Outboard Jet Drive

[Cowtownhound]

Hello all, thankful to find this site, I'm totally new to the jet drive world and have many questions. I have an aluminum Lowe Roughneck 2070 center console with factory sponsons and a Mercury 115 Pro XS that I'm going to replace with the Mercury 150 Pro XS with a dealer installed jet drive lower unit. I have it set up for flounder gigging that added about 200 pounds to the back of the boat over the outboard and maybe 50-75 pounds of lights and aluminum handrails to the front. I'm going to use a jack plate with a 4" set back so I'll be enlarging the existing sponsons and fabricating a 4" sponson box to attach to the transom for a hull extension to makeup for the jack plate set back. I'm looking for any knowledge and advice on what I'm trying to accomplice. One of many questions is how close can the sponsons be to the sides of the pump intake?

 

[Coult45]

I love this post. Reading it is like reading @zipper posts about sailing. I understood about 10% of it, but I'll stick around to listen and learn from the responses.

btw, welcome to the forum!

 

[Cowtownhound]

I love this post. Reading it is like reading @zipper posts about sailing. I understood about 10% of it, but I'll stick around to listen and learn from the responses.

btw, welcome to the forum!

Thank you for the welcome, I was hoping that my describing what I'm trying to accomplish would be more comprehendible. What part of it can I help be more understandable?

 

[zipper]

A picture or two would help, but what I see is a loss of freeboard with the added weight and they are trying to modify the existing sponsons for more buoyancy aft. And how far to stay away from the jet pump lower unit intake with the modification.

 

[Cowtownhound]

Thank you sir, that look's like the back of my boat, it's at camp and I don't have a picture of that view.

 

[Coult45]

Thank you for the welcome, I was hoping that my describing what I'm trying to accomplish would be more comprehendible. What part of it can I help be more understandable?

it's NOT your description...it's just me not knowing what things like sponsons or flounder rigging are. But the constant education about things I didn't know that I didn't know is part of why I'm here!

 

[Cowtownhound]

it's NOT your description...it's just me not knowing what things like sponsons or flounder rigging are. But the constant education about things I didn't know that I didn't know is part of why I'm here!

Agree with the learning, that's why I'm here. Sponsons are the box looking things on the transom, they add bouncy for the added weight of an outboard motor etc... and help get on plane faster, my gigging setup is an small air cooled engine with fan blade on a tower over the outboard to allow you to go in shallow water, it has lights on the front fastened to handrail's, a stick steer and throttle to maneuver. Only good picture I have of my boat right now is with the cover on it, I'll post a picture when I get back down to camp.

 

[Cowtownhound]

I have pictures now to better understand my question.