WESTERN MARYLAND
An Invention Born to Be Wild -- on the Water
Jim Garlitz of Western Maryland sits on his "water chopper," a cross between a motorcycle and a watercraft.
(By Wesley Haines -- Cumberland Times News Via Associated Press)
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
CORRIGANVILLE, Md. -- Years of puttering around the workshop finally have paid off for a local inventor, whose work appeared in the July edition of Popular Mechanics.
Jim Garlitz, who operates a pizza shop in this small unincorporated town in the Western Maryland mountains, was featured for a watercraft he assembled using a 1985 red Yamaha Virago motorcycle frame, a 1990 9.9-horsepower Nissan outboard motor and other "readily available materials."
He calls it a water chopper.
The chopper's hydrofoils, like the wings on a plane, can propel the rider off the surface of the water for a noiseless, smooth ride. The magazine said the water chopper would make an excellent platform for fly-fishing.
"You can sustain that flight on the foils for as long as you want to," Garlitz said. "That's the beauty of it. You're virtually flying."
Heading out for the first test run, Garlitz said he felt something akin to what the Wright Brothers must have experienced. The chopper worked "almost flawlessly," he said, reaching 37 mph.
"It's stable. It doesn't tilt, tip or anything," he said. "It can ride backwards. It doesn't matter who you are, you can get on it and ride it."
For Garlitz, creating the water chopper caps 40-plus years of fascination with motorcycles.
"This was the first prototype I ever put together," he said, showing photographs of the craft in action on Jennings Randolph Lake. "I didn't draw up plans. I just had it in my head this would work."
It took about two months of work and $1,000 before the bike was ready to hit the water.
