1967 SeaMaster 27 ft

[flyingfrizzle]

Originally Posted by Bushwacker

(The motors were always mounted in the center of the center panels on each side of his race boats so the props would see cleaner water!)

How about a race boat with 2 panels per side? How would he mount it then? You know if in theory if he had just two not three! I would love to know what he thinks about that one...

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by flyingfrizzle

How about a race boat with 2 panels per side? How would he mount it then? You know if in theory if he had just two not three! I would love to know what he thinks about that one...

They did have 3 motors on some of those later race boats! Those I-6 Mercs could be mounted pretty close together! I would send a PM to Carla (65 Bowrider) and see if she can ask him how he would mount twins on a race boat!

My guess is that you'd want to mount them in center of the 2nd panel. Maybe compare the center of the 2nd panel on your 25 Seafari vs. the race boat and see if there is any difference. If you could find some pictures with good bow or stern shots of his "My Flying Machine" or "My Racing Machine" boats with twins, since you know the actual beam at the transom, it shouldn't be too hard to scale the pictures with those I-6 Mercs to figure out how far apart they were mounted.

In my earlier post, I was referring to the stock 21' production boats with 8' beam that he raced in the early 60's. Notice how far apart the motors are on the VDR prototype SI-VAD in these pictures. The all out race boats like you have are pretty narrow (about 6'6" beam?) and I think he basically just eliminated the outer panel on them, as the outer panels are probably out of the water anyway when you get over 40 kts, so not really needed at racing speeds anyway!

[Brett]

Those motors are really widely spaced! It doesn't look very easy to change the width on the current bracket but maybe with some welding. I just disconnected the engines today and hopefully will get them off the bracket this weekend. I'll take some pictures and some measurements.

[gofastsandman]

Originally Posted by flyingfrizzle

How about a race boat with 2 panels per side? How would he mount it then? You know if in theory if he had just two not three! I would love to know what he thinks about that one...

The center of the panel.

[flyingfrizzle]

I knew center of the panel would get the best clean water, and have read that several times. I was curious with the two per side if you would go all the way to the outer two. That's the only place I can see that would work well. I don't know if they would fit on the center panels due to the outboard 6's would not clear each other. Just haven't seen a two panel seacraft with twins. All the others had tripples, that I've saw, minus the one inboard that was built out of the 10. Looking at other racing hulls with twin outboards they seem to be spaced far apart too.