John, great news from Jacksonville Beach. Over the weekend the beaches had a civilian and military air and sea show. Over 350,00 people attended. The IRB was a huge success in more than a dozen rescues, most being in a "no swimming" two mile area. The beach and city fire departments were so impressed that they have been talking with me all week about buying some. I gave them our policies regarding the boat and even had the big-wigs come down today for a demonstration.
The surf was big and nasty which made for a great demo. They couldn't believe their eyes. They are very serious about purchasing numerous boats for their marine patrol division. I have given them emails, addresses, and hard copies of your info so be on the lookout in the coming weeks. Hope for their sake and yours it works out.
On a separate note, we had a huge outbreak of jellyfish this week and kept getting their cut up pieces stuck in the back side of our prop guard. We took the guard off and we were absolutely shocked at the increased speed, responsiveness, and performance. I'm talking like 40% better! We have always had problems with speed and bite like launching over the front of a broken wave (coming shoreward) like I've seen in your video clips. But with the guard off, we look just like you guys in the races. The rescuer actually has a hard time holding on at full throttle it's so fast. Is our prop guard that bad? Please send me a prop quote to fit a Yamaha 25.
Best regards, Mike