Introduction

[George/Land O' Lakes]

Hello all,

I thought I would take a few minutes and introduce myself. My name is George and I live in Land O' Lakes FL (hence my sign on). I've been airboating for about 4 years now and a mini (I prefer the term "Ultralight") airboat owner for the same amount of time. I'm a retired naval officer and have owned boats for most of my 53 years.

My current boat is a very specialized craft that I wanted to fish the really thin water in the way backcountry of the Gulf Coast of Florida. I generally fish from Tarpon Springs north to Crystal River. This part of the coast offers lots of unmolested water if you are willing to go find it.

After much searching (remember this was four years ago) I settled on a Dixon Twister from Paul and Carol Dixon. It is one of their 16 footers that had one hour on the meter when I bought it.

Since then I've worn the Flex Steel off the bottom (twice), Had Stage One mods done to the 35 B&S, X-Pipe exhaust, had stainless steel rigging, diamond plate floor and diamond plate 12 gal gas tank added. Many thanks to Chuck Rackley on the most recent mods to my boat.

I've started going frogging on Kissimmee, support boat on some aligator hunts and general riding around. I'm really enjoying the airboating people I meet when on the water and look forward to more good times in the future.

Very Respectfully

George

16 Foot Dixon Twister, Stage One B&S 54 HP, Aeroprop 1.67 reduction, IVO 67" Three Blade Propellor, Stainless Steel rigging by Ned and X-pipe and engineering by Chuck Rackley (aka "The Sled")

[Sandman]

Welcome to the forums!

[chuckitt]

Hey George, good to see you posting. Did you run it this past weekend and get a GPS on it? How did it run? I didn't get the pictures i wanted to so maybe you can post some.
Thanks, Chuck
OH, The prop is 64 inches.

[airhead]

Welcome George,

Tell us more about your boat. 16 feet is what i have.

Jim

[David]

Welcome to the site George

[George/Land O' Lakes]

All,
Thanks for the warm welcome. I got to take the boat out this weekend. Sat it was real windy, but with the two of us on board (about 400 lbs) she ran 26.4 across the wind in deep water. I took her out again on Sunday and ran her around the Chassowistka River. In one of the calm areas she ran 27.6 in about 18" of water. I really haven't hammered down on her yet as I'm taking it easy on this newly rebuilt engine. I'm expecting a top speed of about 28-29 MPH in skinny water! The big improvement is in the cruising speed. I get 19-20 out of her at just 3100 RMPs! This is a great improvement over the stock motor/prop I ran before. My fuel useage is way down too.
A little about the boat. She's 16' Dixon Twister that I bought from Paul and Carol Dixon about 4 years ago. She was box stock then (35 HP B&S turning a 60x28 Sensich prop) and would run about 19-21 MPH. Since that time I've wore the Flex Steel off the bottom twice, had Paul change it from a front to rear driver and raise the driver seat. When I bought her she was state of the art (IMO) but I wanted to see what else she would do.
I met Chuck last year and began talking to him about some changes. We had Stage One mods done to the engine, taking it to about 54 hp. Changed out the drive belts with four individual belts for better hook up and longer belt life. Changed out the wood prop for a three blade IVO (I couldn't resist the spinner), stainless steel single driver rigging with the seat bottom about 60" off the deck. Added a console to the seat. Changed out the plywood floor with diamond plate aluminum, custom diamond plate 12 gal tank (should be good for a real long trip) and a Chuck engineered prototype stainless steel X-Pipe exhaust. It was an experiment that Chuck and I wanted to try. In testing done by Chuck, the X-pipe didn't increase hp but did reduce the sound level by 2 db. Chuck also "relieved" the junction of the transom and bottom. I think it might have freed up the bottom some. Chuck set the pitch on the prop to limit the RPMs to 3900.

I guess that about covers it. Many thanks to Paul and Carol Dixon who walked me through the initial buying process and to Chuck Rackley for all his guidance and hard work


George



16 Foot Dixon Twister, Stage One B&S 54 HP, Aeroprop 1.67 reduction, IVO 64" Three Blade Propellor, Stainless Steel rigging by Ned and X-pipe and engineering by Chuck Rackley

[Flathead]

Welcome George!

[Wildfowl]

Welcome George and thanks for sharing your rig and success!

Your land-0-lakes handle remindes me of a dairy up here from MN. They are known for their super smooth creamy butter.

Hope your rig runs like their butter off a hot knife!

Speaking of butter and hot knifes I'd like to hear more about those fish too. If you would be so kind as to share on the "fishing" tab that would be greatly appreciated.

[George/Land O' Lakes]

Mike,

I'd love to comment on the fishing here on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Please excuse my lack of knowledge, where's the "fishing" tab located??

V/R

George

16 Foot Dixon Twister, Stage One B&S 54 HP, Aeroprop 1.67 reduction, IVO 64" Three Blade Propellor, Stainless Steel rigging by Ned and X-pipe and engineering by Chuck Rackley

[airhead]

Hey George,

Don't feel bad it took me a while to learn how the site works. Heck I didn't even realize there was an introduction for a long time. It's really simple once you get a grasp of it and it is 1000% better than the yahoo groups.

Now start at the index page and just scroll down until you see fishing and click there. If you get confused don't feel bad and just ask again and maybe someone else can explain it better.

Jim

[Wildfowl]

Airhead showed you the way. I plan to put some in this spring. I have tons of fishing pics but none are mini appropriate YET.

[airhead]

Hey Dude,

What is mini appropriate Just show us what you catch in your neck of the woods and what you catch it with I WILL, "IF" i ever catch anything

Jim

[Wildfowl]

Ok will do... more to come.