A Closer Look at the ECLIPSE 505 Shadow with Great Lakes Scuttlebutt

Hey guys, Eric Riley, your publisher of Great Lakes Scuttlebutt magazine, and I'm excited to be down at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show right here in beautiful South Florida. As a matter of fact, while I'm here, I get to walk around. I get to see some exciting new products. All to report to you guys on. I'm here with one of my favorite people on the planet, Dave HMY and Eclipse Yachts. Good to see you, my friend. Great to see you, man. Yeah, yeah. We've been waiting a while to sit on this boat. This is the brand new Eclipse. Tell us a little bit about this model and what it took to get this boat here. Well, you know, from all the way from scratch, because you've heard about it and been excited about it as well, two and three quarters years to get where we are today, from a concept to engagement with Michael Peters Yacht Design, Design Unlimited, the builder Two Oceans Marine Manufacturing from Cape Town, South Africa. Yeah, it's been a long road, four continents and a lot of wonderful people to get here. So we've been seeing images of this boat. We've been seeing some of the renderings of this boat. We've kind of understood a little bit about the idea of what Eclipse is. Kind of tell us, this boat line is representative of what in the marine space? It's the new segment in cruise, where, you know, I always say people are going to go laugh out of this one. The guy that lives by me that has the Ferrari that does 220 miles an hour. Does he ever go 220 miles an hour? Right. The car will do it, but it never passes 45. Right, right. So what we wanted to do is create something that really does it all. You look at everything in the industry, it's a bit aged. And so we wanted to get the performance, really great on water performance, and then bring in all the amenities that people want to see. Because this kind of, it straddles the big boat land and the smaller boat world. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we have a lot of, you know, like mega customers that they, this is a tender. It kind of works as an all around tender. It works as an owner operator. And it appeals to really a huge strata of the marine segment at this length. We're sitting on the 50 footer right now, correct? Yep. And I think that there's another model that's going to be introduced next year and then a couple other models as well. Talk to us a little bit about the range of what Eclipse is offering. Because when you say tender on a 50 foot boat, I'm thinking, wow, that's a major boat. 50 foot boats for the Great Lakes, for the East Coast market, those are pretty family friendly boats. Right, yeah. I mean, anybody can operate. And the technology, as we'll go through, the technology makes this. We wanted it to be anybody and everybody could operate it. But also it can work for, you know, we'll call it more of the commercial and professional mariner as well. Very much so. So this is the first 505 Shadow. I think you're aware we have the base boat, which is a two engine, totally different interior, different level of technology. This is all of it all in one. This boat only comes with five options. It's all here. Electricity, we have it. All the wireless stuff, we have it. Bluewater fighting chairs as a table. So it just goes on and on and on. So the next in the range, now that we have this out, and there are 14 on the floor. I think I told you that. Maximum production is 14 at a time. So we'll be seeing two boats a month, you know, custom orders and stock, etc. And now we're moving into full production of the 605. Oh, 60 footer. Yep. So there's a 60 footer, the big sister to this one. And it'll be to the public this time next year. Nice. Nice. Nice. Now, you had mentioned the amenities on this boat and there's only five extra features. It's not just the stuff that boaters are looking for in a boat. Dave, there are new things, new forms of technology on this boat. I've never even seen before. The innovation that went into this boat miles ahead of where a lot of the competition is. We really wanted to push the envelope, Eric. As you'll see the drop in, uh, boarding door, the, uh, the motor well cover. So you have full transit across the back of the boat when the engines are down. And when they're up, engines are out of the water. This convertible mate seat that I'm sitting on with a foot well. Nobody has seen any of this. Then you look over to the helm. I mean, we, we could spend some time on that. Oh yeah. It looks like a Ferrari. You see my text messages coming through on the screen? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is awesome. Steering wheel controls. Yeah. We, we really pulled out all the stops. Yeah. And I really liked the back window area with the door. The window goes up and down. So you literally are, you have a way to engage with anybody that's at the stern of the boat. That's right. All the way up to here. Even down in that, in the main slot. You'll know we wanted to stay one level all the way through from the balcony, all from the engines, all the way through to the galley. So, you know, you'll, you have different groups of people. You have the galley in the middle for whatever you need to do. By the way, it's all Thermador appliances. Yeah. We're not using any RV or any of those kind of, you know, marine RV. The people that purchase these boats, they have Sub-Zero. They have Thermador. They're used to this. Right. That's equipment. So the level of luxury on this boat is something that your boat owner of Eclipse is going to be accustomed to. This is something that they're going to be able to put their foot into like at a comfortable shoe. Right. Exactly. The technology that everybody's either wanted or already has. Yeah. The amenities that everybody wants and already has in their lives. And the performance. Then you take all these different little features that we've done to make it even an even greater experience. Like you'll see our infinity pool water output on the side of the boat. You don't walk outside and you're not listening to rushing water from air conditioning. Right. Right. You don't have holes all on the side of the boat with spray coming out of them. Right. And corrosion going down the side of the boat. Just the silence. Notice there's nothing besides the music that we have next door. Right. Do you feel any vibration or you don't any air conditioning compressors? No. No, because they're all separated out of living space. It's all about a different experience. Everybody has different stuff that that's a bother. Well, Dave, tell me about the layout. So, I mean, you've got pretty much a stern seating area. You've got a kitchenette area. You've got the dinette area, the helm, and down below. Two staterooms, two full head. OK. And they are ample size for a 50 foot boat. So there were a lot of challenges here. It was a maximum challenge for my Peter shot design design unlimited to do what we did. What you see here. There is not a millimeter wasted. Right. Your feet are headroom or the stateroom below us. Right. Yeah. I mean, the massaging to get to keep this low profile. Sexy look was not easy. Yeah. And put all the amenities in. And you can't do that without scratch design. You've done it on the inside. My congratulations. Talk to me about the outside. The credit has to go to design unlimited. Well, Eclipse is setting the new standard. So talk to me about the external parts of this boat. The whole design, the aesthetic of the boat itself. You've got this huge sunroof up here. I mean, there's there's things that have gone into the exterior design of the boat for performance and comfort. Yes. So everyone is quite aware of the solid form of Michael Peters shot designs. SBBT hall step, even the lid at tunnel hall. I mean, everyone knows. Yeah, it's a great hall. Now this is this has no pedigree with any other brand except for that design of the actual architecture of the hall itself. You'll see there's more flair than other designs that he has. You'll see the trunk house, everything. A lot of differences here. This kind of just challenge them in a lot of ways. So you take that, then you have to meld the features. So the balcony, everything again, all at one level when you see the drop in boarding door on the side. So you have no hinges, no pinch points and easy pass through. And we set it actually at normal dock level so that you can walk. I mean, those people with mobility issues, etc, etc. They'll go up to our dedicated service center, which you heard about Whittaker Boatworks. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is now HMI Willoughby Creek. You will come up there and which color do you want to pick? Let's go. Yeah, let's go for a ride. With the factory back in South Africa. Quite remarkable in and of itself. But the fact that you have 14 boats on that factory line that are currently under production. That's just the 50 line. That's just the 50 line. And you've got two models that you're going to use for demo boats as well. This is this boat's not only ready to go for a