One of Al Copeland's Skaters I saw in New Orleans had 5 props, two surface drives per sponson and an Evinrude 225 in the middle for manuvering around the docks.

I think it is 'Robur':

http://www.proprider.com/forum/showp...3&postcount=43

http://www.proprider.com/forum/showp...4&postcount=49

http://www.proprider.com/forum/showp...8&postcount=51

http://www.proprider.com/forum/showp...9&postcount=52

It's from the movie "Fast Boats Hard Water"

Jeff

Surfacing drives do not need to be steerable nor trimable. Those are definitely surfacing propellers and the shafts may have come out behind a deeply notched transom forward of the photo area. Neither Arneson, Buzzi, nor BPM own the "surface drive" concept. This looks almost exactly like the setup one would see on an inboard hydroplane or drag boat...set up to "surface" the prop shafts.

What was the concept of that Rubar boat? 7 powerheads running to gearboxes then to shat drives?

Olli you are right it is Rubar. If you look at the 21:14 mark of this video you can see it. Looks like the outboards come straight through and they just extend the prop shaft....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKtVKAk3SYo

Anything running at the surface is a "Surface Drive". Of course this ranges from an Oar, a Paddle Wheel to even a Bravo or an Outboard and lets not forget the first surface drive, ones own hands.

Unless you submerged your entire body....

You've gotta come up for air eventually

Rich, totally different subject, but what can you tell us about the OHC engines used on the 48' JJ?

With the BBC being stuck back in 1960's for all practical design purposes, the BBC needs a good Over Head Cam head design and I saw something a while back saying you had installed engines which had quad cams.. Did they make good power? Reliable (trick question I know) were they basically BBC with different heads or a totally new engine?