Hey guys, The article in speed recaps everything much better than I did. Like they said still working on it. Thats why its staying there till its done to their liking. At this point it needs more time in their hands and thats important. From what Ive seen last few days if I had to do it on my own it would take forever. Tony Cutsuries' time with the Mercury guys is very valuable and you can't put a price on it. Thanx so much to Mercury and Tony for their hard work in this area. Not enough good things I can say about these guys. Stephen V. Lane III.

Right on, congrats Steve. Yes Merc having it is priceless, glad it all worked out that way and you let them take it. Saved you time and $$

That's great to hear how fast it's running the very first day! The fastest 400R powered cat "first-day-on-the-water" so far. My 28 only ran 112 for months with the best Mercury props I could get, then it jumped to 118 (34s), then 120 (35s) once I got the Dewalds on it. I'm not saying for sure that you'll see the same gains as I did, but there's teens in your 318's future for sure! :boat:

We will work on that Dale. Here are a few more pics from last couple days. [ATTACH=CONFIG]545285[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]545286[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]545287[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]545288[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]545289[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]545290[/ATTACH]

A few more.[ATTACH=CONFIG]545291[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]545292[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]545293[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]545294[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]545295[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]545296[/ATTACH]

Such a work of art. The black outboards....hmmmmmm. Is there any way to paint them to match the boat? I think it would finish the package. Still amazing. Congrats!!

I'd rather let everybody know I was packing heat than to have them painted. That's just me though. Boat turned out great Steve. You've got way more patience than I do and it's paid off.

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nice pics!

that's a big hull!

this will proly be for next year, but would luv to see a video of this Skater running in the Atlantic from a helicopter/drone view


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I think this week the best job in the states was factory rep and Mercury engineer.

Thanx everybody for the kind words. As far as the motors go We discussed doing something with the graphics. Nothing major. Maybe changing the colors a bit to something that matches the boat better. I like the Merc 400 on it. Being its a new motor its kind of cool to show it. Im not a huge fan of the totally painted cowl thing. It looks nice just not my style. Skater is hanging on to the boat for a while so Ill have time to work on that. Once again I can't thank them enough for the work done so far. They have been great to work with and entertained my constant phone calls with a smile every time. Ha. Pete definitely has the right guy in Tony Cutsuries for that job. Keep it up Tony. They still have a few tricks up their sleeve so stay tuned. You never know how its gonna turn out. A little more height, a different prop or pitch and maybe even some setback can totally change everything. I know there is a few mph left in there somewhere its just a matter of finding what the boat likes. I agree with all involved that 115mph would be a best case scenario but you never know. Steve.