Awesome roost!

Guys that thought outside the box.

Howard Arneson
Al Copeland RIP
Ted McIntyre
Ed Mosmiller RIP
Bill Tomlinson

Today's Glimpse..
John Arruda's talent with John Haggen's bank roll
poured into John Cosker's super hull. The "triple Johny's Syndrome" created some of the baddest Turbine race boats on the planet.

Look at Myway 4 its off the charts!
Love them or hate them Turbines are here to stay.
KR

I'd take your Skater over one of those so called "Super Hulls" any day of the week my friend

You are correct my friend...but depends on the engine... a t-53 or 55 has very little intergrated external systems compared to a model engine that would be installed in an abrams tank, marine engines specific to ones that would be installed in a powerboat have very little external systems including gearboxes ,oiling system, so on and so forth as compared to an industrial setup or a military marine setup or an aero engine which use the engine to provide more external capabilities such as de-icing,heat,blah blah blah.. in which therefore would have a lot more complications. These engines are by far more reliable (trust me theres nothing I love more than the sound of a 1500hp blown BBC...besides the whistle of a turbine but these engines are reliable, create power through the WHOLE band, will drink any fuel, and will pull very hard. The people that work on these engines are few and far between which I have never understood to this day, I have more trouble working on a 600hp BBC than I do a 41,000shaft HP meat grinder, the fact is no body grew up working on turbines in the garage on a saturday with their dads they worked on SBC's and BBC's and few people will stray away from what they know to work on these engines whihc does make it hard to find somebody to turn wrenches on them.
i do agree they are here to stay. As with Geico they raced for years with turbines and rarely had anybody show up to really race them. As soon as they lost the mystic boats come out to race.They decided they would rather race 3 or 4 piston boats at speeds upward of 150mph rather than rebuild turbines and hope someone someday comes to race them at 180mph . Do you disagree with them? A real racer wants to race.

I believe I met one of your buddies at a motorcycle shop last summer. Guy was wearing a Skater t shirt and he told me about your boat. Love to see it, sounds bad as hell!

And "jet set".
They drink fuel like it going out of style.

They realy only like kerosene. Look forthat at the dock...

They can melt down in 20 seconds on start up if you don't light them properly.

They are hard to find someone to work on.

The government is restricting access to info and parts now.

They are next to impossible to dock without barbequing everyone on the dock.

They stink likea big Torpedo heater in the garage.

And the average boat is not setup enough to get the speed out of it that makes itworth putting up with everything above !

But, if you get right, they are bad ass !!

Turbines are really cool, and have their place, but they are not perfect. FACT...There are pros and cons.

Merc 1350's are really cool, but they also have problems, and are not perfect

Marine Diesels are really cool, but they also have pros and cons

Seems like some of us want there to be a "perfect" "best" engine package out there. I can understand how Turbines gave some false hope that they were "the best". But once the marketing wears off and the truth comes out it shows they are not perfect, but still bad azz!

Some thought the Merc 1350's were "the answer", then we watch boats get towed in with broke down or blown up 1350's.

Some thought the Sterling 1700 was "it". Then we watched the "politics" and still don't know if sterling has got it dialed in or not.

Good thing is we get to drool over all these sweet options that most of us will never be able to afford!

as was said before try getting Jet A, Kerosene or even diesel ay most local fresh water marinas (other than the great lakes) and even if they have standard diesel the price will be through the roof because they sell so little and I would personally feel it would be of questionable quality because of how little it turns over in sales

you are already talking about very high end toys and then you add in very high end and specific complexity to it for speeds most people can't or won't run on their local lakes and you have taken all the fun out of it period

there is a huge difference between 100mph in a boat, 150mph in a boat and then getting to near 200mph in a boat and especially a cat that can fly (over) like the wind with a strong breeze and most people are just not willing to go there....add in a canopy and safety gear (for anyone but the insane or those that can wait for the perfect day once a month and actually can get on the water) and you are really just not recreating at the lake any longer you are an amateur pro racer with most of the cost, 100% of the hassles and 150% of the dangers that come with that (not a closed course no safety copter or boats and on and on)

Nice Photo Shop Gerry!!
What you don't see in that picture,is me out in front!! Those Turbine's are doing all they can to catch my 11,000lb Piston Powered 525's....

See you in August at Borden Light
Jeff


BTW.. The Skater Rocks!!

Anf the potential for setting your stuff on fire if you dont start it right either. There has been a fire in the pits when a crew was attemting to start the boat on shore.