We Bought a Mini Jet Boat from Temu: What Actually Arrived in the Crate
By James H. Sterling
Breaking open the wooden crate delivery revealed hulls held upright by scrap lumber brackets and coarse self-tapping screws. The exterior surfaces were wrapped in light industrial plastic that had torn in transit, allowing gravel and road dust to abrade the exterior clear coat. Still, the underlying shells were made from hand-laid fiberglass rather than thermoformed plastic.
A detailed inspection of the hull build quality revealed inconsistent fiberglass resin pooling in the rear transom corners. Wall thickness measured between 4 mm and 6 mm, sufficient for light freshwater chop but vulnerable to structural cracking if beached hard on river rock. Metal hardware throughout the deck showed mixed metallurgy; while the forward tow eyes were cast 304 stainless steel, several engine compartment bolts were plain zinc-plated carbon steel that would corrode after a single afternoon in brackish water.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
