New Intamin Speed Boat Thrill Ride

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/columnists/cheryl-hall/20150925-...l-ride.ece

Just found this article and thought it was an interesting read. I wonder if anyone will bite on this idea in the future.

I loved that article for the profile on Errol McCoy. He had been gone from SFOT for nearly a decade when I started working there in the early-90s and he was still thought of as a legendary, god-like firgure.

Intamin ... high speed boats ... water...

What could possibly go wrong??

Turn-table shuttle? I feel like the capacity will be atrocious.

Now, wait a minute. 48 riders per cycle isn't shabby. As for the turnaround it looks speedy (in the vid, at least) and it gives everyone two rides, one up and one back. At first I was wondering how they would drag the boats back, but now I'm wondering how they turn them around at the load. I don't see a turntable at the station anywhere. Plus the load gates are in the wrong place, I would put oncoming riders up the center and unload them from the side. That would make for one queue that would seem to move a lot faster. But I realize this is just a concept that leaves a lot of questions to be answered, and a lot of those would depend on the customer.

I see the public eating this up, although it sort of reminds me of those dragster car rides that popped up in a few places, Kentucky Kingdom being one. It's interesting that they're hawking this ride to Cedar Point, (but I guess they can say anything at this point) and the info about CP storing their electricity for a ride like this is interesting. Park owners might have a concern over the space required, but I immediately thought of how a long stretch of CP's lagoon might be transformed some kind of way to include this ride. Not on the actual lagoon water itself, but build the pool structure in there and let the lagoon surround it, or... hell, I don't know. Cedar Point buying this ride might happen once hell freezes over.

Anyway, I don't see the capacity issue as much as I see a maintenance nightmare.

I think back to the failures of Intamin's more recent boat rides. Shoot the Rapids failed on the first lift hill and the boat quickly rolled backwards and flipped over. Shoot the Rapids also has (or had?) a design problem with boat drainage.

Then there is the situation in which Holiday World totally removed their newest Intamin water attraction only a few years after installing it, for whatever reason. Also, the ride never created a splash at the bottom of the drop, as designed.

What about the deaths at Knott's Berry Farm many years ago, when a rider fell to her death from the top of their now removed Intamin boat ride?

So we are going to trust Intamin to design a ride with an underwater electricity-driven propulsion system, to thrust speed boats that carry a large number of riders at an acceleration from 0 to 62 miles per hour in under 6 seconds? The same Intamin who designed a cable launch system that has failed and horrifically injured riders multiple times on many different rides?

Umm... That doesn't sound like a very good idea.

It's going to create a 300' rooster-tail and a 40' wake....Sandor promised! (*wink*)

RCMAC said:

Now, wait a minute. 48 riders per cycle isn't shabby. As for the turnaround it looks speedy (in the vid, at least) and it gives everyone two rides, one up and one back. At first I was wondering how they would drag the boats back, but now I'm wondering how they turn them around at the load. I don't see a turntable at the station anywhere. . .

Maybe they rotate the boats 180 degrees VERTICALLY--the return rides have the passenger side underwater. :D

I think he just made it up hoping to get a million dollars then skate.

Good point. I'm going to try selling my obscure ideas too.

Michigan's Adventure now has a reason to keep their sewage ponds. This seems like a perfect fit and a great reason for them not to connect to the public sewer system.

Bombayeclipse542 said:

Michigan's Adventure now has a reason to keep their sewage ponds.

I expect we'll see those turn up at Dorney sooner rather than later.

The patent (number 6971317) also includes a description of a full-circuit version, as well as a shuttle version which looks somewhat similar to the Mack Power Splash rumored for Walibi Belgium. The simple version as presented in the video doesn't really look that appealing to me. Take away the visuals and effects and it's just a launch followed by brakes. A park could add a substantial coaster for the $15 million this thing would cost.

I think this is a cool idea but a few things are very odd. First, the video says riders will have a free floating sensation. How? The patent pdf shows boats locked to a roller coaster track. This is basically a roller coaster covered with water, there won't be a free floating sensation. Also, one of the plans for the full circuit version has hills and a support structure. That in no way resembles what a boat can do. This seems basically to be a LSM launched roller coaster with boat theming and cars that resemble boats locked to an underwater track. This may be cool to watch and even fun to ride, but an actual speedboat ride? Not so much.