KenD, Shannon & Phantom,

Congratulations on the maiden voyage of your new race boat. Best Wished for You and your Team in 2004!!!
Any chances of a few photos of the inside of the canopy?? I heard it is like STAR WARS on the inside with the cameras and plasma screens.

Best Wishes,
DPT

wow . . . that boat is awsome. any pics of the inside. thanks

I'm sorry about the pictures, I was in the cockpit all afternoon programing and tweekng the electronics but forgot to take my camera.

Perhaps you'll get and idea of why we call it "Star Wars" from the on-board equipment:

3 - Dual screen LCD monitors
6 - Cameras
1- port rear view camera
1- starboard rear view camera
1- third man camera between the seats looking forward
1- rooster-tail camera looking back from the air scoop
1 - color/infrared camera in engine room
1 - underwater camera in the rocker tunnel looking back toward rocker tabs and drive bullets (my favorite)
3 - Digital video recorders

Mercury Smartcraft 5000 system which digitally monitors each engine with dual/split screen displays for:

* RPM
* Air temp going to engines
* Oil Pressure
* Oil Temp
* Water temp
* Water Pressure
* Fuel level graphical display for each tank
* Digital fuel gallons in each tank
* Digital fuel remaining in each tank
* Fuel used per engine in gallons
* Fuel flow per hour for each engine
* Estimated travel distance on remaining fuel
* Drive Trim graph
* Digital drive trim angle readout
* Drive turn angle
* Engine sync
* Max speed
* Avg Speed
* Current Speed
* GPS position
* Distance traveled
* Distance to next way-point
* Time to next way-point
* Time of day
* Engine alarms & warning lights
* Rev limit warning lights & horn
* A few other things I haven't figured out yet

We also have:

Garmin color GPS/Chartplotter w/features like water temp, tide charts, current speed, max speed, avg speed moving, time moving, time not moving, & lots of other features that I'm still learning about

AM/FM/CD/MP3/Sirius Satellite Stereo w/150 watt speakers - and a really neat graphical display that changes colors and screens with the music

2 -tach guages
2 -engine trim guages
Heads-up rocker trim indicators
Heads-up turn tab indicators
Integrated helmet intercom system
On-board scuba system
Halon fire control system
VHF/Weather radio w/emergency GPS position transmission

GPS/Engine telemetry - data logging system w/ 2 accelerometers & graphical recording of boat position, speed, rpm, torque, horsepower, & G-forces

Red neon indirect lighting in cockpit
Neon indirect engine room lighting
Power pop-up nav lights & telescoping anchor lights


And to top it all off.....This rocketship is F-A-S-T !

More pics when you get around to it KenD. Best wishes again in 2004 for Yourself and the Team.

Thanks for sharing,
DPT

Sounds great Ken........but the next obvious question is......how much extra weight does all of that add?

Can't wait to see the pictures.

You could have called it Mr Technology II

That would not have been fair to you though Ron. Only would have been good if you were part of the Team. There is only one Mr. Technology and that name should stay with you.

DPT

Ron,

I agree with DPT, there is only one Mr. Technology. We have bounced around some other names that are takeoffs of Mr. Technology...."Mr. Gadget" being one that works too.

Boat names are tough for me. We've been working on this project for more than 15 months and I still haven't hit on the perfect name. "Star Wars" is what what we said the deck plug looked like, so that has kinda stuck.

Maybe we should throw it open to the forum....the winner gets a ride.

KenD,

Any photos that you could post of the inside of the canopy for us???? Even photos of the engines installed currently too would be great.

Thanks Again,
DPT

Phantom1,

Minimum weight in our Class is 8000 lbs. We had all the electronics and cables in a box before rigging started and the whole box didn't weight over 20 lbs.

Before we added fuel, the boat came in a few hundred pounds under minimum weight due to Will's secret lamination formula and a few other tricks like carbon fiber drive shafts. (The big 4-1/2 inch ones like they use in Top Fuel dragsters)

Will also installed two 100 gallon fuel tanks with the option to move fuel from tank to tank to tweek balance for different conditions. We'll probably use extra fuel in the appropriate tank to make minimum weight.

Two tanks also make it possible to use the boat for more than racing. We have our eye on a Sarasota to Key West run to get some hours on the engines and seat time in the boat.

Maybe we could run on over to Marathon while we're down in the Keys and run a race too. Would that work?