Before a personal watercraft was a thing, gearheads and guys with the need for speed — and a healthy dab of courage — simply built their own.
by John Andrew Reed, with edits by Shore Magazine
In 1965 if you wanted anything that resembled today’s “Jet Ski” you had to build it.
This is my grandfather Wes Reed running his self-designed/built plywood hydroplane in Gene’s Cove at Marker 4.0 Big Niangua that year. Power was a cranked-up 1950 Kiekhaefer Mercury Hurricane 10 with a racing lower unit and prop. The “revised” compression ratio was so high that pulling the starter rope was almost impossible.
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