Wellcraft Nova undergoes a conversion from Sterndrive to Outboard.

[Smoking Joe]

Great project and the perfect conversion. I've thought of converting a 25' Nova to twin O/B's several times.
You'll have a great rig when you're done.

Thanks instigator, this is my first inboard/outboard conversion, hoping for reasonable speed gains to make it all worth it. I will certainly put a report together on the result.


Thanks P24 do it once, do it right.

Looking good Neville. Are you going to alter the cap slightly?<!-- BEGIN TEMPLATE: ad_showthread_firstpost_sig --><!-- END TEMPLATE: ad_showthread_firstpost_sig -->

Thanks Greg, will make some decisions on the cap etc as we progress. Today, raining I thought I would have another go at reading your Donzi Thread. To read it all and the associated threads took all day, fantastic project and great information. Thanks very much for the lead, now I have fallen in love with the Donzi's????????

looks good looks like you will have a great ride after its all said and done.

AFR, I sure hope you are right, all will be revealed in the fullness of time.

[Smoking Joe]

I have been really busy the last couple of weeks, still have to do the work that pays the bills ahead of my project, hard to stay away though. Today I spent some hours tidying up under the gunnels with the grinder, tidying up the hull/deck join and glassing in the old engine air intake vents and through transom exhaust holes. Hoping to make some real progress soon.

Nev.

[Greg G]

Nice to hear Nev. Curious were you able to see any pictures with the Donzi build or was it just the text? That thread got a "bit long"! Here are a couple of ideas on the cap notch. I'd think with a tall V8 you would want to be somewhere in between the small deck notch of the Sutphen and the large one of the Kryptonite. A small amount of work with no real drawbacks, but it will give you a good amount of flexibility in the future as you hone in on setback and rigging details. In hindsight, I wish I had done it. Keep the updates coming!

[Smoking Joe]

Nice to hear Nev. Curious were you able to see any pictures with the Donzi build or was it just the text? That thread got a "bit long"! Here are a couple of ideas on the cap notch. I'd think with a tall V8 you would want to be somewhere in between the small deck notch of the Sutphen and the large one of the Kryptonite. A small amount of work with no real drawbacks, but it will give you a good amount of flexibility in the future as you hone in on setback and rigging details. In hindsight, I wish I had done it. Keep the updates coming!

Gidday Greg,

I really like what you have done on the Kryptonite, my son and I will discuss it. Re the Donzi thread, when I first started reading it and was not able to view the photo's I decided that I needed to be able to view the photo's so I joined up. Great thread and great photos.

I hate not being able to start this project and just carry on till it is finished, very frustrating. I will progress it as quickly as I am able. Thanks again for the interest and suggestions.
Regards,

Nev.

[Greg G]

Neither the Kryptonite nor the Sutphen are my boats Nev. I just posted up the pictures to give you an idea what a mini-well might look like and to give you some ideas to think over.

[Smoking Joe]

An update. Both the longitudinal bearers have been built and glassed, the bulkhead aft of the fuel tank has been replaced and glued in. The lowest section of the transom reconstruction has been built and glued in place and the slots cut in the transom. Tomorrow I hope to have both bearers glued and glass in. I will take photo's tomorrow..........
Heres hoping for a successful day tomorrow.

[Smoking Joe]

So today I managed to crib the afternoon off to work on our boat and it went mostly uninterrupted. I got both longitudinal bearers final fitted and glued in. Edges have been glue coved. The next job will be to finish the transom reconstruction.

The photo's show todays efforts. I do appreciate that this design is very different to what you guys would normally do. We expect to save considerable weight with the transom reconstruction. Also this design should be good for twins if we were to go down that track.

[Smoking Joe]

[Smoking Joe]

[Smoking Joe]

I have just spent a very frustrating hour and a half trying to upload these photo's. My appologies for the excess replys to get the photo's up, if anyone can point me in the right direction so I can put more photos on the one reply I certainly would appreciate it. I keep getting this message say a maximum of 2 per reply, very frustrating.

The next steps will be completion of the transom, sections added to the longitudinal bearers inside the boat which will extend up to and include the deck return.

[Brabender]

I really like the work
but I think you are going to wind up very deep

Whats the planned offset?

[Smoking Joe]

I really like the work
but I think you are going to wind up very deep

Whats the planned offset?

By offset is that the same as setback?

The total length of our longitudinal bearers extending from existing transom aft is 35 inches. A considerable amount of this will be removed once we have worked out what setback we require. We plan to single point sling the boat to work out balance with temporary weight sitting on the extended bearers. The added weight will be the total weight of the V8 outboard, jack plate etc etc. Also we will float the boat to check on the added bouyancy at rest. The Bob's jack plate has 6 inches of setback and we expect our bearers to end up around 18 inches long.

[Greg G]

The single sling approach is an easy way to fiddle with your desired CG. Your approach is pretty unique. It looks like you will use the "bearers" to allow for a platform for your weight simulations as you move the CG around to get it all right. Pretty cool approach, thanks for posting.

[Greg G]

So the "bearers" are in effect full knees+stringers that run right up to the bulkhead, transferring all the loads and spreading them the full length into the hull. Kind of like extending the stringers right out the back. Hmmmm.

[XstreamVking]

These bearers will be glassed in and a motor hung on the structure? Or removed and a bracket added conventionally with hardware for the engine?