Flathead's Combee TomCat

[Duane Scarborough]

Duane,

A twist grip throttle would be pretty slick, but I can think of at least one reason not to use it. My buddy built an indoard boat many years ago. It was really nice with wood grained deck, and a ford V8 60 engine.

He let me drive it once (He figured I knew what I was doing since my family owned a Correct Craft inboard at the time.

It all went well until I was almost back to the dock. Turns out I knew everything I needed to know about an inboard, however very little about a motorcycle. At the last second I went to close the throttle, and I turned the twist grip the wrong direction.

So then I turned the ign. switch off (did not have any reverse like our boat did) and got it slowed some, but the nose slid under the dock and a nail put a scratch in the woodgrain all the way to the windshield.

Point I want to make is, If you are driving it, no problem, but anyone else can become confused about which way is off!

Dave

Buster,

That reminds me of a friend that lived on Lake Blackshear, near Cordele, GA several years ago. He had a REALLY BAD and fast boat with a 350 Chevy engine, coupled to a Berkley Jet Drive. The jet drive had a deflector plate that could be lowered into place, blocking the forward jet nozzle, and redirecting it backwards. It was intended to be used for reverse. But, it could also be used as brakes, if you knew how to do it.

He'd gotten pretty good at running up close to his dock / boathouse, at a pretty fast speed, then letting off the throttle, going into reverse, doing some fancy steering, and throttle moves, and he'd come to a near standstill, right up next to the dock. He was very good at this slick move.

Then, he bought another boat, but this one had a V-drive gear box. He put another 350 Chevy engine in it. The engine was at the rear of the boat, facing backwards. There was a drive shaft that ran forward to the V-drive gear box, then from the gear box it coupled to another shaft, running backwards, through the hull, to a prop under the engine.

Now THIS was a seriously FAST boat. (Keep in mind that he still had the jet drive boat.)

Then one day, he had a brain fart. He approached the dock, in the V-drive boat, at some speed, and attempted to do his fancy jet drive docking maneuver.

Oops ! This was the WRONG boat to try that with. it didn't HAVE reverse.

He survived the accident by bailing out at the last second, but he destroyed the boat, and much of his dock.

Duane