twox45
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2006
- Messages
- 323
Well I finally got the chance to run the new ZippKits 21 OB hydro and did it ever bring back lots of old pleasant memories........ My brother and I started with the ElDibalo OB hydros from Martin Davis some 30+ years ago. I had forgotten how simple things were back then, just fuel, crank and go. No belts no cowlings just easy and fun. We had seven of the OB hydros in our club and it wasn't unusual to go though a gallon of 20% cool power and 2 receiver packs on a Sunday. We would even drag the big clock out to the lake with the 2 arms that actually counted down from 3 minutes. Its a wonder we can still hear, those little K&B's with a 1/2" stub pipe for an exhaust were really loud. Oh and don't forget about all the broken 12mm K&B cranks, well most memories were pleasant.
Back to the new boat, it was a pre built kit by Mike Walker and assembled by Ron Zaker Senior. The motor was a MAC 21 power head on a lawless 21 foot not sure who the pipe mfg was. We left the cavitation plate on the motor this time so we were limited to a 45mm prop. We started testing with the 1745/3 octura. I was concerned over the really wide ride pad under the boat, was not sure what effects it would have on how the boat would handle. Turns out it took all the sensitivity to different types of props out of the equation, we ran 14's, 16's, X's, and the 17 series and had nothing but good results. We topped out in the low 60's with the 1745, then the prop fell off, oh well. We will test some more in a couple weeks, at our Turkey Day time trial, with the cavitation plate off and a Truex power head.
By the way, the boat drives much better than what you see in some of the video, I had my new radio that has more knobs than my grand mothers old Victrola and I was too busy playing with all the knobs. The video starts out fat but after the third launch we had the needle dialed in. You will also see how easy it launches when Bill just sat the boat in the water. It had an X445 on it then.
Back to the new boat, it was a pre built kit by Mike Walker and assembled by Ron Zaker Senior. The motor was a MAC 21 power head on a lawless 21 foot not sure who the pipe mfg was. We left the cavitation plate on the motor this time so we were limited to a 45mm prop. We started testing with the 1745/3 octura. I was concerned over the really wide ride pad under the boat, was not sure what effects it would have on how the boat would handle. Turns out it took all the sensitivity to different types of props out of the equation, we ran 14's, 16's, X's, and the 17 series and had nothing but good results. We topped out in the low 60's with the 1745, then the prop fell off, oh well. We will test some more in a couple weeks, at our Turkey Day time trial, with the cavitation plate off and a Truex power head.
By the way, the boat drives much better than what you see in some of the video, I had my new radio that has more knobs than my grand mothers old Victrola and I was too busy playing with all the knobs. The video starts out fat but after the third launch we had the needle dialed in. You will also see how easy it launches when Bill just sat the boat in the water. It had an X445 on it then.
