16 Donzi Splash

[josh6420]

A friend of mine found this in a warehouse a few years back. He wasn't doing anything with it, so he gave it to me. It only had 132 hours, and had been stored for about 30 years. Its titled as a Vance. Was rigged with a Berkeley Pack-a-Jet 455 combo. Someone added the funky windshield but I think its growing on me. Let me know what you think.

[JimG]

Wow! That's beautiful!

[Greg Guimond]

I actually think the windshield looks kind of cool ........great find!

[Donziweasel]

Very Nice! Vance made a good boat from what I heard.

[1929rats]

very cool find...I believe they are a little longer than the sweet 16 or ski sporter as well.... not a bad thing to be "given". Id be lucky to get a free beer from my friends...:wink:

[alessandri]

A friend of mine found this in a warehouse a few years back. He wasn't doing anything with it, so he gave it to me. It only had 132 hours, and had been stored for about 30 years. Its titled as a Vance. Was rigged with a Berkeley Pack-a-Jet 455 combo. Someone added the funky windshield but I think its growing on me. Let me know what you think.

Hey, my name is Joe and I am the current owner of this particular boat! I've owned it for about a year and bought it from a guy named Andrew and have been trying to find history on it ever since. Its been really hard to find any information about Vance boats in general. I joined this blog recently and low and behold I came across my boat! The boat is currently in good hands. I am pursuing a total rebuild, including a 502 Chevy Crate Engine. I dont have any pictures yet, but I will post some soon. Let me know if you have any other history about the boat or even the company Vance. I am looking forward to getting it out on the water this summer!

[Greg Guimond]

Welcome Joe

[silverghost]

Hey Joe~~~
Great little boat !

Are you staying with the Berkeley Jet drive with your engine re-power to the Chevy 502 ?

I hope you do keep the jet !

My uncle owned a Berkeley/Olds 455 Jet X-18 in the 1970s !
What a blast to drive~~~

There was also a Berkeley Jet Donzi 16 around our Ocean City NJ area at that time also !

Give me a call if you ever want to talk Berkeley Water-Jet Drives !

I know you will get a BLAST out of your Jet-Donzi/Vance Splash .

Good Luck !

[yeller]

I had a 16 SBC with the Berkeley (also a splash). Handled like a dream. Jet drive on a 16 is the way to go. :yes:

[Bobby D]

I’m confused who owns this boat JOSH 6420 or alessandri?

[1996Z15]

That windshield looks like what would have come on a Sidewinder boat.

[alessandri]

I’m confused who owns this boat JOSH 6420 or alessandri?
I'm the current owner now my name is Joey Alessandri and i bought the boat from a guy named Andrew who i believe bought it from Josh 6420. Anyways sorry for the confusion. I would like to say that when i got it it had a 427 Chevy that the guy Andrew blew up, not an olds 455 unless at one point it had that for an engine.

[silverghost]

Beware~~~

It's very easy to "Blow-Up" an engine in a jet drive boat if you don't know how to handle it !

If you can install an electronic rev limiter it would be a great idea !

You must make sure that the jet pump's intake is always in the water, and loaded-up when driving in any chop or over a wake .

Always keep your hand on the throttle when going at higher speeds; so you can chop it back fast if needed !

A large percentage of jets in their day suffered from engine failure.

I believe that jets are not popular today because of this , their high fuel usage, and inability to be used in choppy water !

Jet drives can be a BLAST; but they won't lat very long if not driven with some sanity .

Enjoy your NEW JET-BOAT !

[josh6420]

Well if it is my old boat, it was a 396. Sent you a pm with my phone number if you want more info.

[yeller]

I believe that jets are not popular today because of this , their high fuel usage, and inability to be used in choppy water !Sorry Silverghost, but this is hog-wash.

My jet got every bit as good gas mileage as an I/O. I also ran the CRAP out of it in rough ocean water and aired it out constantly. Almost all jets will utilize a foot throttle which allows for quicker reaction time when you need to back off. Pinning the the throttle on any unloaded engine will take it's toll, but it's not difficult to modulate a foot throttle to accommodate "air time". It's actually tougher to air out a prop driven boat safely because damage to the drive can easily happen on re-entry. I'd take a jet drive 16C over an I/O any day of the week. I will agree with you that they are an absolute blast to drive.

[silverghost]

Yeller:

Our old Donzi X-18 got fairly good fuel milage at the higher engine speeds.
BUT ~~~
At 2000RPM and below it really just sucked-up the fuel and it's energy was wasted !
Because we boated in a highly populated area with many no-wake zones we found that when we were forced to drive at these slower speeds the gas usage was crazy !

The other thing that added to this fuel issue was the fact that my cousins ran this boat often in very shallow water & sucked-up sand & shells which wore the impeller wear thrust collar rapidly~~~~It seemed I was always replacing them as well as impellers.
When the outside collar clearance increased between the outside of the impeller blades and thrust wear collar the pump's efficiency & power decreased very rapidly~~~this compounded the fuel consumption issue greatly !

The Olds 455 , which you did not have in your jet-boat was known to throw rods & have oiling issues with oil being pumped up into the cylinder head rocker arm areas and not draining back fast enough. This is, and was, well known in the jet boating world.
Many an Olds 455 in a jet was starved of oil and spun a main or rod bearing; or threw a rod as a result .
This took it;s toll on many orignal Olds 455 jet engine packages !
The Berkeley / Olds 455 was by far the most popular engine-pump combination sold new in the early 1970s for some reason ?

We had only the standard morse hand throttle and no foot throttle unit in the X-18 ! You had better keep your hand on that throttle !
That's they way the boat came to us when new .

We also had issues with choppy water & boat wakes as I stated where the pump intake would suck air badly.

You possibly also might have had a different & more modern model & type Berkeley jet pump than we had on the old Donzi X-18 ?.


Did you also have a different pump intake with a diverter scoop unit.?
We did not .

I believe you and your jet experiences~~~

I can only relate to you, and others, our own early 1970s experiences we had with the old Donzi X-18 !

All in all I agree~~~
The Jet Donzi was a BLAST !

[alessandri]

Well here it is with the old 396 and the new 502.

[HIGH LIFE]

In the pics it appears that the paint is metalflake. Or is it just my computer ??? "HIGH LIFE"

[mrfixxall]

Hey, my name is Joe and I am the current owner of this particular boat! I've owned it for about a year and bought it from a guy named Andrew and have been trying to find history on it ever since. Its been really hard to find any information about Vance boats in general. I joined this blog recently and low and behold I came across my boat! The boat is currently in good hands. I am pursuing a total rebuild, including a 502 Chevy Crate Engine. I dont have any pictures yet, but I will post some soon. Let me know if you have any other history about the boat or even the company Vance. I am looking forward to getting it out on the water this summer!

just some good advise!

if you plan on keeping that engine in that boat for any length of time upgrade the oil pan to a minimum of 10 qts to keep fresh oil in the pan so the oil pump wont starve the engine of its lubrication.that stock 502 pan is only 5-7 qts.you may also want to install a thermostat controlled oil cooler to keep the oil temps down..also you WILL need to install a restrictor valve for the water going into the engine to keep from blowing the head gaskets,those jet pumps which feeds the engine its water will produce inexcess of 100 lbs of water pressure and thats what usually kills the engines in jet boats..your are probably going to have to replace the impeller also to keep the rpm's down.