Aquaplane Barracuda

The Barracuda is one of the best companion vehicles a diver can have.

• Using a Sea Scooter is an excellent way to reduce exertion and air consumption while diving. Resource consumption while maneuvering through the water can be twice as high, or even higher, when compared to resting conditions. Offloading that energy use to a device that can provide several continuous hours of thrust with minimal effort from the diver allows for extended dives that may not have otherwise been possible.
• The Barracuda is equipped with an adjustable automatic depth limit, that will reduce or cut power once the target depth threshold is reached. An onboard attitude sensor/indicator will still allow you to to accelerate upwards in the event that you accidentally dive a bit too low. An adjustable power limit (gear) allows you to control your speed, which can be helpful during tight maneuvers and to conserve battery power.
• While proper dive training and technique are important, augmenting the underwater navigation experience with powered transportation both increases accessibility of the sport, and unlocks new possibilities for skilled divers.
• Rear lights that are always on while diving offer a built-in solution for keeping your dive group together. Dual front headlights that become brighter at greater depths ensure you're always prepared to explore what's ahead. These solutions can reduce or eliminate the need to bring supplemental beacon lighting, or external methods of forward illumination.
• Built-in navigational aids, including a compass/heading indicator, digital attitude indicator, and depth indicator provide excellent situational awareness. In situations where visibility is limited, having this information available at a glance can be crucial for a successful dive.
• The Barracuda exerts an upwards force of 2.2lbs for slight positive buoyancy at all times, reducing operator fatigue during surface use. However, an optional weight kit is available to achieve neutral buoyancy, which is handy for longer dives to avoid having to hold the scooter down when stationary.

The Barracuda is constructed from a light-weight, ultra-strong carbon fiber shell coated in several layers of UV-resistant clear coat, filled with high-density foam to maintain a slightly positive buoyancy. Surrounding water flows through the shell to cool the electronics, whose enclosures are milled from billet 7071 aluminum. Every Scooter is tested to a minimum of 60m of depth during production, to ensure each individual unit meets our quality standards. The Aquaplane team has nearly a decade of automotive manufacturing experience, and all industry best practices have been implemented in the construction of our Sea Scooters to adhere to an existing set of design and construction principles.

• Display: All important info is shown on the display, including your speed, attitude, heading, depth, gear, power limit, and battery level. The controls buttons can be used to adjust certain settings, like the power limit, on the display. 
• Control Buttons & Grips: Grab the grips, and press and hold the control buttons to engage the throttle. Single or Dual button mode can be selected on the display, to allow for one-handed operation where needed.
• Front Lights: Dual front headlights light the way ahead while diving. Headlight brightness will automatically increase with depth, to ensure optimal visibility at all times. 
• Rear Lights: The rear lights remain illuminated at all times, making it easier to locate other divers around you, and to be seen by other divers.
• Grab Handles: Convenient grab handles are located on either side of the Barracuda, for carrying the Scooter on land, and to act as alternative grab points when stationary.
• Water Jet Outlet: The Barracuda is capable of propelling you at speeds of up to 24 km/h, outputting up to 750 Newtons of thrust. Make sure to keep the jet pointed away from yourself and others while operating.
• Charge Port/Cover: Every Barracuda comes an 11A charger, capable of fully recharging the battery in just a few hours. Make sure the charge port cover is securely tightened before operating.

The onboard display can be used to control how much power is delivered to the thrust jet when the throttle is engaged, as well as the maximum rotational motor speed. The Barracuda allows for seven levels of adjustment, with the power limit ranging from around 400 W all the way up to a continuous 7.7 kW at the highest power limit, or "gear". The Barracuda adds a seventh gear for even more power, and is more powerful in every gear. Every gear also has a maximum motor RPM limit, which scales linearly with higher gears.

Traditional variable throttles found in boats and land vehicles don't work well on Sea Scooters, for a number of reasons:

• Hand fatigue would make it challenging to maintain a specific throttle level for an extended period of time.
• If wearing gloves, finely controlling an analog throttle becomes very difficult.
• The seals on rotating throttles can be unreliable, as can the readings from magnet-based analog switches.

Instead, we use a selectable gear system with an on/off throttle, which comes with some added benefits.

• Faster speeds come with an exponential increase in drag through the water, which means greater power consumption. Setting a power limit prevents accidental battery over-use, for a more predictable range figure.
• Since each gear has its own motor RPM limit, you can use the gear selector as a speed limiter, which can be helpful for tight maneuvering while diving.
• An on/off throttle is easier to use as a safety switch, cutting power to the motor if one or both of the throttle buttons are released while moving.
  

Your gear determines your battery life, as well as your available power. Higher gears will provide extra performance for maximum fun, while lower gears allow for a longer battery life in exchange for a more relaxed riding experience, as well as more control while diving for finer maneuvers.

As shown below, riding continuously at higher gears can reduce battery life to under an hour, even with the Barracuda's extra-large battery pack. This comes down the properties of water, which is 800 times more dense than air. If you've ever tried to quickly move your hand through the water at the same speed as you can through the air, you'll have felt how much energy is required to overcome the resistance that water provides when moving your hand at higher speeds.

The exact same forces are applied to anything moving through the water, including Sea Scooters! While drag increases exponentially in any fluid, be it air or water, the effects of this exponential relationship can be felt in the water at much lower speeds as a result of water's incredible density. That's why, even though higher gears may only provide a small speed boost, the battery drains so much faster.

By contrast, that means that lower gears will allow for an exponentially longer battery life: hours, instead of minutes. Our industry-leading high-capacity battery packs let you choose your own adventure: high-speed racing, long-range cruising, and technical diving are all possible with an Aquaplane Sea Scooter. The vast majority of Sea Scooters on the market are sporting very small battery packs, often sized at only around 100Wh. Even the closest competitor in the high-end Sea Scooter space only uses a 1,200Wh battery pack. The Barracuda is equipped with a 68% larger, industry-leading 2,016Wh battery pack, providing unparalleled performance at an unbeatable price.

First-time riders may be surprised to find that not only are their ride times longer than expected, but that power output appears to drop off as the battery drains. This is normal behavior, and it's a result of how the Scooter's electronics limit power. Rather than limiting wattage (or power) directly, the motor controller limits current. In addition, as the battery depleted, its output voltage decreases. Since power is a factor of both current and voltage, if current is held constant, power will naturally drop as the available voltage drops, hence the feeling of a lack of power at lower states of charge. However, this also means that the battery will drain more slowly under these same low-battery conditions, as less power is being used to propel the Scooter forward.