Did I mention that I saw Niki?

[Mrleft8]

So there I am driving my father back from dropping his old friends off at the train station, when he asks if I can swing by the job site of what may be (hopefully not) his last really creative residential job (He's an architect, and almost 81, but still shows up at the office every day). So as we're negotiating the narrow construction truck clogged road, I say, out loud, "I wonder if this is where Niki is"..... "Who?" asks Dad... So I give him the readers digest version and we pull into the jobsite.
It's a very cool house actually. As much like a lighthouse as the town, and coastguard would allow.
And there, just off the rocks of the jobsite sits Niki.
"LOOK! That's the boat I was talking about!" Dad is unimpressed... "So? Looks like a boat to me....What about it?" I try to explain, but he has no idea what a "jet ski" is, so it makes no nevermind to him..... The contractor however, has seen Niki scoot out at dead low and was wondering how she was able to get out through the mud without trashing her prop. I felt like quite the expert I'll tell ya......
I'll see if I can scoop some pictures this week.....

[Hwyl]

What was your impression, I thought it trended towards "twee"

[Figment]

Gareth, you've gotta see her in action. Tied to a dock at the WBS I had the same feeling, but when she takes off it's a whole other boat.

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

This seems to need pictures and a Poll.

[Hwyl]

[P.I. Stazzer-Newt]

Thanks, and I actually have that edition..
It left me cold though it might be a better thing "in the flesh" - could make a really nice sailing club committee boat / rescue boat.

edited to avoid censorship - I used the latin for "with" in place of the above "/" - should have seen that coming.

[Figment]

With due affection for WB, that was one of the weakest writeups in recent memory.

Or, all the other featured boats that I've never met in person are actually mind-blowing phenomena.

[Mrleft8]

There's something about the sheer line that looks odd to me. It looks something like a canoe that's missing it's center thwart. I don't know what "Twee" is, but she is considerably smaller than I thought she would be, if that's what you mean... Which I guess is a compliment to her designer.

[Hwyl]

Sorry, I was inadvertently speaking British

twee adj, Brit colloq, disparaging affectedly or pretentiously pretty, sweet, cute, quaint, sentimental,

[Jim Ledger]

Like pretending that your boat has a birthday.

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

Well I've come to admire this fast little salty downeaster with the imaginative propulsion.

I saw her at the WBS and my buddy Phil just marveled at her salty "twee" looks.

I was more impressed with her construction at first I didn't like her diamond port-lights but then reading and hearing people say that its pure Jonesport I fell for them. I like her sheerline, but i can see what lefty is saying and yea she is lightly built you could feel it aboard docked at the WBS. But her performance at speed is impressive. I think its a wonderful new direction to take wooden boats.

I for one would not mind owning this boat, nor should anyone who lives in skinny waters. Shes sort of the rescue minor of the North East lobster boat set Kinda the imaginative unorthodox thing Robb or dare I say even Oyster Mike might think of.

[outofthenorm]

I like it just for the fact that a PWC was attacked with a chainsaw to get there. That sounded like fun.

- Norm

[Paul Pless]

The article and comments posted here just gloss over the negatives associated with the powerplant. As a longtime owner of a commercial style jetdrive fishing boat, I feel that some of these points regarding jetdrives should be noted.

• no steerage without being under power.
• extremely poor performance in reverse.
• extremely poor performance in any conditions where the boat's hull becomes even partially airborne.
• poor fuel efficiency - jet pumps are approximately 35% as efficient as a comparable prop.
• it is much more difficult than you might think to keep the intake clear of any kind of trash or vegetation thats floating in the water. If the intake gets clogged, you must go swimming to clear it.
• increased maintenance is required on jetdrives than on standard outdrives or props.

None of this is to say that the boat is not worthy of admiration, especially given the goals associated with its conception, but these are just a few thoughts that come to mind.

[Thorne]

Good points, Paul.

Personally I thought it was very cool, including the chainsawed PWC body photo. And how better to find out any limitations than to build one or more and see how they work?

Considering the number of endangered species (and swimmers) that get chewed up by propellers every year, some sort of option that avoids that particular issue is attractive -- if it works.

And there will certainly be a lot of used PWC engines around in a few years...

;0 )

[Figment]

I'm also curious to see how those PWC components hold up after a few years of constant seawater immersion.

Still, as the design brief was a boat to run in thin water and dry out at low tide, it's an interesting solution.

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

Figment they have a fresh water rinse holding tank to flush out the salt water. Also Paul I read she's very efficient, given her performance.

[Figment]

Joe that only flushes the engine's cooling system IIRC. The rest of the beast is going to see a lot more seawater than any PWC was ever intended to see.

They did their homework, they've done what they can (zincs, the flush system, etc) for now, and I'm sure they'll monitor it carefully for the first year or so at least. I don't mean to imply that they're proceeding foolishly. I'll keep my skepticism at a respectful distance.

[Hwyl]

I agree with the corrosion thing, if it were my boat I'd try to have some way of driving it out of the water, like those soft docks they have for PWC's. I've seen people use big fenders to keep sailboats out of the water. If they want to keep with the faux lobster boat theme. They could make a semi submersible dock that looks like lobster cars.

Figment or Mr Levitate could go crazy on this, you could have flotation covered in laths and a pole with solar cells and a battery compressor combo, to float the dock higher.

It's an indication of who I am that I did not notice it in Mystic (and that was before I was distracted)

[S/V Laura Ellen]

The answer to Lefty's question "Did I mention rhat I saw Niki?" is:

Yes, see post 1.

[adampet]

I'm not much of a powerboater but this could be just the thing for Cape Cod Bay. The non-dredged harbors around here are only navigable for an hour or two either side of high tide. If you moor on the flats you have to deal with a 10 foot range, severely limiting access with conventional outboards or inboards. Shallow draft is a big plus.

Adam