It looks like a great white shark, large dorsal fin, jaws lined with dagger-sharp teeth. At 5 metres in length, it’s same size as one.
The two-seater half jet-ski and half airplane style boat also has a 260hp engine, which powers it to 50mph above water, and 20mph below it.
The ultimate boy’s toy sells for around £60,000 ($105,000 au)
Among the high-tech features includes a snorkel mounted video camera that can transmit live video to LCD screens for the driver and passenger during dives, GPS navigation and on board stereo with iPod docking.
It can “sustain high speed dives and then breach the surface launching the entire vessel clear out of the water” while mimicking the “tail articulation of real aquatic animals like sharks and dolphins”. It takes about three months to build.
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Seabreacher's co-owner, Rob Innes, 37, a self confessed “water sports fanatic”, described the experience as “intense, extreme play”.
Then we're off - skimming at high speed across the water. We roll 90 degrees to the right, then the left.
I wouldn't recommend it to those with sea sickness, but it is exhilarating - I'm just glad that a 360-degree roll is out of the question. For now.
“It's pretty popular in the Middle East, but we've also sold them to clients in Korea and the Caribbean.”
'One guy ended up doing a barrel roll when he wasn't supposed to,' says Rob, 'but no one's ever crashed one. They're pretty safe.'
“This isn't a submarine, you're not going to visit the Titanic in it. It's more of a cross between a plane and a boat, and we've been improving the models constantly so they can do more and more tricks.”
Mr Innes said a U.S. Navy research officer visited his company’s Redding, Northern California base to inspect the designs.
The company plans to build 10 of this particular model with two already pre-sold. It is based on a previous model that is shaped similar to a dolphin.
More info go to
www.seabreacher.com
