Featuring a bright blue paint job and a pair of Mercury Racing Verado 400R engines, the second 32 RT pleasure boat from Doug Wright Designs was delivered to its owner in North Miami late last week.
The second Doug Wright 32 RT with twin Verado 400R engines hit the water recently in Miami. Photos courtesy TNT Custom Marine
Boasting a generous open bow area, a forward “mini cabin” and an innovative cockpit seating setup, Active Thunder’s first 29 Defiant is complete. The versatile 29-footer, Active Thunder’s first open-bow model, is located at the company’s Pompano Beach, Fla., facility, approximately 15 minutes from the ongoing Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.
Like its closed-deck sister-ship sportboat dubbed the 29 Savage, the 29 Defiant is powered by twin Mercury Racing 300 Verado outboard engines.
There aren’t many more well-known or well-traveled MTI catamarans in the country than Black Diamond, the all-black canopied 52-foot MTI. So when the Wentzville, Mo., company showed off Black Diamond Express, the 52-footer’s baby brother, at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, the 340X from MTI drew a ton of attention during the first two days of the boat show.
MTI's new 340X catamaran, Black Diamond Express, is a real head-turner. All photos courtesy MTI
For Bob Christie, ordering a new Cigarette 39 GTS (“stock” model shown here) was the best boat-buying experience he’s ever had.
As most folks in the tight-knit high-performance powerboating community know, New Jersey’s Bob Christie has owned a few killer boats. Namely, Speed Racer, a 44-foot cartoon-themed MTI catamaran and Perfect Storm, a 36-foot Nor-Tech cat with — arguably of course — one the most stunning paint jobs ever produced by The Art Of Design.
Most recently, Christie owned a 2011 Cigarette 42X sportboat powered by a pair of Mercury Racing 1100 engines. Before that, he bought the first quad-outboard center console from Statement Marine. The 38-footer replaced Speed Racer until the sportboat bug bit Christie again and he bought the Cigarette and sold the center console.
That’s the thing about having the means and success — and through his own hard work Christie has earned every bit of both — you can boat hop. Hauling the big catamaran between New Jersey and Florida got old and the center console didn’t deliver the thrills he was looking for, so he jumped back into a high-performance V-bottom sportboat. Hey, why not?
But damn if the guy isn’t back to a performance center console again. He and his wife Madelyn spent several hours last Saturday at the Cigarette Racing Team facility in Opa-Locka, Fla., with company owner Skip Braver and ordered a new 39 GTS with quad Mercury Marine Verado 350 outboard engines.
When it comes to theme-based high-performance boats, no builder does them better than Marine Technology Inc. And when it comes to the customers who commission those spare-no-expense creations, there’s no better client than Gino Gargiulo, who is as well known as he is well liked in the performance-boating community. Dubbed Raging Bull, Gargiulo’s last 48-foot MTI catamaran with Mercury Racing 1350 engines turned heads with its Lamborghini exotic automobile theme on the United States poker run circuit before it was sold last year to a Russian buyer and delivered to Spain.
The new 52-foot Lamborghini-inspired MTI cat owned by South Florida's Gino Gargiulo is expected to make its event debut in the Key West Poker Run on Thursday. All photos courtesy MTI/Xtreme Powerboats
The second DCB M29 ordered by Sjogren is ready for its planned delivery early next year.
Heading to a customer in the Midwest, the second DCB Performance Boats M29 catamaran ordered by factory sales representative Scott Sjogren and powered by twin Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboard engines was finished earlier the week. The buyer will take delivery of new cat in early 2017.
When Bob Sepulveda, the longstanding sales manager at Advantage Boats in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., informed me that the company was wrapping up a Los Angeles Lakers-themed 34 Party Cat powered by twin Mercury Racing 565 engines, I immediately thought of the Hummer H2 I wrote about in an ultimate tow vehicles story nearly a decade ago for Powerboat magazine. The feature included details on the purple and yellow Hummer with a photo of it and the Advantage 28 Party Cat it pulled.
The latest 34 Party Cat from Advantage Boats features a Los Angeles Lakers theme. Photo by Tom Leigh/Tommy Gun Images
Since Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats debuted its 450 Sport Center Console earlier this year at the Miami International Boat Show, the North Fort Myers, Fla., company reportedly has taken a number of orders for the boat. The custom center console, catamaran and V-bottom sportboat builder rushed to get the first 45-footer to the Miami event, which meant it arrived in relatively unfinished form. And yet consumers and industry insiders raved about Nor-Tech's largest center console offering, which is powered by five Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboard engines. (The boat reportedly tops out at 85 mph with that power package.)
The finished Sport 450 CC blew away Nor-Tech dealer Michael Knoblock of American Custom Marine and his guests.
Benefitting from more than 35 years of experience in the performance boat industry, Jay Pilini of Pilini Marine Technologies in Clearwater, Fla., has developed a solid reputation. For those who don’t know Pilini, which likely isn’t many of you, he founded both Motion Powerboats and Spectre Powerboats in the ’80s and ’90s, and at the moment he’s got his hands full with boat service and sales—the sales coming in the form of the Spectre by Pilini 24- and 35-foot center consoles as well as an upcoming Pilini Marine Technologies 34 XCS catamaran.
The new 34 XCS catamaran from Pilini Marine Technologies is coming together nicely. Photo courtesy Jay Pilini
During the build process, communication proves pivotal to customer satisfaction at Cigarette Racing Team. Just ask Bob Christie.
As you know if you read the “Inside The Cigarette Difference” feature on this website in early November, Bob and Madelyn Christie departed Racing Team more or less awestruck by their experience of ordering a new 39 GTS performance center console. Of course, being a go-fast boat lover at heart Bob Christie didn’t take long to settle on power in the form of four Mercury Marine Verado 350 outboard engines. But choosing interior and exterior colors, amenities, appointments and more for the 39-footer took the Christies the better part of a day at the custom center console and sportboat builder’s headquarters in Opa-Locka, Fla.
Still, that doesn’t mean the Christies have been left to wait and see the final product—far from it, in fact.
Mystic Powerboats should start delivering its M3800 luxury center consoles in June.
John Cosker and the crew at Mystic Powerboats in DeLand, Fla., have made solid progress on the new M3800, the 38-foot-long sister-ship to the M4200 luxury center console. The Mystic team recently completed the hull mold for the 38-footer, and work on the deck and hardtop tooling for the boat is well underway.
Earlier this week, speedonthewater.com reported that Swecat Racing—a team that competes on the Union Internationale Motonautique XCAT World Series circuit—has collaborated for the past sixth months with fellow Swedish company Mannerfelt Design Team to create a new canopied offshore racing catamaran called the Hypercat. Swecat also will offer an open-cockpit pleasure version of the carbon fiber vacuum-infused 31-footer, according to a press release issued this morning.
“Seating four people in a comfortable, yet safety-conscious way” provided a significant challenge for the design team, according to the release.
With their winter Christmas break beginning this Friday, Peter Hledin, Tony Cutsuries and the rest of the crew at Skater Powerboats in Douglas, Mich., are still pushing hard on a few projects. The company’s first catamaran to tap Mercury Racing Verado 400 ROS outboard engine power—in fact the first domestic model to be equipped with the spec engines for the X-Cat World Series of powerboat racing—is scheduled to debut at the 2017 Miami International Boat Show in February, as is a new 388 model with 1,100-hp Sterling Performance engines.
Spectre by Pilini (www.pilinimarinetechnologies.com) has introduced a new SS model for its 35’ center console. The 34’8” boat with a 9’9” beam has been upgraded with luxury items including granite countertops, a stainless-steel drawer-style refrigerator and a choice of synthetic-simulated teak flooring options.
Jay Pilini, the president of the Clearwater, Fla., company said that one of the biggest styling upgrades on the new model is the helm console and seat area. The 35 SS comes with side-by-side captain’s chairs that have tall backrests and side supports, plus foldup bolsters. They are finished with thick padding and two-tone upholstery.
DCB has another winner in its latest M29 catamaran with Mercury Racing 400R Verado outboard engine power.
Headed for display at the Barrett Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., three weeks from now, the latest DCB Performance Boats M29 catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboard engines—and ordered for a customer in the Midwest by sales representative Scott Sjogren—hit 118 mph in testing yesterday. According to DCB’s Jeff Johnston, the 29-footer reached that speed with its 400-hp supercharged outboards turning 6,950 rpm.
An earlier DCB M29 with Verado 400Rs topped out at 114 mph. Johnston said he was delighted with the speed increase seen in the most recent build, as well as DCB’s partnership with Sjogren, who handles all outboard-powered DCB M29 sales in the Lake of the Ozarks area in Central Missouri and states east of that territory.
“We are extremely excited to have partnered with Scott and Greg Weber this past year,” said Johnston. “We’re ecstatic with their orders for their customers and the synergy we have with them going into 2017."
{unitegallery dcbm29_118mph}
For a closer look at the latest DCB M29, check out the slideshow above.
In addition to the M29, which will be delivered to its new owner after the auction, DCB will showcase 2016 model-year M41 and M35 catamarans—both powered by Mercury Racing 1350 engines—at the Barrett Jackson event.
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The only thing missing from yesterday’s delivery of a new Mystic M4200 luxury center console was wrapping paper. Photos courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Late yesterday afternoon, Scott Sjogren and Greg Weber found themselves in South Florida’s Fort Lauderdale International Airport as they made their way back to their homes in the suburbs of Chicago in time to celebrate Christmas Eve with their families. Earlier in the day, they had delivered a new-for-2017 Mystic Powerboats M4200 luxury center console to Joe Gilmore and his family in Jupiter, Fla. A longtime client of Sjogren and Weber, Gilmore traded in a 35-foot Fountain sportboat as part of the deal on his new center console.
Besides wanting to wish all of our speedonthewater.com readers a Happy New Year today, we thought it would be fun to provide some good news to look forward to in 2017. Fortunately our friends at Eliminator Boats shared a couple of photos of the upcoming 28 Fun Deck that the Mira Loma, Calif., company is building with a hardtop.
Eliminator Boats expects to have its first 28 Fun Deck with a hardtop finished this spring. Photo courtesy Eliminator Boats.
Not the average transom you find on an Outerlimits.
Fans of high-performance powerboats will have to wait until the 2017 Miami International Boat Show in early February to get a complete look at Outerlimits’ new outboard engine-powered SL 41 sportboat. But thanks to the Bristol, R.I., custom boat company’s Dan Kleitz and painter extraordinaire Stephen Miles of Stephen Miles of Stephen Miles Design in Owensboro, Ky., we’re able to offer an early look at the 41-footer, which will be equipped with triple Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboards.
Miami Boat International Boat Show attendees will get the first look at the finished Sterling engine-powered 38-foot catamaran currently being completed at Skater Powerboats in Douglas, Mich.
Scheduled for a Miami International Boat Show debut next month, a new Skater Powerboats 388 catamaran will have a somewhat unusual pair of 1,100-hp fuel-injected powerplants from Sterling Performance Engines in Milford, Mich. According to Sterling principal Mike D’Anniballe, the 530-cubic-inch Dart-block-based engines with 4.5-litre Whipple superchargers were built with a number of high-end components from Sterling’s long-discontinued Union Internationale Motonautique Class 1 engine program.
With their holiday hiatus behind them, the staff members at Mystic Powerboats in DeLand, Fla., are back at work on the new M3800 luxury center console, as well as continuing production of the M4200 and gearing up for next month’s Miami International Boat Show. According to Scott Sjogren of Mystic Powerboat Sales, who supplied photos of the new 38-footer in its most current state, “the hull mold is 95 percent and the deck tooling will be finished in February.”
While Mystic built the tooling for the top of the M4200 by hand, the tooling for the M3800 was created using CNC technology.