buck35

I see you have 6seats in the boat. If you you need a skinny old guy for unforseen issues, then I'm your man! Awesome build! Sorry about the problems, but what new tech doesn't run into this. At least you have the means and know how to to overcome the obstacles.

BigSilverCat

For the cockpit cover we are using my retractable quarter turn latches. i have watched people step on the normal quarter turn latches and hurt there feet for years. People have broken toes kicking them, there are several people I know that have had to go to the hospital and get stitches from falling on them, so we designed and built quarter turn latches that retract flush into the deck.

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BigSilverCat

It's kind of hard to see the quarter turn latches in black, here is a better picture of them. An added benefit is with them retracted it does not look like you have a spike dog collar around your windshield. And there more aerodynamic, should gain us at least 10-15 mph.

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NASCAT

Not seen those before. Nice choice, the bottom of my feet & toes would have much preferred those on the Skater.
You designed them in house?
Will they be available for sale to the public or at least those who subscribe and ask many questions on this thread?

Double Rigged

I can vouch for them. Have them on my 30 and also had them on the 28. Have not had any issues using them around salt water!
Two thumbs up. I do not know why anyone would use the old style ones.
Great job Tyson on coming up with them.
Hard to believe people building very expensive boats use snaps from 25 years ago......

AZMIDLYF

It's all these finite details that really show how on top of your game you truly are sir. Your CAD/CAM guy needs a bonus.

999JAY

Been there Tyson I feel your pain, I ran in a 46 Skater with 2x750hp diesels overdrive boxes and Arneson and it went surprisingly well.
If you can get close to 750hp each I am sure you will be more than happy with the performance.

If you interested I can give you the specs down to prop size.

BigSilverCat

We had started designing the retractable cover "snap" and were in the process of building a couple of prototypes and a Professor of a senior level mechanical engineering class at a local university ask us if we had any projects that his students could do as a class project. We gave them a list of projects that we were trying to design and most of them he said were way too complicated so we give them a list of easier things. As a class they went forward with about 5 projects for a week to see which one that wanted to try to do. They ended up with the cover snap. We did not show them any thing we had done so it would not skew there thought process. We gave them a standard Quarter turn buckle that a lot of boats use for the cover and said we want something that we can replace this with that will not hurt when you step on it and it still needs to fit with the cover they already have.

The students all were tasked with coming up with there own ideas of how they could accomplish it. A few weeks of them designing individually they met with us and showed what they had came up with.. Some of the students looked like on the way to the meeting had used a crayon to draw something that we could not even tell if it was a quarter turn latch or a dog. A few other students had engineered drawings with dimensions and fly apart powerpoint presentation of it. We narrowed down to two or three designs and had them work together to try to perfect each one of them. A few weeks later we met with them and they had all pretty much decided there was one that had the best chance of working( looked really close to what we had already made). They went forward as a class on that one design and came up with solid models of the parts for us to machine and try. We made the parts and then showed them the good and bad about the design and they re-designed it a few more times with us making the parts for them to play with. Eventually we had a design that would work. During this process there was one student that you could tell actually knew what he was doing and was doing most of the work, so after they graduated we told him if he was looking for a job to come see us. We ended up hiring him and then I had him keep making changes to the design till we came up with one that would work really good. We probably made a hundred of them with little tiny differences. Then we started testing them with an air cylinder and solenoid. I ran one of them 10,000 cycles. I put it under salt water and some sand out of my fish tank while it was cycling. I know it will never have to go up and down more then probably a few hundred times from you putting the cover on and off but when people are sitting next to one they sit there and click it up and down and might do it a hundred times in a few minutes if there bored. ( I have seen this done).

There was a lot more design in this little thing then you would think.

Yes we have sold some of them to other people. I was actually putting some together for my boat up here at skater a few days ago. And a guy was here to pick his boat up and saw them and wanted some so I had to put some of mine into his boat so he could leave.

BigSilverCat

Hatch actuator backing plate that is through bolted in the tunnel. This is a before and after. I spent a lot of time sanding and polishing the backing plate then went to put it in and realized the whole bottom of boat and tunnel is black and this would stick out like a sore thumb. So then it went in the sand blaster to rough the finish and painted it black.

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BigSilverCat

Engine hatch hinges: instead of just using a washer and nut I made a stainless backing plate for each side of hinge. Next time I will just make the backing plate a little thicker and tap it to not have a lock nut sticking down.

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