Mercury Marine's Shadow Technology for SmartCraft Digital Throttle & Shift (DTS) control systems won the 2005 Innovation Award here Friday in the OEM Electronics Division at the International Boatbuilders' Exhibition and Conference, Oct. 19-21 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The annual IBEX Innovation Awards are determined by a panel of 12 judges from Boating Writers International.

Mercury Marine is the world leader in recreational marine propulsion with a full line of outboard, sterndrive and inboard engines, plus the marine industry's most extensive line of propellers, lubricants and parts and accessories.

Shadow Technology allows boaters to control three engines with just two levers instead of the traditional cumbersome six-lever setup. Each binnacle operates the respective outside engine, while the center engine is controlled by software via Mercury's SmartCraft network.

Unlike conventional mechanical triple-engine control systems, where the center engine is "slaved" to one of the outside engines, Shadow Technology controls the center engine in an intuitive and logical manner. When both levers are in either forward or reverse, the center engine is automatically throttled to a level equal to the average rpm of the two outside engines. If both levers are in gear and within five degrees of each other, the system initiates the Auto Sync feature and the rpm level of each engine is synchronized. If one lever is in the forward position and the other is in reverse - as is common in docking maneuvers - the center engine automatically shifts to neutral.

Tom Burkard, general manager of Mercury Control and Rigging Systems, accepted the award for Mercury Marine.

"Shadow Technology represents what is not possible in the mechanical world of rigging a boat, so in a sense it means the laws of physics no longer apply," he said. "We are excited and honored to have been presented the IBEX Innovation Award."

Shadow Technology is compatible with any Mercury or Mariner outboard engine equipped with Digital Throttle & Shift, including all Verado outboards, 200 and 225 OptiMax DTS outboards and all MerCruiser DTS V-8 sterndrives and inboards.

The original incarnation of the SmartCraft system earned a Boating Week Innovation Award in its category when it was introduced in 2002. Mercury received an IBEX Innovation Award last year for its Verado outboard propulsion system, the world's first production supercharged outboard engine.