Speed Boat for children -- Gizmo
(Links below to the Build Manual and lots more photos)

The finished boat with a 2Hp Suzuki engine - 10Yr. old driver at full speed.

Building - as fast or gently as you wish - no alignment jigs or specialist tools are required and this boat could be built inside a week!!  Children will (and should) take much longer. The material cost is low - nearly everything apart from the seat back, engine pad and cockpit trim is made from two sheets of 8ft x 4ft marine plywood.

The dimentioned Plans come on a single large sheet with separately an extra thirty (approx.) detail sketches to aid building understanding and construction, fitting out etc. etc.! Dimensions are in both Metric and Imperial notation. Build Manual example pages are to view below - the sketches are supplied with the main dimensional plan).  Plans and Manual are available:> ContactMe!

Designer’s note to all builders and drivers.

This high performance lightweight boat is designed for young people to use and enjoy building under adult supervision. However, children need close supervision, safety equipment, insurance and rescue facilities - as they should have in any activity involving water, engines, and other users of the water.

The boat looked right as built straight off my original drawings, always gathers a crowd, and a number of others have bought plans and built successfully. All my photos are of the original boat, the small photo at speed above was taken at long range. The photo below was taken on the very first outing when we were testing for engine height, tilt, weight trim etc. and if you look closely you will see that the engine has not yet had remote steering or throttle fitted and the cockpit decking was not yet on. The 'rooster tail' showing that we didn't get the engine height quite right first time out!  We did subsequently modify the design of the stern arrangements to allow the best use of standard height engines.

Testing at the prototype stage. (1986 - February? - looking at the gloved hand!)

The boat is designed to be used on flat water (not in waves for reasons of low freeboard) with a 2-2.5Hp. at the propeller (or 1.5-1.83kW) standard motor and should not rate as a speedboat (in the U.K. at least) with such a motor. The prototype boat was tested with larger engines as well and also in waves but larger engines and waves are not recommended (Covering my ass!! -- but see below).

As children get older and heavier it becomes more difficult for the boat to plane with 2-2.5Hp and we then moved to a 4Hp motor. By this time both our children were fully au fait with the safety aspects. Be aware that if you put a lightweight child in one of these boats with a 4Hp. engine the boat gets real sporty!
Steering is by the left hand and accelerator by the right hand (both controls are intuitive and have been mastered in seconds by all children who have driven the boat) -- we arranged the engine so that the boat immediately goes to idle if the throttle is released, this type of subject is also covered in the Build Manual.

This boat is small and light enough for one adult to lift onto a car roof-rack; though it is easier with help!
Because of the design shape and light weight, this boat causes almost no deep wake and is friendly to river banks etc..

Of course any use of the boat is completely beyond my control as are the standard of materials and standard of construction! We built the prototype with my son aged 9 fully involved doing a lot of the work and my daughter aged 6 helping. We were very pleased at how easily the boat went together and enthusiam for the work needed was maintained right through to the finishing, my children learned the use of all the hand and power tools involved, measuring, reading the drawings, painting etc.; this being one of the main points in such a project.
The pride in achievement for the children was great to see when the boat was put in the water. They and their friends have had a lot of fun over the years and the original is still in one piece, at the time of writing over 13 years on!!

You can build this boat very quickly if you really try, don’t be in too much of a hurry and have FUN doing it!!
Note that adults driving will find this boat very low on buoyancy and freeboard so it is not really suitable for them if they are unused to it - I’ve had a go myself though - great fun - it will plane with an 11.5 stone adult using a 4Hp motor!! (In our case Evinrude/Johnson twin).  I have also heard of people using 6Hp and 8Hp motors; however I would imagine they might need a non standard (coarser cut) prop to get the full benefit from engines as large.