Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/3607
feature 36 Houseboatmagazine.com So as I sat behind the wheel of his 19-foot demo boat, he encouraged me to hit the wake this cruiser was leaving at full throttle and then turn as sharp as I could. Again, it's important to note that this was Smith's idea and despite my doubts about the sanity of the man I just barely met, I did as I was told. I had traveled to the Golden State to test the MPT Thrustor and now wasn't the time to back down. I hit that wake at full throttle going 32 miles per hour, and we launched into the air. It was a jump that would have made Evel Knievel proud as it felt like the entire boat came completely out of the water. I'm sure the driver of the cruiser boat must have thought we were crazy, and look- ing back we probably were. But despite landing hard enough to lose a spleen, the Thrustor nozzle held, and sure enough we made a tight turn in those rollers. Right then and there I knew this was going to be a fun week of product testing the MPT Thrustor. I was on location to see how the Thruster would do on a houseboat, but first Smith had to give me the rundown on his propeller nozzle using his demo boat. The launching off the wake wasn't the end of our adventure; it was only the beginning. I took a sucker's bet that he couldn't turn his 19-footer in a boat-length at full throttle. His argument was that in an emergency you'd be glad that you could turn a boat that sharp to avoid hitting something or someone in the water. It was his demo boat and his sugges- tion so I figured he could probably do it, but at the same time I wondered if he'd be able to keep that boat under control when he did make this sharp turn with me with him. When you're told to hold on, you better do it, at least that's what I decided and I didn't have to be asked twice. But as he predicted, the boat was able to turn very sharply and surprisingly quickly without losing any control or power. That was all great and very impressive, but what I had come to do was see how his Thrustor would do on the kind of boats that we cover—houseboats. Testing On A Lakeview With the help of the good people at Delta Marine Sales in Stockton, Calif., we were able to successfully test and evaluate this Thrustor propeller nozzle on a 56- by 15-foot Lakeview. Opera- tions Manager Karen Hartung at Delta Marine provided red carpet treatment and made all of her resources available to make sure our test went as smoothly as possible. This included lifting the houseboat out of the water so the Thrustor nozzle could be installed. Lakeview owner Mike Garner, the VP this nozzle the speed numbers from idle to wide open throttle remained the same, yet gained a lot more control and handling. "The tracking is the biggest advantage and the part I'm most happy about, but being able to turn sharper with more control will also come in handy when docking," said Garner. "I also felt like I had more thrust when I pulled off the sandbar during the test." A 19.5-inch diameter Thrustor was used on the Lakeview test, and with its nozzles, ring, struts and trusses Smith said it added up to approximately 24 lineal feet of hydro foils, or "water wings" that wrap around the propeller A Lending Hand. Through the entire process, inventor Terry Smith (L) has depended on a few key people like Happy Hour. When Mike Gardner took his Lakeview houseboat out for the first time with the Thrustor, he couldn't stop raving about how much better his boat performed.