabrication was done by himself, including the hull, steering components, framework, etc. He also fabricated such items as the exhaust headers and drive belt cover (notice it is even louvered). The majority of the boat is aluminum (hull, framework, etc.). The tandem axle aluminum trailer was also put together by himself.
The boats power comes from a 350 Chevy out of his '99 pickup. The last motor he had in it was a 4.3, however he recently put a crate motor in his truck and swapped the 350 to the boat. He added Edelbrock intake and carb, and a high lift cam. As mentioned previously, he fabbed the headers himself and finished with Dynomax exhaust which exit out the transom. He ordered the prop from a shop in Florida (go figure).
How does it go? Faster than any boat I've been on, as far as acceleration goes. It lifts out of the water near instantly at full throttle. I'm estimating than he's only taken it to 50mph or so, as he is still leary of its handling (and a bit scared of the water to begin with). However, the engine is under light throttle at that speed. I can't guess at its top speed, but it would be faster than most things on the water. It's a rather cool experience riding in it, as you can cruise as near to the shoreline as you like with less than a foot of water under your feet. It doesn't handle waves well with the flat hull design, but feels stable on smooth water. I think once the FIL gets accustomed to the handling, he could have a lot of fun with it.
How does it sound? At idle, fairly quiet and a bit lumpy with a slight "whirr" from the prop. Under open throttle, it sounds like an airplane and damn loud depending on which way the prop is oriented to the listener. The amount of water it mists behind the prop at open throttle is amazing.
I meant to take a video of it but forgot my camera every time he had it at the beach. He'll have it at the lake again this weekend, so I'll try and get something on video and post it.
