tamburello
07-19-2002, 05:24 PM
This Donzi saga started a decade ago. I was on a retreat with some college friends on a beautiful Fall day in 1991 at Lake Michigan. The sky was cloudless and temps were in the 70s so I figured I'd go for one last swim of the season. I ran in to the water, dove into the waves, and hit my head on the bottom breaking my 4th cervical vertebra and bruising my spinal cord. Thankfully, the spinal cord wasn't entirely severed so I regained limited motion in my extremities as well as touch and hot and cold sensation throughout my body.
I had grown up in a family of sailboaters but a sailboat can be a pretty unstable ride so going sailing regularly on the family sailboat was looking questionable. I was going to have to find another means of aquatic recreational vehicle if I wanted to get back on the water. Thankfully, I inherited the recessive powerboat/gearhead gene so I was always dropping by Thunder Marine, the local Cigarette/Donzi/Fountain/Sonic dealer at the time.
On one visit to Thunder in the winter of 1995 I spotted a sexy new 18 classic for sale. It turned out that it was a '94 that hadn't sold for a year. I conned my dad into stopping by with me to check it out and we brainstormed that the gunnels were low enough so that a small hoist mounted to the trailer would be able to swing me over and in. Surprise, we bought it on faith that we could make something work to get me in it.
We had the boat, now to get me from out of my wheelchair and inside of the Donzi. First stop, my Uncle Ross Mack. Ross is a mechanical engineer that designs firehose nozzles for a living and runs a machine shop/fabricating shop in his spare time. He designed and fabricated a frame that bolts to the underside of the boat trailer on top of both sides of the frame are bolted two shop hoist bases. A small folding shop hoist can be inserted into the base on either side of the boat when needed and removed for launching. The system worked great, we towed the boat to the launch, put on the hoist, attached the hoist cable to a soft bosun seat I was wearing, craned me skyward, swung me over, dropped me into the seat, removed the hoist and launched.
Well, I was in the boat and having a blast flying around Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan with my brother. However, I was jonesin' to get behind the wheel and try it out myself. Well, the ride in an 18 classic can be a bit rough when the water is stirred up as you all know. Whenever we were out my energy was entirely focused on bracing myself in the seat, holding on for dear life, and trying not to get ejected when my bro launched it off a swell.
So, for the first few seasons I was happy to ride shotgun while my brother Matt or my friend Erik drove. Last year things changed though. Erik was in Chicago with his new wife and Matt was in Washington state fighting forest fires. I had a hard time finding people I trusted that were available to drive the Donzi on the nice days that summer. So, I resolved to do some troubleshooting to get me into the driver seat.
The first problem was that the stock bucket seat just didn't provide the bolstering and support that I needed. After some research I settled on purchasing a Momo 1000 Lakes Evo racing seat with a four point harness. When the seat arrived we bolted on the Momo side-mount seat brackets, set them to the lowest height, took the slider bracket off of the stock seat, measured the holes in the slider and drilled a 1/4 inch piece of aluminum plate to interface between the two.
The seat worked great but due to the deep bucket and the thigh bolsters you have to sit with your legs straight out and your feet on the angled foot brace under the deck. I'm 6'4" so needless to say The steering wheel and throttle were too far away. Time to fix those problems and call in some outside help.
Dave at Motion Marine here in Holland was more than happy to help us troubleshoot the problem. To get the steering wheel closer we ordered a polished billet shaft extension. However, with the wheel jutting that far out it was impossible to drop me into the driver seat. An interface was subsequently fabricated to incorporate a Moroso quick-release steering wheel hub and that problem was soon abated. Now, I just slide in with my feet on either side of the column.
To get the throttles closer we decided to upgrade to Dual lever Gaffrig controls with the integrated trim. The stock starboard cockpit panel with the Quicksilver Commander 3000 control was removed and a newly fabricated side panel with an upholstered box for the Gaffrigs was installed.
The seat holds me tight as a glove and the throttles work like knives through butter. Everything worked like a charm the planning and problem solving all paid off and I am behind the wheel and out on the water!!
Special thanks to Ross, Dave, Dad and everyone else that helped out on this project. I am loving life in the driver's seat! You can check out all of the pics from the maiden voyage at :http://homepage.mac.com/jeffdykema/PhotoAlbum1.html
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jeffdykema-03.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jeffdykema-14.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jeffdykema-09.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jeffdykema-12.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jeffdykema-11.jpg
I had grown up in a family of sailboaters but a sailboat can be a pretty unstable ride so going sailing regularly on the family sailboat was looking questionable. I was going to have to find another means of aquatic recreational vehicle if I wanted to get back on the water. Thankfully, I inherited the recessive powerboat/gearhead gene so I was always dropping by Thunder Marine, the local Cigarette/Donzi/Fountain/Sonic dealer at the time.
On one visit to Thunder in the winter of 1995 I spotted a sexy new 18 classic for sale. It turned out that it was a '94 that hadn't sold for a year. I conned my dad into stopping by with me to check it out and we brainstormed that the gunnels were low enough so that a small hoist mounted to the trailer would be able to swing me over and in. Surprise, we bought it on faith that we could make something work to get me in it.
We had the boat, now to get me from out of my wheelchair and inside of the Donzi. First stop, my Uncle Ross Mack. Ross is a mechanical engineer that designs firehose nozzles for a living and runs a machine shop/fabricating shop in his spare time. He designed and fabricated a frame that bolts to the underside of the boat trailer on top of both sides of the frame are bolted two shop hoist bases. A small folding shop hoist can be inserted into the base on either side of the boat when needed and removed for launching. The system worked great, we towed the boat to the launch, put on the hoist, attached the hoist cable to a soft bosun seat I was wearing, craned me skyward, swung me over, dropped me into the seat, removed the hoist and launched.
Well, I was in the boat and having a blast flying around Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan with my brother. However, I was jonesin' to get behind the wheel and try it out myself. Well, the ride in an 18 classic can be a bit rough when the water is stirred up as you all know. Whenever we were out my energy was entirely focused on bracing myself in the seat, holding on for dear life, and trying not to get ejected when my bro launched it off a swell.
So, for the first few seasons I was happy to ride shotgun while my brother Matt or my friend Erik drove. Last year things changed though. Erik was in Chicago with his new wife and Matt was in Washington state fighting forest fires. I had a hard time finding people I trusted that were available to drive the Donzi on the nice days that summer. So, I resolved to do some troubleshooting to get me into the driver seat.
The first problem was that the stock bucket seat just didn't provide the bolstering and support that I needed. After some research I settled on purchasing a Momo 1000 Lakes Evo racing seat with a four point harness. When the seat arrived we bolted on the Momo side-mount seat brackets, set them to the lowest height, took the slider bracket off of the stock seat, measured the holes in the slider and drilled a 1/4 inch piece of aluminum plate to interface between the two.
The seat worked great but due to the deep bucket and the thigh bolsters you have to sit with your legs straight out and your feet on the angled foot brace under the deck. I'm 6'4" so needless to say The steering wheel and throttle were too far away. Time to fix those problems and call in some outside help.
Dave at Motion Marine here in Holland was more than happy to help us troubleshoot the problem. To get the steering wheel closer we ordered a polished billet shaft extension. However, with the wheel jutting that far out it was impossible to drop me into the driver seat. An interface was subsequently fabricated to incorporate a Moroso quick-release steering wheel hub and that problem was soon abated. Now, I just slide in with my feet on either side of the column.
To get the throttles closer we decided to upgrade to Dual lever Gaffrig controls with the integrated trim. The stock starboard cockpit panel with the Quicksilver Commander 3000 control was removed and a newly fabricated side panel with an upholstered box for the Gaffrigs was installed.
The seat holds me tight as a glove and the throttles work like knives through butter. Everything worked like a charm the planning and problem solving all paid off and I am behind the wheel and out on the water!!
Special thanks to Ross, Dave, Dad and everyone else that helped out on this project. I am loving life in the driver's seat! You can check out all of the pics from the maiden voyage at :http://homepage.mac.com/jeffdykema/PhotoAlbum1.html
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jeffdykema-03.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jeffdykema-14.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jeffdykema-09.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jeffdykema-12.jpg
http://www.donzi.net/photos/jeffdykema-11.jpg