Smarty

So how fast did it end up running on its very best run? How did the boat handle at that speed? Again what mechanical issues, if any, plagued this boat?

I find this project very interesting, and I would love to hear more about. It is wintertime, I would love to be educated and informed, about this boat.

Ryan Beckley

I was told it runs just under 200 with seating for 6.....

Keith Atlanta

What! Okay, that is gross.... That is ridiculous! What does the 55 MTI weigh? 15,000?

Smarty

That may not be 240 mph mark that was sought but for a 30K+lb. boat that is 56' long that runs just under 200 mph, that is incredible. That is one very big boat!

Gladhe8er

I think the props hit each other on one run. I think they had a driveshaft problem on another run and took on water...

Orange quatro

Yea, Im with this guy. 30,000 plus the fuel is 6.84 lb/gal. How big are the tanks? @ 2000 gal tanks thats 13,680 in just fuel. I am not familiar with how much the turbines burn tho. Maybe thats an issue with the NY to Miami run. You would have to have a fleet of tankers all the way up the coast.

AB From Windsor

WOW!

I still can't believe that the family of Al Copeland's Sr. Phenomenon has put it up for sale. Last night I looked at that boat in the Classifieds and it has to be one of the nices looking, most impressive Offshore Cats that I have ever seen. So sad, but maybe someone hopefully will honor Al Copeland Sr. dream and buy that boat and maybe even try to break the Speed Record in his name along with theirs.

T2x

The design didn't have a lot of (enough?) forward lift..... Given the weight and extreme picklefork length, i wonder if the creater over thought the fear of back flipping to the point that it may use all of its power simply trying to carry the (heavy) bows? As big as it is, a modest tweaking of existing 200+ mph hull concepts would seem to be more appropriate than the drastic cut back of wing area in the Phenonmenon... This is more like a 400+ mph design than 250. Any body have any Concorde jet engines laying around?

vette131

I agree with you on the design. Word is it ran very wet and bow down until mid 100's or so. I saw the boat when it was being laid up and I find it hard to believe the 30,000# stated above. The cockpit design is supposed to separate from the hull in the event of a crash with full on board oxygen in the cockpit. I was impressed with the thought that went into the safety aspect of the boat as well as the quality of the construction. One of the early problems was the propellers hitting on hard acceleration due to transom flex. 12,000hp and a composite transom turned out to be a bad combination. The transom had to be redone in some exotic wood to stiffen it enough. I don't remember what wood they used when it was redone.

PRIMECUT

What a shame ,Big Al would never have let this happen to his dream.