I think I'll have to make it over for Key West or Miami next year so I can get a ride! Good to see you enjoying some winter sun while we're all freezing our asses off over here!

Got to see it first hand in Miami and it's incredible! Love the Gulf colors, fantastic attention to detail. Would love to have one at my dock!

Looking forward to the sea-trial report!

Best of luck Peter,

Kurt

Looking forward to hearing how she runs!!!

Have you been able to run it?

I'll store them for you. Hell, i will even water test it a few times a month to make sure everything is working as it should.

I suspect "running it" is the reason Peter hasn't been posting!

Hi John,
You would be very welcome the reason we have not been posting is that we have had more than our fair share of difficulties...... took us over a week to find someone to insure our truck. After the Miami show we took the boat to the launch ramp for it's first test opened up the box with a shiny new herring in it only to find it was LEFT HAND!!!!(: with all the other difficulties we had had this capped it of.. so we went to Key West for a few days holiday herring in the meantime sent another prop not quite the right size but it will get us going while they build the correct one. On our return to Fort Lauderdale we ran the boat on the hose and found it impossible to bleed the steering what should have been a 10 minute job turned into a half day marathon!! checking everything and diagnosing the problem fortunate i am a hydraulics engineer... turned out to be the power steering relief valve jammed in the bottom of the housing would suspect from debris in the hosing Ian Hawkins from Ilmor overnighted me a new cartridge, it was a hell of a job to get the old one out as it was really well jammed, eventually removed the part and flushed the pump installed the new one filled up the oil reservoir and the system bled immediately another hurdle over..
Now able to run the engine for extended periods it soon became obvious that the merlin system was not communicating with the engine? spoke with Ian Hawkins again who arranged for their electronics guru Jim Coats to come out yeterday and program the whole system, he went through everything in minute detail setting up the trim tabs and drive trim indicators to my liking he also zeroed them to my preferred position, so now everything is working beautifully we can now GO BOATING.... but the weather is not looking too good today(:

Peter

A few pictures and a video of the first engine run Ron and Matt at the storage facilities have been a great help it's great to have workshop facilities to use when you are so far away from home.

Peter

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=436563249759459

Great boat Peter, love the innovation. Saw it live in Miami but with the short season here in the Midwest these are the reasons I stick with Mercury Racing.

ahh man. Thats not fair! Sorry to hear about your troubles. Hopefully it all works out, and soon!

All of us have had things like this happen and it sucks. Seems like 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. Especially when you have as good of lives as most of us OSO'ers. We just have to remember how lucky we actually are and try to think of the positives!

Your new boat is amazing. We all are a little jealous but very excited and happy for you. Not fair that this is just one of many stories where a new boat is not turn key like it should be. Not Ilmor's first time being in the story either. But hey that's life.

Enjoy the rest of your vacation and update us with GOOD news soon!