Originally Posted by peterunwin

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

Originally Posted by 39 Unlimited

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.

Originally Posted by NASCAT

I'm not sure i understand how sticking w/ Mercury Racing insures that the correct prop will arrive, how it would eliminate any parts failures or guarantee that all the components will communicate w/ one another properly. Some of these speed bumps that occur when one decides to build a totally custom one off boat are simply inherent based on the intricacies of the project. This is no production boat. 100% custom & while these hiccups can be frustrating overall I think they are small fires in the big scheme of things.

I've been following this project since the beginning & realize completing the boat by the Miami BS was the goal but under more normal circumstances I think these types of issues might have been addressed by the boat mftr/rigger prior to the buyer taking delivery.

At the end of the day it sounds like all parties involved are doing their best to get Peter up & running so he can enjoy the boat he has put so much thought, time, effort & engineering into.

Just my .02!

Originally Posted by peterunwin

despite having a totally clean car driving and boating records the premiums for both are absurdly high something we will have to rectify at renewal time.