I know a few guys were asking about them and I was curious myself. Corey (thirdtimesacharm) sebt me a few photos on his boat now that its finished. Looks pretty sweet I think. Says its solid I haven't got to check it out yet but will soon hopefully

The black on black marbled turf looks cool. turned out good.

The black hull does look cool. But, I bet you won't want to rest your arm on it in august. Good job Corey. That's a sharp looking rig.

I am looking forward to hearing how it performs.

dang non iphone friendly videos ^

What is the deal on this 23hp Copperhead? Is that something you can buy, or did you put a 23 on an 18hp frame?

From what I understand they are now offering the 23

The last time I talked to them, I was told that Josh at Copperhead will do some work on the side in his spare time for existing customers like swapping engines, tuning, etc , but that the Copperhead Company itself does not make a 23 and did not intend to because they were only interested in staying in their niche (I had asked about a 23 myself). That engine could be one of the ones Josh did. As far as mods for existing customers, I saw they even put an old Honda 24 on the 18 frame but said it weighed a ton. It sounded like they do sell Kohler 14's on Copperhead 12 frames as an orderable option even though it is not on the website (though I am not certain about that). There was also at least one guy that got them to install one of those Briggs racing engines on the 6.5 frame. (all of those at extra cost of course). Perhaps one of them will chime in, if they actually have changed their mind about the 23 (but I doubt that is the case).

The 23 is in production on its own chassis and the one in the pic Dfou posted was the first.

Be glad to answer any questions just shoot me a message.....

If so, that will be a nice option since the 23 would be compatible with some of the BPS 23 mods. You can already get cams, roller rockers and a bunch of stuff for the 18 from the Kart racing sites, but no aftermarket exhaust other than custom.

Thinking back to the original post (which was removed) about the boat, I was thinking it was going to be a 14' boat. Will there still be a 14 or has the design become 15 period? Also I recall that it was going to be a full package. Will custom boats be a possibility or is everything set in stone?

Still custom and length, width, beam, options, etc. are up to customer. Will also build anywhere from bare hull to complete rig.

I am the owner of this boat and by far this is the smoothest riding boat i have rode in and the performance is unreal. The boat is very tough!

I took it out yeasterday to some riding and man this things impresses the crap out of me. I jumped a few beaver dams and ran it in as 2 inchs of water with a silk/mud bottom.


If any on wants to ride or drive this boat i am located in west TN

Nice boat! Looks good man

I'm a little late on this, but last week I took a ride with the Prototype Copperhead23.
So what did I think? I was pinned to the back of my seat the whole time and about half the time I was thinking to myself "HOOOOOOOOOOLY FUKKKKKIN SHIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT!!!!"

And It was on the exact same hull as the one above (I'm pretty sure. Puddlejumper would have to confirm all that though.)

So, yes, the 23 is on the way and it is one bad hamma knocka

Sweet rig, wonder if they gonna play with the robin

I could speculate on it, but I would hate to put words in their mouths....

I have ridden in two different boats with two different 23 Copperhead pre-production versions or prototypes or whatever you want to call them. Best speed I saw on a small boat with a slightly messed up bottom with two people (both over 180 lbs) was 28 tops (27 more commonly). With one person it was 29 mph on gps and hitting the governor so I wonder if it would get more if the governor was adjusted or removed?? As it was, the first boat was scarey fast and was coming out of the water and porpoising. On the other boat I only got to run it for a short time alone and it was running 29 in deep water and was much better behaved than the first boat. I would bet that thirdtimesacharm's boat would run at least slightly faster than the first boat because of the bottom on the first boat and his boat is more optimally sized for the 23, but I have yet to see his boat in person. It looks sweet. I vaguely recall someone in the old post which was deleted saying that they saw 30 mph with a Copperhead 23 on thirdtimesacharm's boat?

Despite the same block and the 23 having the larger bore (which should make it lighter than the 18), it subjectively seemed significantly heavier than the 18 but on the right size boat it would not make much or any difference. It might even still be the same weight as a kohler 18 but I have no idea. I would love to weigh them.

I think they said the belt from the 23 is the one used for 35's so no worries about belt breakage and the gear is both bigger and longer than the one for the 18. The belt is a different length so the frame length is a little different from the 18's as well. Both had a little out of the hole hesitation. That lean-tune is a characteristic of all out-of-the-box Vanguard engines so that they can comply with EPA emissions regulations. Owners will probably want to drill out the EPA plugs and turn out their carb adjustment screws a little which can be done in less than 10 minutes and helps a lot on any Vanguard engine plus it will probably make it last longer by running cooler. That is about all I know about it.

I am hoping to see one of these boats in person but finances are putting a temporary delay on buying another boat. Looking forward to hearing more about your boat.

Old thread, i know but that's a .100" hull? Correct? Any empty hull weights? How's the bottom with that half pipe holding up?

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who built it

Thirdtimesthecharm

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