If you saw this thing on your neighbor's trailer, you'd laugh at him. "What sort of pretentious man-child buys a boat shaped like a shark," you'd scoff into your mugaccino, secure in the knowledge that you'd never shell out for something so ridiculous. But you might change your tune if you caught him down at the lake and watched him pulling 50mph (80km/h) barrel rolls, then diving under the surface and launching the thing 12-feet (3.6m) into the air like some sort of evil mechanical dolphin. The Seabreacher X is preposterous in theory, but in practice it's an adrenaline machine that can do things pretty much no other watercraft can – take a look at the video after the jump.
We've looked before at Innespace's gentler, dolphin-shaped submersibles, but while the original Seabreacher J looks like great fun, this new X version really tickles my petrolhead glands.
The key differences are a bigger engine, putting out 260 supercharged horsepower against the J model's perfectly adequate 155 – and a new body shape that replaces the J's friendly dolphin look with a fatter, wider, nastier shark look. The viewing panels below your feet are joined together to give the shark an open mouth. Personally, I wouldn't be able to help myself; I'd get some teeth put on and go scare a few swimmers' digestive systems empty.
The new motor boosts the Seabreacher X up to a top speed of 50mph (80km/h) on the water, and 25mph (40km/h) underwater – the chief purpose of diving under the water is to gather momentum and head for the surface at full throttle so you can launch yourself up into a giant boat wheelie and jump the thing right out of the water.
Steering, via the side and tail fins as well as the motor's vectored thrust (up/down/left/right) looks almost as tight and zippy as a jet ski – with the added benefit that you can use the fins to send yourself into a spiraling barrel roll. It just looks like a crazy fun ride for both driver and passenger as you tear through the water in the completely watertight cockpit.
The Seabreacher X comes fully pimped out with a video camera mounted on the top fin, so that when you're in Jaws mode you can look at your LCD screen, aim at a swimmer, and see the effects of fear both above and below the waterline. It's also got a GPS and on-board stereo – which as far as I'm concerned, should come with only one pre-loaded song you're allowed to play.
Now for the bad news – only 10 of these unique leisure-craft are going to be made, resulting in a price tag of around UKP60,000 (approx. US$93,500). But if you've got pockets deep enough, we've never seen anything on the water remotely like it.
