Preview

A Portable Motorized Body Board

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
354 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Portable Motorized Body Board
A Portable Motorized Body Board
The lightest personal watercraft on the market weighs 600 pounds. Jason Woods’s Kymera (named after both the mythological creature and a type of deepwater fish) weighs a mere 35.
The concept was a carbon-fiber body board powered by a small engine that would propel a rider at exhilarating speeds while displacing roughly half an inch of water. Vacationers could explore waterways without a boat, and because the Kymera would weigh only 35 pounds, one person could haul it to the water.
The difficulty, in a world of 600-pound Jet Skis, was tracking down lightweight parts. Woods eventually found the solution when he clicked his way into a subculture of German R/C-boat enthusiasts. Through various websites, he discovered that “they like to build eight-foot-long, 20-horsepower mini yachts”—and there are many companies that produce components for them. He bought a miniature jet pump from one of the companies for $500.
With the parts in hand, Woods split an off-the-rack kneeboard along its waterline, mounted the jet pump, a 26cc engine and a starter from an R/C plane, and duct-taped the housing back together. It coughed and choked, but it moved, and soon Woods was building a new version every year or so, tinkering with steering and propulsion configurations, moving the exhaust below the waterline, and trying to find the right balance of torque and water volume in the pump.
His fourth rebuild [pictured above] puts out 5 horsepower and gets up to 15 mph. It also incorporates carbon fiber and handlebars. Button-controlled servos move the jet pump back and forth, but steering is mostly a matter of leaning from side to side. When the rider cuts the throttle, the Kymera drifts to a stop.The next model, under construction now, will use a hybrid electric-propane four-stroke engine and reach 25 mph. “I’m already getting e-mails from guys who want to do whitewater with it,” he says. “I’ve proved the concept; now I want to find the extreme. The

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In this lab, we are building and testing a rubber band powered vehicle to work towards energy efficiency. After designing a base structure for the rubber band powered vehicle, we will build it and test it on the floor in school hallway. We will test the distance it traveled in the amount of time that it took for it to get there. Also the capabilities of re-use after many uses of the vehicle.…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The object does not have to be lighter than the water it just has to have a bigger ratio of empty space to mass than the water. For an object to float it has to be positively buoyant.” Buoyancy is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of an immersed object.” [6] When an object it positively buoyant its buoyant force is high enough to go against gravity and float. If…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bite of the Mango

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages

    me to the pam-pam, a boat similar to the long wooden canoe men used in Magborouto fish(Kamara and McClelland pp.61). I spied a few other pam-pams in the water, sunk down with only their helms sticking out, we were the last on board," shows how Mariatu had the…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marc Brunel designed and Henry Maudsley built a series of machines to saw, drill, mortise, recess, turn, and shape wood to make wooden blocks for ships. In all, they used forty-five machines to produce three different ranges of blocks. The Portsmouth block-making operation demonstrated the possibility of using a number of machines to build a product, each designed to carry out a single operation and arranged sequentially to complete all the necessary operations to build a product.…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Upcycling demo 1|The item being upcycled is a Redbull can.First item being produced is a model jet plane. This will be made using-Empty cans of Redbull,glue, scissors/pliers Age group (+15||||…

    • 268 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    New Product

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages

    uses water and electric to run it and do not use any fossil fuel. The car would not “technically” be running on the water but the HHO gas which is what the H2O would be change to for this to work. This vehicle would be an electric/water hybrid. The way it works is water which is H2O (hydrogen and oxygen), but when you separate the elements and use the hydrogen, it can be used like gasoline. When it is put in the sparkplugs you get an explosion in the piston and this is what runs a vehicle.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Deep within the heart of New Jersey, the world-renowned Kingda Ka towers over the lofty peaks of Six Flags Great Adventure Amusement Park at a staggering height of 456 feet. The vehicle’s whimsical blue and green hues contradict its terrifying and thrilling nature. The incredible speeds of the roller coaster certainly provide enough of a thrill for the most daring adventure seekers. The winding path that the ride takes as the machine makes its way through the sky resembles the body of a snake as the animal slithers over the jungle floor. The turbulent trolley’s precipitous drop strikes fear into the hearts and minds of all riders that decide to meet the coaster’s challenge. Screams of terror and…

    • 173 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    in June, a fire breathing, 4 barrel, solid lifter, 271 horsepower, 289 cid V-8 engine.…

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Catfish Creek

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Meet Steve Davidson. For more than 20 years, Steve has been an avid recreational canoer. In addition, Steve also acquired wood working skills during 15 of his 20 years canoeing, and for the past 10 years Steve has combined his love for canoeing with his wood working abilities. This combination of hobby and skills resulted in the design and construction of three canoes which Steve sold after using each for one season.…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    To build a 383 Stroker Chevy small block engine you must first have the mechanical skills to do so. The Chevy 383 Stroker Motor sports a modified crankshaft that brings extra air to the cylinders to ultimately create more horsepower and torque. When building a 383 Stroker, you must gather the parts for your motor. One of the most fascinating things about the 383 Stroker motor is that it uses the Chevy 350 block. You can start with a 350 block engine and modify it to turn it into a 383 Stroker motor, or you can start from scratch sourcing all of your parts from junk yards and aftermarket parts manufacturers. There are also 383 Stroker motor rebuild kits that will also be convenient for finding parts.…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Carrabelle Boat Company serves boaters with a small, lightweight fiberglass sailboat capable of being carried on a car roof. Though the firm could hardly be considered as one of the nation’s industrial giants, its burgeoning business had required it to institute a formal system of cost control. Jan Larson, Carrabelle Boat’s president, explained:…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If you weigh more than the weight capacity of the board, paddling may be difficult as you are lower in the water.…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My resurrection of the old boat motor started in the waning days of summer. School was starting up and I was looking for some productive way to spend my time after school. I had always known that various old boat motors were down there but I assumed all were weak and would only propel a boat at a dismal pace. This time however, something caught my eye! It was an eighteen horsepower 1957 Evinrude fastwin. I never knew an engine this powerful was in our basement! Like frankenstein's monster I was going to breath life back into this old engine!…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mobility Scooters have, over the years, evolved into highly efficient and reliable machines that help millions of Americans each year retain their mobility. There are many different types available on the market today and many different styles. Finding the right one can seem overwhelming, but like most things it is pretty simple if you know a little bit about them.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    specifically for kayak fishing. It was designed after input and months of testing by kayak…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays