Rocket's First Flight

The 1985 Centurion tournament ski boat I've been working on for 1 1/2 years finally got its bottom wet yesterday!  It's been quite an adventure for me, doing major transom repair and engine swap left-handed with minor support of my formerly dominant semi-functional right hand.  There are still lots of things needing work, but the 1999 Johnson 200 ran fine and boosted the boat to a GPS indicated speed of 63 MPH @5700 RPM.  Needless to say, I'm very pleased!  The 21" prop would seem to be good, saving me some money.

The previous owner, an avid tournament skier, called this boat his "Rocket Ship".  I kept half of that, "The Rocket".  Yeah, I know, it uses raw power to push a heavy boat to the same speeds a modified twin can push a featherweight racing boat, but I've always loved the fast pleasure craft.

For those who haven't seen it, the boat is a Warrior Barefoot model, 20' long, 1500 lbs w/engine.  It was designed to pull barefoot skiers (who's crazier, us or them???) in AWSA sanctioned tournaments, and is still remembered as having an excellent wake for that purpose.

My wife Joanna took the video.

Joanna Macaulay's Regatta Pix, Aug 8th, 2015

Jack Goodman's Regatta Pix

Aug 8th, 2015