Offshoreonly.com - Uncle Toys project is finally wet! (pictures & a story)

Just back in the office after being gone two weeks. Picked up the boat from Dr. Semper on the Friday before Christmas. The first set of pictures are from that trip. Spent something like six hours with Semper - total sensory overload. Way to many things to remember for an old guy like me. Semper kept driving, talking, and trying to teach me stuff about operating a cat. Finally had to tap him on the shoulder - my boat dude, let me drive! Hard to believe Cat & Mice did 131mph on that little reservoir. http://www.shutterfly.com/my/osi.jsp...21b31ee1f32566

Day after Christmas we packed it up and headed for Havasu. Great time of the year to break in a new cat driver. Empty lake, flat water, but cold (45 degrees in the morning, 65 degrees mid day). My wife took to the speed like a duck to water. I was going to keep it mild for the first day like you guys suggested, but about an hour out she said, go ahead. Got my first air pack - cool! Just as the GPS was climbing through the 70's, two boats came out of a marina up ahead so I brought the sticks back. 79mph on the GPS, the kids were roaring, and I had a, you know what, kind of grin on my face.

Tried three different props during the week: 26"& 28" four blade and 25" three blade (forgot the 24"s at home (bozo). Best speed was with the 25" three blade, got 84mph, but blew out a little getting on plane (10 seconds). That was on flat water, three guys, third of a tank of gas, and we were all over the rev limiter (5,100rpm, I think). The 28"s were way to much, best rpm was 4,400. The 26"s planed like my Nautique and once on plane accelerated like a rocket, but best speed was 81mph, same conditions except only my wife and I on board and only 4,700 rpm.

Sunday, the family members went home. We had put ~10 hours on the boat giving rides. Monday morning my wife wakes me up early and says, "I've got the need for speed." So we launched while the kids slept and went ripping around an empty lake like a couple of teenagers. As we were heading back to the London bridge for gas, a guy in another 26" Daytona came along side. We looked at each other and smiled, then I told my wife to hang on. She looked nervous but didn't say anything so I hit the sticks. As we got into the 70's we started to pull away from the other Daytona and I remember why we were headed for the bridge. The other guy and I waved and I came off the throttle and headed back for gas and lunch. My wife was bouncing in her seat, "that was great," she said. Later we caught up with the other Daytona at the ramp. It was their second day on the water with their new boat and we had a great time swapping stories at Bob Leachs expense.

There was great irony in that little race. The other Daytona had a HP500 in it. That's the engine that got me started on the twins. Merc want so much money for that engine, I thought - hell - I could buy two engines like my Nautique for that price, so I did.

A couple of misc observations:
* You run out of lake pretty fast at 80mph.
* Amazing how stable that boat is at speed. Eliminator did an awesome job of design!
* That outside lean during a turn will take some getting use to.
* The hand held GPS is way cool. Most of the time I missed the top speed because I was looking for traffic. Later I could just check the "Max Speed."
* The canopies are so worth it. Couple of times I stuck my head out at speed - how do you guys do that for long?
* Glad you guys told me about turning the wheel at speed and nothing happening. That would have freaked me out if I hadn't known.

Here's some more pictures. These are from Havasu on Monday when the sun finally broke out. http://www.shutterfly.com/my/osi.jsp...21b31eed012592