Looking good!!

Swung by quick yesterday, George was going to try and get the trim tabs on, hopefully finish up the back/motors and then start on the console next week....next big decesion....PROPS

What is diff on lower cowls? Are they just unpainted from mercury?

Darren the lower cowls have to be cut about 3 inches almost all the way around to accomodate the latham steering plates...its a tedious job gettint them to line up and look good without leaving a huge gap between the plate and the cowl....and them once they are cut nicely the edges are white fiberglass type material so i paint the edges with a few coats of phantom black just to clean it up a bit....

Just as an FYI,

MarineMachine in FL does the same wing plate for the Verado line. you have to make the same cut in the rear of the cowling. Latham does not make this for the Verados.

I will be updating MarineMachine.com to show you guys the pics of the wing plate made for Verados.

Trim tabs are on, bilge pumps are in...almost time to move to the console

started work on the inside of the console.....coming along now....
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...5-19165343.jpg

tabs are on and were a tight fit....

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...5-19134931.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...5-19134922.jpg

Sean ordered a real cool stern light....all stainless and looks pretty neat in the package...cant wait to install it...

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...5-19170848.jpg

Left Hand sportmaster came in today....

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...5-19170904.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...5-19170916.jpg

You da man....looking great!!

Sean, are we looking at a Tuesday splash date? ;)

Hopefully thurs/friday

Your killing meeee , another week ? :(

Really looking good for friday! Saw her today, hopefully some pics up tonight, wiring is immaculate, next weekend should be fun!

Man, that steering setup looks beefy... I like it.

Thanks,George is knocking it out of the park.. some pics from yesterday from my cell phone. Check out the excellent wiring in the console... and let me add.... George isnt even finished yet, so its only going to get neater and more organized under there then it already is! A lot of this is 'first time' because its first twins centerconsole, so figuring out the best ways to mount, where to mount, and how to set up overall have been decesions George has made...and he hasn't disappointed!

The toughest decesions so far were how to bring the rigging tubes from the engines into the boat (as the well is not very deep), and were to mount batteries/trim pumps (going in console), as well as radios, etc (radio going in console as well, with a remote control on the dash). But that has been the fun as well, playing with ideas, going one way, then rethinking it after seeing it laid out, etc

George also did a real nice set up with the bilge pumps (I have two in the back as a precaution).

The Rigging looks awesome!

Nice work George! What's on the agenda for this coming week?

LAUNCHING :)

Install Batteries, hook up the stern light, run tab hoses, install the trim pumps, finish up the electrical work. swap out the gearcases, throw the props on. I am sure I am missing things

One or two things we arent going to hold up launching for like getting the radio installed. Most likely have to put another bulkhead of some sort in for the radios and Ipod holder

Sean, in a year or two, if you ever get bored with speed, checkout what Diamond Marine can do to your motors:

http://www.diamondmarine.com/


I'm also researching Shaun Torrente mods :)

Probably lay off the engine mods so as not to blow the warranties...but never say never!

Shots from today...

First was the final layout we decided on for the batteries/oil tanks, well, George laid it out and I said "yup, looks good". Second is most of it hooked up

hey guys....its really coming along now....hoping to get most of it finished up today and get sean out for a boatride tomorrow....i will post a bunch of finished product pics after we run it....

just in case anyone cares here is a link to the skater all done...i will make a photobucket page for seans boat as well once its done....
http://s177.photobucket.com/albums/w...x/30%20Skater/

...as I said before, very impressive George!




noli

I heard from a little birdie that you were doing 70+ at no more then 4500RPM. HMMMMMM. How cool is that? Cruise around at 60 burning 14 gal an hour, @ 3500rpm. Hoping for a ride tomorrow. ;)

For reference at 4500 I'm doing 69 (unsure of current) and burning 27gph with an y2k and 496ho... I have efficiency envy!!

Or is that 14gph per engine?

Your motor doesn't turn 6000 Rpm. @ 4500, you only have another700-800 rpm left.

I'm still waiting for pictures. Who has the damn pictures!! LOL

I'm not shure, but I'm sure someone will chine in about the fuel burn on a 250 @ 3500rpm. It's not much. Probably aroung 8 gal an hour. I might be wrong.

George, that rigging came out sooooooo sweeeet. Damn!!

Great day today. Went by Accurate around 3 PM, odds and ends were being finished, including swapping of the gearcases. The boys at Accurate are a class act, special thanks to George/Ghost for all the hard work, effort and help thought out the rigging. Thanks to Eric/Superbender as well for all his input and help with the gearcases...both these guys are top notch! So once all the small items were done and the 'paperwork' was completed......George and I took the boat to the gasstation to fill her up. This was the first funny part of the day when the gas attendant asked how many gas cans we filled up when I signed for the final bill, he didnt realize it was one tank, but that we had like 20 6 gallon gas tanks. Then it was off to Tanner park for the intial shake down run. We backed her down till engine were in, and then fired them up for the first time....music to my ears! After putting the gaskets on the cowls.... we pushed her off the trailer, parked the truck and George said "Captain.....do your thing"

We pulled out of tanner ramp, headed out to the bay and George said "let her rip" and I hit the throttles... early impressons so far:

#1- Boat hopped right up on plane, and with no tab assitance
#2- Acceleration is great...a complaint I had with my 300 Promax on my 24' SB
#3 We were doing 70+ at like 4600-4700 RPM. Were cruising at 50+ at like 3600 rpm (my memory on actual RPM/MPH is fuzzy..excitement got to me, will have better #'s tomorrow)
#4 Boat runs extremely level, turns great and just feels overall very 'in control'. I know a lot of people had told me 30's were 'nose happy', didnt seem that way today. if anything, as George said "she doesnt like trim as much"...but obviusly lots of dialing in to do

About the only thing I didnt like was the level of the windshield, it basically cuts right in my field of vision, feels like I have bifocals on, but easily fixed

Overall......VERY happy with the boat, the rigging and the overall build. So far, a great experience. Special thanks to Rick for all his hard work on the build and to JC for all his help.

George may have summed it up best...." We didnt run aground, we didnt break down, we didnt sink.....good first run!"

Some Pics:

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...x/DSC00360.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...x/DSC00365.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...x/DSC00368.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...x/DSC00371.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...x/DSC00372.jpg

Some more pics

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...x/DSC00359.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...x/DSC00361.jpg

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...x/DSC00367.jpg

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!

Very impressive #s, espically considering it was the first splash... wow.

Cograts to Rick, George and Sean!

Nice job! The engines look sweet.

The lowers are scary nice!

I wonder what the top end will be

I'm sure Sean can't wait for the 3 hour break in to be over, so he can put the hammer down and see what she does

AWESOME!!!

Looks great, you must be totally stoked

Nicely done!
Good Luck!
Happy Friday...

Another good day of testing, had lots of fun running around, boat handled the chop real well, ran great

I even have the video. Got camera back from kate and never checked it or the setting. My bad. Lens was also filthy. It's better then nothing. I'll be ready next time.
The boat is soo awesome. Planes instantly with almost no bow rise and your doing 45-50 in seconds! Shoots right up to 70. Still have to baby it for break in. George wants to raise up the motors a little and do more testing. But that's after the weekend.
Here's the video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVELMnxJI9U

Also found a few other Superboat vids from Freeze Frame
Specialized Racing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMGw5PXAVbA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBRtXZxsOyI
And Reinforcer Racing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSo-o...eature=related

Sean,

Awesome run! The motors aren't that loud. I can hear you guys speaking clearly.

I like the rooster tail at speed and when you were trimming out the eninges. Cool video. Please take some more!!

Nice running hull!

Another good day of running yesterday, have about 6 hours total on the boat now. Doing a conistent 50+ @ 3500 rpm., handling great, just all around real fun ride

Hopefully get the wife and son out today for their first rides

Sean, what top end numbers are you seeing !!!:grinser010:

Was seeing almost 74 at top end (around 5500 rpm), but we have to raise the engines, you have to trim the engines way up to get them to that RPM level and George put it best..."your just shooting your horsepower into the air"

I put almost 8 hours on her this weekend, was hoping to break 10 hours, but had to cut yesterdays trip short. The wind picked up around 11 30 AM and the bay was a MESS. I ran for an hour or so and then just decided to call it a day

Congrats on the good numbers and awesome looking boat!

I was in long island sound during the "mess" and did a 100+ mile trip back from montauk... wishing I had stand-up bolsters right now... damn.