New Theme Boat!
 

10 years ago, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. It showed up on a mammogram, and it was one of those "it should not be a problem, but....". After a double mastectomy, chemo, and radiation, she has been cancer free for 10 years. On December 6th (my birthday also) we celebrated her 70th. There has been plenty of cancer in our family, and every one of us know somebody that has suffered, or is suffering from this dreaded disease. In the past month, a guy that I work with was diagnosed with cancer, and just last week, another co-workers Mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. cancer pretty well sucks.

When my mom had cancer, I learned that there are resources that we have here locally that can help both the one that has it, and thier support group, which includes friends and family. there is technology available that I never knew of, and there are screening processes that can enhance the chances of finding cancers at the earliest. I had thought for years about taking something that I hate, cancer, and combining it with something that my family and I love, which is boating. I have been watching for one for years, but when I saw a 2000 Armada batBoat, come up for sale, I knew that the stars had aligned. Now it is not a Skater, Cigarette, Nortec, or MTI (not that I would not like to roll like that, but those are just not in the cards), but it is a unique boat that will draw attention.

After coming up with a design, my son and I met with the two local hospitals to see which one could get us the most exposure. St. Lukes Hospital in cedar Rapids, Iowa, is the one that treated muy mom, and in my mind has the best cancer treatment center in the area. When I met with the marketing folks there, and laid out a rendition of what I was doing, I could see them all just thinking WTF? After a 45 minute presentation, they were "all in".

We plan on using this boat as a marketing effort to better spread the word locally about the resources that St. Lukes has to detcect cancer at its earliest stages. We are making an autograph card that will have a pic of the boat, along with its information, with a list of resources on the back. Maybe, just maybe, it will help somebody take a first step, like getting that first mammogram. With that, I have 7 other local sponsors that have come on board to help me with this initiative. We already have many dates on the calendar and will soon be launching a facebook page to keep everybody up to date about where we will be, and what we will be doing. I will be using proceeds from the sponsors to help cover some overhead, and to alos purchase promotional merchandise that we will trade for donations. These donations will do to the hospital to help fund pre-screenings for those that cannot afford it.

Right now, the boat is in primer and should have paint in the next few days. The boat and trailer will be in Synergy Green, and my Excursion will have apartial Synergy Green wrap on it. I hope that we will be able to have some fun, rasie some money, and raise some awareness as to what is available in our communuity. I also hope that folks that are battling this challenge can look at this as an opportunity to live, rather than focusing on the negative, if even just for a few minutes.

The attached rendering is not with the current sponsors, but are from a presentation to another group, but you will get the idea.

The "unveiling" will be happening at a local St. Pattys parade on the 17th of March. It will be surrounded by folks that have been impacted by cancer, along with the health proffesionals that wake up and battle it every single day. No, this boat is not that multi hundred thousand dollar rocket with an over the top paint job, but in my world, it should be pretty cool.

There is also a pic of the boat as we bought it, and a 53" remote control model with a weedeater gas engine that I will loan to my sponsors, along with a glass case, to display it at thier businesses. This model will be an exact duplicate of the "big" boat.

Some pics of these BatBoats in action can be seen at
V24powerboats.com
I do not intend on racing it, but will attend some poker runs along with all of the local appearances.

Lookin good :cool-smiley-011:

Thanks for all of the help along the way! Your inpput has been very valuble.

Nice work, Jeff.

Love it.
My mother is 80 yrs old and has recently been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer that has metastisised in her bones and currenty her marrow is 80% to 90% replaced with cancer.
if you ever get to Michigan or Erie for a run I'd like to shake your hand.

Great idea, great cause good luck!

Mom's been battling Breast Cancer for 13 years now (she just turned 60 in December)....full radical mastectomy when we found it......showed up in her sternum bone 4 years ago.....been on Chemo the better part of the last 13 years......Since the end of the summer she has been acting like a different person......clumsey, tired, confused and week on her left side of her body......took her for more MRI's and CT Scan's.....one large tumor on the brain.......Neuro surgeon expressed to me immediate action.......rushed her to hospital on Friday February 11th for more testing and under the knife Tuesday February 15th.....Dr. is positive he got it all but he can not be sure it won't re-appear......mom is doing well at home now recovering.......actaully cooking and cleaning which she was unable to do for quite a while now........(these are the simple things that make her happy). My point of telling this whole story to you is that I feel she could have been helped sooner had I been more "educated" as a family member of someone with cancer......I could remember her over the summer coming out to eat and I noticed little things like her hair being a little messy, something she would never ever have let happen. Then her being a little behind in our conversations......she and we wrote it off as 13 years of chemo taking it's toll, not the case. My thought is for someone like you with your boat that can get people's attention then pass on information.......pamphlets, brochures, magazines, etc, etc....filled with things to look for, for early detection......as you know already that is what gives someone the best chance of beating cancer......You seem to already know what your doing, this is just a thought/idea I felt I can add from my experience........I wish you luck and hope to see you at a Poker Run sometime soon.....

Thanks, my sister has been dealing with cancer for 4 years.

IMO you picked the perfect boat for this! Bat boats attract more attention then any other unless you have a HUGE wallett.. Great job/cause I hope it all works out.

Thanks for the kind words. I am not trying to something really big, like cure cancer, I am just hoping that this little boat can bring some smiles to some faces that otherwise may not have alot to smile about. The name of the boat is St.LukesEarlyDetection.com and we will have plenty of information that we will be handing out in order to help educate folks about what resources are out there.

EVERYBODY has a story. I took the trailer to another painter as the boat painter does not have a second booth. When I picked up the boat, the painter said that he had share the story of this boat with a friend of the family that has stage 4 liver cancer. This friend got a ride down to the shop, and spent several hours with the painter prepping the trailer. When they were completed, he was exhausted, but I was told that he had not felt "better" in months.

Ona-Mission- Give your mom a big hug from me. It is people like her that somehow made me do this. I am hoping to come up to Grand Rapids some time this summer to visit a friends business. I would love to time it with some kind of a run or event if the timing would work out. What I am trying to do with out of town runs/events is to find a local sponsor(s) to purchase co-branded promotional merchandise (their business and the boat), this merchandise would be given away for donations. 100% of these donations would go directly to a local cancer charity that the sponsor would decide on. $1000 or $1500 of promotional merchandise (pink bandanas/hats/backpack/stickers/T-shirts/etc.) should bring in $4000-$5000. I don't have the time to do many of these, but will do what I can. Next winter it may be an excuse to get out of the snow!

I am also having a portable "staircase" fabricated so that folks can get into the boat (especially kids) in order to get their pictures taken. While the kids are climbing in for pics, it will be a perfect time to slow down the parents enough to get some information in their hands.

What started out as a simple idea years ago, has become something way bigger than I ever thought.

nice, great cause, cancer sucks, my step dad is battling Prostate cancer as we speak.
Dean

Great job!!!! Both my mother and mother-in-law are breast cancer survivors and I applaud you for your efforts.

If you ever drag that boat down to Oklahoma, I would like to shake your hand and buy you a drink....

Matt

Looks good. I'm sure you will raise awareness and $$ for the cause.

Thanks for your help also, Dean. I just looked at the pics that you had sent me to figure out the trim tab alignment. We are ending up with bolts right in the center of the stringer, but it appears that we can go out furthur with them, based on the pics of your boat.

Hopefully the boat will be sprayed with the Synergy Green tonight! I am way looking forward to seeing it in the morning. The guy doing the paint and rigging (JDL Motorsports in Marion, Iowa), is really doing a detailed job on the prepping of this boat before paint. He tells me that he believes in doing it one way!

Thank you to the others for the kind words of encouragement. I will certainly post on here if we are going to take it to the road at all. I would look forward to meeting each of you. The one definite road trip that we will be making is for the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in the fall. I am working on a couple of ideas for the week of the Shootout that may raise some money for a local cancer charity.

where are you located at..my mother is a cancer survivor and i would be more than willing to make those seats match the paint

I am in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I am getting to the point that timing is critical, but the seats are just covers and I could UPS them to you for patterns. That would be very, very cool.

Like I say, the stories that I am hearing are just endless.

i rally hope we can get together and get this done...here is a link to the material i think we should use

http://www.designerpages.com/product...ke-Wv-200-Wave

We will talk later today. Jr plays hockey for Iowa and will be in Chicago on Saturday. He may be able to bring them in with him.

Thanks!

If you have bolts going into the center of a stinger just use Stainless steel lags. They will be plenty strong if you are into a stringer. On my Formula they hit the side of the stringer and I just notched the stringer and then re-glassed it.

Good point!

Looking at the record for 22' single engine Vee hull it appears to be 80mph. With a 383 SB you should crush that number with the Bat!

Hmm, I thought that it was a 24. I guess that I had never measured it. I would imagine that it will do quite well in that class.

As the story goes.. The running surface (transom to nose) is 22' which was too short for the class they wanted it to race in. They then added the tail to bring the overall to like 23'-9". I believe the LOTO class is to 24'.

Great idea for a great cause!! Good luck with your venture.

Love this idea. My mother's been battling cancer for the last 16 years-- stage 4. Best of luck with it, can't wait for the results! Going to show my mom this later. She'll love it.

How many hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent over the years looking for cancer cures? Until the carcinogen polluters are stopped there will be no cure for cancer.

this is not looking for a cure...it is to raise awareness..... hopefully when women see it they will think"ya know i should get a mammogram " all it has to do is save one life to make the project well worth it

A senior varsity football player in the local high school has just passed away his name was Ian Lockwood he died of brain cancer in January. I most definatly support your cause.

Wow. Stories like this are heard all too often.

As I have said, I am not out to find a cure, but hopefully I can put something out there that those personally affected can be proud of, and will raise some awareness of what resources are out there to help with all phases from early detection to family support. I think that we can make some folks smile that sometimes don't have alot to smile about.

The boat is coming along great. Can't wait to see it in person. Let me know if you ever decide to make it towards Saylorville, Rathbun, or Redrock.

-Shane

We will definitely make it to Rathbun (we used to go there a ton in the late 70's early 80's with our 18' Bonanza) or Sailorville. Keep me up to date if there are any special events happening at either of these.

Just pulled the boat from the painter to the graphics guy. It looked good in the shop but really came alive out in the sun! After graphics, we will re-install all of the trim and windows. the engine is on the stand but may be a few weeks before it goes in.

my donation to saving the boobies

not %100 done but close

and done
 

Ready For Pick Up!!!....

looks good . . .. man thats a lot of green :D

we were going to do a pink ribbon embroidered in the head rest but time did not allow for that. i only had the seats for 6 days and i had plans all weekend so i really only worked on them for 4. I think some white inserts would have been cool to.I just wanted to say Jeff is doing and amazing job on this boat and i am happy to say i had a part in it. Super guy to work with and i would do it again in a heartbeat

They look Great!!