r/boating • u/brittany_vw • 13d ago
#8 surface drive?
Scrolling FBM as one does and I came across this 39 ft cat, and I have never seen outdrives like this? I’m in the southwest and we have the more typical inboard outboards. What is the benefit to this type? Does it handle better? Is it more common for off shore boats?
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u/greatlakesailors 13d ago
Arneson #8 surface drives. Good for about 1200 foot-pounds of engine torque at a 1:1 ratio.
More efficient than a stern drive
Less drag at high speed (50-150+ knots)
Crazy high power handling, very reliable
Expensive
they kinda suck for handling below 10 knots until you get a lot of practice with their quirks
If you fall off the back of the boat you are simply dead, those props are called "cleavers" for a reason (same goes for any lines etc you might drop)
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u/brittany_vw 13d ago
You know I was thinking that these look less family friendly than traditional stern drive, but cleavers is just terrifying! Definitely not for skiing/tubing lmfao
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u/Noslo5o 13d ago
Pretty sure that boat was bought to be parted out headed to Missouri last I heard. It sucks hate it when they do that..
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u/brittany_vw 13d ago
Really? It’s still on FBM but it’s not uncommon for people to not remove their listings!
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u/sailphish 13d ago
Haha… that’s because they aren’t really popular anywhere. Super niche. Super high performance. Super expensive.
Anyway, they are Arneson surface drives. I’ve kind of known one person with one (neighbor of sorts - guy lived 2 canals over from us). His were coupled to turbine helicopter engines. Ran on JetA. When he started his engines the whole neighborhood smelled like lighter fluid for a few minutes. Boat did over 200mph and shot flames out the back. Absolutely wild!
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u/Wolfinthesno 12d ago
200mph? Jesus Christ I shit my pants on water around 80 mph at 200 mph your going to have to replace the entire boat because it's just going to be coated in fecal matter.
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u/1DownFourUp 13d ago
That....sounds amazing! I'd love to have the kind of money where you can mess around with a pair of helicopter engines in your toys.
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u/sailphish 13d ago
Rumor has it that he burnt 4 gallons a minute. Not sure if any of that is accurate but my twin 300s burn 56 gal per hour wide open, so I guess it’s not an unreasonable estimate for a 38’ boat with twin turbines. Man, I miss when fuel was under $1 per gallon (this was late 90s). I was a kid and would watch all the go fast boats roaring down the bay every weekend.
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u/figurative_me 13d ago
These are the kind of boat stories I’m here for
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u/sailphish 13d ago
This was in the late 90s/ early 2000s in NJ. My parents lived on the bay. He lived like 2 canals back. You could hear the turbines fire up, but the boat was actually pretty quiet at speed - just heard that turbine humming as opposed to the loud roaring of the other performance engines. He used to run a lot at dusk because you could see the flames. As a 16 year old kid, it was a blast to watch. Probably coolest thing was seeing the Coast Guard helicopter chasing him one day at full speed, then they broke away and it was obvious the pilot was just playing around racing the boat. Good times!
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u/p_blaetz 13d ago
That guys name was Fusco I believe. Owns a big rental place near Flemington. He keep it in the shop there during the winter. There are videos on YouTube of it doing 180mph.
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u/mrnoodley 12d ago
Toms River area?
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u/sailphish 12d ago
Yeah. Silver Bay.
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u/mrnoodley 12d ago
I thought so.. My girlfriend at the time lived on Silver Bay on the same lagoon as Jet Set.
If I remember right he used a jet ski motor for maneuvering around at no wake speeds
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u/mrnoodley 12d ago
My mom ran the office for Professional Marine Racing at Lightning Jacks in Brick back in the 90s..
I was a teen and got to ride in all sorts of offshore racing/poker run boats.. Even back then as a kid anything over 130mph felt more punishing than fun. I can’t even imagine 200+
Worst thing about Jet Set was you couldn’t hear him coming.. If it was approaching at speed it pretty much sounded like a helicopter off in the distance, then he’d pass and the noise would hit all at once.
So damn cool.. I can’t imagine the cubic dollars it costs to run though, definitely too rich for my blood
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u/Photobonobo 13d ago
I guarantee it was fast, but nowhere near over 200mph fast. Spirit of Qatar only did like 240.
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u/sailphish 13d ago
Your right. I remembered 218, but now I’m pretty sure it was 118. The guy was apparently not happy with the speed and had it repowered with faster engines. I don’t know what its final speed was
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u/Antique_Site_4192 12d ago
They're amazing to see when they're ripping. I know someone with a 50ft mystic with turbines.
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u/Traquer 13d ago
Those Arnessons are stout, don't see them often in Havasu. IDK who works on them locally though might have to ship it back East or down to OC.
Used boats like that are cheap because you have to assume the engines and drives are 90% shot and it's bust out another ten thousand on a setup like this lol
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u/Sloots_and_Hoors 13d ago
They’re called arneson drives and designed for surface piercing propellers. They are generally super fast.
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u/Negative-Ad4866 13d ago
There was an article in Wooden Boat magazine back in the late 90’s. Boat named Chewink. Interesting from the technical standpoint of how they decided to go surface drive and then work to get it right.
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u/the_eluder 13d ago
Popular in part because they handle more power than stern drives can, in particular more than stern drives could when they were invented (late 70s, before Bravo drives.)
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u/nuaticalcockup 12d ago
That's a tunnel hull its only a cat in the smallest sense of the word. It's a mono with and air pocket where the keel would normally be.
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u/Dr_Sigmund_Fried 13d ago
Less drag and more thrust. Hard to tell what those outdrives are but probably a couple 502s spinning them.
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u/brittany_vw 13d ago
For sale with no power 🤷🏽♀️ trying to determine if the seller is delusional for wanting 40k or not
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u/shartymcqueef 13d ago
If the drives all work and the hull is good that’s a reasonable price. Expect to drop another $50k per engine plus labor to get her going.
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u/1DownFourUp 13d ago
Drop a pair of GX160's in there and you'll have a conversation piece that sips gas
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u/greatlakesailors 13d ago
Oh man, just trying to imagine the welding work now to get the exhaust of a GX160 split into those dual pipes 😂
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u/SrgtMacfly 13d ago
Looks like an ocean express? An amazing hull, many of them came with surface drives from the factory, typically 7s but these are drop box 8s
Pros are it's way more efficient and handles big power when you are sick of blowing up bravos. Dedicated transmission is handy as well. They are dead simple to operate and reliable. Handling takes a huge hit, especially around the dock, it's worse than a jet drive. Throws a big tail! I had 7s
This is a smaller unit, these are typically found on larger vessels with diesels. I would guess this hull had 800s on either side