Kavin Dykes...1986 Vector with Mercury 150.

It all started the first time I saw a Hydrostream make its way down the river as we were on the bank watching. I had seen many other performance boats like Allisons and Checkmates run the river, but something about the hydro was different. Its shape and the way it sat in the water kept me looking and wondering what is was like to drive one. Well not long after, my friend bought a Varmint with a hopped up 150 MERC and I got my chance to drive it. I already had experience at driving fast performance boats so after I got the feel of it I was tearing across the Alabama river at close to 80 mph and as Hydrostream says, DRIVE ONE AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND…I was hooked right then. So the hunt for one of my own began and that’s when I was introduced to the Registry and found out about the many different boats that were made. I chose the Vector and the Viking as my favorite style and began to look. After many telephone calls and looking around locally and having no luck, I knew I was going to have to travel if I was going to get a Stream that was in good shape and not break the bank to have. After going back and looking again through the classifieds I located an ‘86 vector in St. Louis Missouri. I live in sunny Pensacola, Florida so it was quite a drive. I called and negotiated a very reasonable price and convinced my brother who is now also a hydro fan and owns a Varmint to make the drive with me. We left on Friday night and drove straight through and arrived in Missouri the next morning. The boat was even better than I thought from looking at photos. It had a massive 260 hanging on back and although the boat was being sold without the motor and I had nowhere near that much power to hang on back, I knew my little 150 Merc would do for now. So after removing the motor and taking care of paperwork I returned home and began to rig it up.

The boat was restored by Marc Beilman and he did an excellent job. Everything in the boat is in its place. The seats and padding on the sides of the boat were sewn by him and paint and gelcoat were sprayed by him also. The trailer is a custom built tailored to follow the shape of the boat, especially in the rear and was also built by Marc. The boat has a hot foot, six inches of setback, cordless trim on the wheel and reinforced transom with aluminum brackets. For now it has a 2.0 liter 150 with a Bob’s tuner, the bucket has been removed and a Land and Sea low water pickup. It has a Bob’s lightweight alien style Merc cowling and a 26 pitch semi cleaver. I have not checked speed on GPS yet, but it is a blast to drive. It porpoises a little until you get above about 40 and then levels out and flies like a dream. Future plans include more cubic inches, a 2.4 or 2.5, moving gas tank and battery to the front under the bow and of course going faster!

[ Home l About I.H.R. l History l Models l Registry l Members' Pictures l Feature Article l Tech Talk ]
[ Literature l Events l Top Guns l Guest Boat l Classifieds l Video Gallery l Racing Corner ]
[ Prop Slippage Program l Animated Videos l Screen Savers l HIN Decoder l Links l Contact Mark ]