It is a little bit about a family tradition, and  a lot to do with a turbine-driven dad who loves to conquer design challenges.

Mark Nye has been working with his son Michael, 15, to build a shiny aluminum hydroplane. The boat has been two years in the making and finally appeared on Muskoka Bay in Gravenhurst last summer.

“My father built boats for us when we were young, so I decided do the same for my children,” explained Nye.

In 1967, Nye’s older brother and father built a four-by-eight-foot sea flea. The boat was subsequently stolen from their home in Mississauga. In 1974 his dad tried again and built another boat made out of 16th-inch aluminum but it leaked. So in 1976 he built a boat for Nye out of thicker aluminum and raised the transom for more flotation. These boats all had airtight bulkheads so they wouldn’t sink and were less likely to submarine.

“In 1978 I was 16 and I moved away from boating,” said Nye. “Decades later I now have children who are interested in boats and I wanted to build something for them.”

Nye’s oldest son Michael had his interest piqued last summer. He grew up in a family that was used to the sound of turbine engines starting but it wasn’t until he got behind the wheel of a powerboat that he really had a need for speed.

“He has never really been interested, until last summer when he drove Squirt II, a large powerboat my company designed and built, and felt over a thousand pounds of horsepower at his command,” said Nye. “It awakened him. He became keenly interested for the first time when he felt the incredible power of a turbine engine.”

Squirt II is Nye’s pride and joy. It is a 21-foot, 350-pound aluminum boat with a 1,370 horsepower T58-GE-8F turbine engine that sends a jet of water high into the air when it is running. Nye has two companies: one to make money, Nye Manufacturing, and the other to expand his interests. It is with the latter that he designs and builds turbine-driven boats.

NTC, Nye’s second company, designed Squirt II. “It is named Squirt because that is what it does,” says Nye.

Nye started plans for the hydroplane two years ago, but shelved construction for 12 months in order to get his pilot’s licence. A classic hydroplane design for a 20-horsepower engine was chosen, but as the Nye boat is made of aluminum, it was not just a case of gluing a piece of wood in a corner and sanding or sculpting it to fit. The plates had to be cut to the exact shape. These curved plates required one bend as they were tacked and welded in place.

It took a week to cut pieces and in all it took eight weeks to have pieces ready for assembly. All the cutting specifications were on a 3CD Solid Works file that drove the laser. Cutting was done at a sheet metal shop.

The Nye aluminum hydroplane has a 9.9 horsepower engine. “This is the same one that was on the original boat built by my father,” said Nye. “What a quality engine this really is.” The “Nye-Hydro” boat is 10.5 feet long and is totally symmetrical in shape. It differs from a traditional racing boat as they are built to account for a constant left turn.

Last summer Nye’s youngest son Bradley, nine, was allowed to putter around in front of the cottage in the boat and next year gets to drive the hydroplane all out. “This winter we are going to change the propeller and give it more pitch,” said Nye. “We are also going to shave a few millimetres off the cylinder head to give it more compression and get the speed up to 30 miles per hour.”

The hydroplane doesn’t tip or flip because of its design and low horsepower. It has two sponsons and the propeller to make the three points touch on the water. Because the boat is not V-shaped it will not “chin walk.” Chin walking causes boats to waver and go out of control.

The design is truly a family affair. Michael was involved in the planning and some of the patterning was done on the dining room table. He also did some tacking using the special welding equipment at the shop. It took Michael two days to grind, treat and sand joints. The entire boat was sanded with 120-grade sandpaper then 220-grade sandpaper and then 600 grade. A four-horsepower sander was used to get a mirror surface on the aluminum.

According to Nye, the highly polished boat is a real eye-catcher. “In the sun, it gets so bright it could blind you forever,” he said.