HabanaJoe

Here is my favorite of all time, this boat is great for it's size. It the Maelstrom 23 with a 7.3L (PC) Navistar Turbo diesel, again these were still not available in trucks. This engine made 365 Hp continious, the boat could run high 70's all day. We ran against Gulfwind with their kilo record holding Velocity 22 (83 pgh?) one snotty day in Sarsota bay testing props. The prop was way to big, could hardly trun it and when we turned into the wing Gulfwind just got some air under her and took off. Ron Hicks and I looked at each other and said give it hell. The Maelstrom just enough air, rose up and that big 17.5 X 31 clever started spinning and walked by Gulfwind so fast he was stutttering worse than me back at the dock. Our speedo was getting so much air we were reading like 50 mph, Gulfwind was 80-81 on his and we just walked by!!!!

That is EBEL / Super Hero in front of us at the fuel dock - notice the green DIESEL label on the pump. The sponsons behind us with the orange tips was the 4 engine cat of Buzzi that was painted up with Popeyes. You know us diesel people have to stick togethr (LOL)!!!!

HabanaJoe

Our tow rig, not bad for A class in the 80's, spare engine, cut away 7.3L diesel for display, spare drive, headers, etc! I think we were pretty cool for our time. One of only 6 slant nose S-series Navistar trucks on the planet.

obrien

Joe I would love to get my hands on one of the Maelstrom hulls.

offshoresteve

Diesel outboard ? How much Hp, weight?

stirling

Joe ,what propulsion did you use on the Maelstrom ?
And have you any idea about weight for the Navistar engine ?

A.J

29Firefox

Joe,
Ya got any good pics of Gancia?

HabanaJoe

These were our 7.3L that we made in the 80's, they weighted 1090 lbs raw water cooled. They had a plate on them for BW trannies, so they could plug into a TRS drive. Remember no such thing as a Bravo back then just an Alpha.

Joe Gere

gerard

that was one hell of a diesel back then and lightweight too

HabanaJoe

It was and we still couldn't sell enough to it keep going as a viable project. We did things for money, not glory, can't pay out $ wise move on.

That's why I say on here what I say when it comes to Buck or some of the others. The product does not sell itself, it is the overall cost. These were cheap engines, roughly $7,500 retail. But compared to a Merc 330 or similar if you blew one of them you could get a new one for under $3,000.

Do the math, the boat comes new with a Merc, it lasts 4 years and 1,000 hrs and fails, you put in another one BRAND NEW for $3,500 installed and don't have to touch anything else on the boat. You can do that twice so that means the boat goes for 12 years and 3,000 hrs and you still haven't equaled the price of the diesel let alone all the ancillary dollars to convert to diesel.

The economics didn't work then and don't work today if you want equal performance gas:diesel.

HabanaJoe

Unless you were in the inner circles of Cummins Marine back in the late 80's you would not even know this existed!!!

Yep, 400 hp Cummins B's made by me through Cummins in the 80's. This is how my whole involvement with Kitami, Buzzi & Bonomi started. I've said in the past we had a product that could be the smaller Seatek and give Seatek a fuller range of product.

Kitami and I made a deal for AMT which is how I got equity in Super Hero and ran the racing/diesel divisons. After that deal became know Cummins had a sh*t fit and were tolerant of it for about a year and then that is how I was the only person in the modern history of Cummins Engine Co to ever be out on a black list.

Meaning every distributor in the US recieved a personal letter form the Chairman do not sell Joe Gere engines and to please advise him personally if anyone starts buying large qty's of Cummins Marine engines who had not been a piror customer. Needless to say they were ways around that too!!!

The Maelstrom pic is her with a 400hp B in the transom, notice how low it sat. A couple hundred pounds more than a 7.3L makes a difference, that was 1990. This is when, like I point out to Jassman we found out it truely is not prop but prop speed. I could turn an 18x33 4 blade with that boat and not go more than 80???? Change gears, trun a 15.5 x 24 fast and I went 90's. I took what buzzi taught me from the race boats and applied it American style and good damm it works even with an outdrive. It wasn't the Tri-Max drives that made his boats fast, it was prop speed.

More later!!!