Metastability
is when it doesn't particularly want to go anywhere on its own, but if an external force intervenes -- Ash's fly, or (in the case of Windows) either trying to do something with it, or the simple passage of time...
My version of the front ski was triangular from all directions -- long and skinny with the tip chopped off from the top, inverted isosceles from the front/back, and flat on top/deep aft from the side, for exactly the reasons Christian (who has plainly thought more deeply about it than I) gave. The back ski is roughly the same shape, but deeper to accommodate the water-jet's intake.
Yes, the engine goes in the middle -- it's supposed to be a motorcycle analog! I simply thought that the engine lower unit of an outboard would be too much of a keel. We don't want to restrict the thing from sliding sideways! If we do, it's going over toward the outside of the turn, like a fatass freighter in ballast taking a turn too quickly, or an inept sailor weathering ship in a blow that's just a little too strong --
Therefore a water jet; engine properly between the knees, pump just under the saddle, ejecting the drive jet from the back. From a black-chrome trumpet :-)
And Ashton, this thing is continually going to be in side-slide mode, more like a dirt-tracker busking dunes than anything on a highway. We need the crosswise flow to create a roll couple that holds it up when it leans. No winding in and out of cones here, especially at speed, and the turning radius will be ::ahem:: fairly large -- not that it matters. Motorcycles need a short turning radius so they can stay on the pavement, absent gravel patches (my elbows remember!) and spots of ice/grease/water. Our machine has the whole lake to skid in.
As for fiberglass -- the frame should be made of *tadaa* welded tubing (Duh!), but the skis will be moderately complex shapes. Fiberglass (or carbon fiber composite) are the easiest way to do that, especially since it's possible to quick-and-dirty them on male armatures -- I strongly suspect there will be several iterations before the optimum shape emerges!
