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Yearly Archives: 2015

Preparations are nearly finished for all the teams participating in this year’s LOTO shootout. As you can see in the video below, some of the teams already have a bit of smack talk going, and it looks like quite tasty affair is brewing. Now, with only days away to the 2015 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout we’ve compiled a list to keep track of the 2015 Top 10 Runs from this years shootouts: Lake Havasu, Texas Outlaw Challenge, and GLOC. We are confident this list will change after this Sunday but we do expect the top name or two to stay the same:

Driver / Boat Speed (MPH) Location Boat Mfg.
Win Farnsworth 201.8 Texas Mystic
Kenny Mungle 181 Texas Skater
Tim Pivonka 168 Havasu Eliminator
Brad Schoenwald 161 Texas Skater
Dave Magoo 160 Havasu DCB
Rick Bowling 158 Havasu Talon
Nor Easter 150 GLOC Skater
Eric Allon 149 Havasu DCB
Anthony Lombardi 144 Havasu DCB
Cats Ass 140 GLOC DCB

The past three or maybe four years, the Emerald Coast Poker Run brought us good times, but along with them rain and difficult weather.  Well,  this year we stuck to the plan and our persistence paid off – this outing was perfect, with a full roster of registered boats, great weather, and lots of water to run.  Team Powerboat Nation was at the helm of one of two big SKATERS loaded with 1550 Sterlings and we had a supreme time.

The boat count was almost the same as last year, but the addition of the local registrations for the Ruby Club provided lower cost entry fees which brought a bunch of new registrations and new faces.

Stu Jones of the Florida Powerboat Club presided over the captains, meetings and also coordinated all of the safety efforts which brought police and coast guard officials from all over the event area.  The registered boat count was great and the “hang arounds” who didn’t register filled in a large gap.

The Emerald Coast Foundation raises large amounts of money to benefit and support children’s charities and youth organizations in Okaloosa County. The Emerald Coast Poker Run and Boat Week events have raised over 2 million dollars to date for its cause.  The local charities also helped pitch in, with all organizers involved working tirelessly to bring us such an event. We hope all the boats that didn’t register saw what a great event it was, and will join next year in the fun for a good cause. Let the pictures speak for themselves and help convince you to put this poker run on your list.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE PICS!

Emerald Coast 2015
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Over the last decade, the GM-based LS engine program has forever altered the world of motor sports. That is the case for every industry EXCEPT the marine industry.  Very few have been adapted to marine use, and those like the one pictured above are very custom jobs. Speculation has surrounded the issue for as long as most can remember, causing most people to fall for old wives’ tales like “Turbo engines could never work in the marine world!” Until, of course, Mercury Racing made them work and now everyone is looking around, wondering what took so damn long. Well, just as we have come to accept the efficiency of turbos as commonplace in the boating world, that same wisdom tells us that the archaic BBC architecture that has been around for 50 years is akin to the rotary telephone. You can still potentially get the job done with it, but there’s more modern solutions. In that same vein, we have it on good authority that the latest GM architecture for LS engines can’t even be denied by Mercury for any longer.

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Mercury may soon be manufacturing LS engines much like ones you’d find on automotive powerhouses.

As the LS engine rebuilt the entire wakeboarding market and propelled Ford back into the marine industry, it seemed like only a matter of time as to how long Big Black (or Blue, depending on your choice of power) could sit on its hands and watch a powerful potential driving force for its entry level market slip by.

The dilemma Mercruiser faces while trying to separate itself independent of GM products and be their own engine manufacturing powerhouse is doing so in difficult economic times for many segments of the market. Their choices to focus on big outboards and turbo charged engines proved more than successful; the next logical evolution is to fill this hole in the market the 8.2L has attempted to plug, and to improve on what was left to be desired with the HP565. The 50+ year old technology in these engines just haven’t made enough horsepower gains, with minimal if any efficiency gains. The consumer is beginning to upturn their nose and say “enough is enough.”

It’s good to see that companies will soon respond to this consumer reaction, since many powerboaters could only watch helplessly for years as they saw huge advancements in power & technology for their cars & trucks, but little if any for their boats.

We have multiple sources confirming numerous companies are already hard at work building the goods to support Mercury’s latest efforts in this advancing technology. It couldn’t come at a better time; if this engine does a fraction for the marine industry of what it’s done for any other segment of motor sports, the future of powerboating looks brighter than ever.

It takes a lot of effort to build such a high quality boat, and the guys at DCB have once again put out a masterpiece with the latest M41. But just how many hours go into producing such a masterpiece? This video shows just a fraction of the man hours that go into rigging an M41. It boggles the mind to even try to imagine all of hours not covered molding the hull, gelcoating, testing and more. DCB has once again shown that their attention to detail is second to none:

Lasting the entirety of a five day weekend, spanning from Thursday to Monday, hundreds gathered in Pickwick Lake, Tennessee in Memoriam for Carey Downs and Jeremie Floyd, two well-known and well-loved community members that were taken from us too soon in a boating accident last year. Friends, family, locals and people from out of state trekked in to pay their respects and check out the event. Respects were duly paid; from raising of the glasses at one of their stomping grounds, Freddy T’s, to the raising of a 16 foot, 2+ ton cross in their honor, nobody could deny it was an amazing and worthy event. According to Jeremie’s wife, Marsha Floyd, the poker run ended up raising over $106,000 for the Darryl Worley Foundation, some of which is to be donated to trusts for Downs and Floyds’ children. Even though it was an emotionally trying weekend, it “was full of reminiscing and smiles” according to Greg Harris, a longtime friend of Downs.

Check out this video from Jeff Ketchum to get a taste of the run:

If you’re building a new power plant for your boat or just need to step away from the stone age of traditional V-belts into the modern world of serpentine style drive kits, step right up and welcome to another episode of Powerboat Nation Tech TV. Break out your elbow grease because today we were given the chance to check out a new serpentine drive kit from the good folks at Hardin Marine. We figured we’d give an up close look at the kit with our PBN tech specialist while giving you a crash course on how to install the drive kit. Check out the video below, and thanks again to Hardin Marine for giving us the chance to check out their drive kit:

th….and Aronow begat Formula Marine, and it was good. Thence, he begat Donzi Marine… Hebrews 233.

In April, 1964, Don Aronow sold the Formula Marine Company to Thunderbird Products Boat Company.  Formula 233’s had just finished 4th through 11th (behind 3 Bertram 31’s) in the prestigious Miami-Nassau Offshore Powerboat Race, and caught the eye of eccentric, no, make that ECCENTRIC, Thunderbird owner, Merrick Lewis.

Aronow couldn’t wait to break their non-compete agreement. It was to be a prelude to a symphony of broken promises from the big guy. He immediately cranked up Donzi Marine in retaliation for some supposed slight. Don was good with his customers, but God help you if you bought a boat company from him. He immediately hired Jim Wynne and Walt Walters (Designers of the Formula 233) to design a line of boats from 16’ through 35’. All bore a great family resemblance to the Formula 233. He hired me to be head peddler at Donzi, since he had sold my pal, Stu Jackson, with Formula. Financial promises for quitting my job as General Manager of the finest marina in the world were apparently fabricated largely of smoke.

engine side viewHe had retained the core of the Formula crew, all top-notch boat builders, and we set to work in earnest building race boats. Between May and November of 1964, we built 4 28’ Donzi race boats, and one 19’ Donzi Hornet for me.  7 AM to 1 AM wasn’t unusual during that period. Most of us who were working like mad were actually working on boats that we would race. Big incentive! For giving me the opportunity to race against the “Big guys”, I will always be grateful to Don Aronow. Our coming out party was the Miami-Key West race in November 1964. As it had been for the Formula Marine debut in November, 1963, it was rough as hell. I drove the 19’ Hornet with a 400 HP Interceptor 427 cu. In. Ford on a Crusader V-drive with a 1948 Pontiac 4 speed transmission. It was called “Donzi Daddy”. The day of the race dawned bright and crappy. The wind was howling out of the northeast. Seas at Fowey Light were ten feet. In those days, there was no provision for race postponement due to weather. Hell, we were manly men! Oh, and two womanly women…. We lost again, to Jack Manson’s big Allied Marine Diesel 43’ Monster.

3193b134b60b52744c9a81db19c8b675In the same month as the race, I showed the first Donzi 16’ at the Jacksonville, Fl. Boat Show. The redneck crowd didn’t exactly knock me down with orders.“Dang, Earl, what the hell do you suppose that’s fer?” The one group of extremely interested people was entirely made up of Kiekhaefer Mercury folks, who offered cash and whores if I would stop by Lake X on the way home and let them look at the first Volvo 200 drive in the U.S. Apparently, it never dawned on them to just buy it. They weren’t too happy with Volvo, who was building a collaboration between Jim Wynne, late of Mercury, and Charlie Strang, PRESIDENT OF MERCURY MARINE! In all fairness, Charlie, who is near the top of my list of admired characters, never took money, credit or blame for the mess. Our actual business was selling boats. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. It was fun! Working at Donzi after the race boat crunch was a hoot. The guys who worked there were fun, customers were fun, and we had a steady stream of foreign racers and celebrities. Hell, Linda Lovelace lived on a houseboat across the street. You just couldn’t wait to get to work. One little downside… I ran all the demo’s. Our first boats had Eaton “C” drives, and they pretty much sucked. We couldn’t get very many Volvo 200 drives due to their ‘start-up’ considerations. We couldn’t get anything from Mercury Marine because we were hooked up with Jim Wynne, Carl Kiekhaefer’s worst enemy of the moment. Crafty sumbitch.

s-l1000Wynne designed all our boats with steering on the port side, which required a left-hand turning propeller to counteract the torque. Mercury only had right hand turning propellers. Only Volvo and Eaton had left handers, and that was Wynne’s royalty cash cow. Our demo 16’s had “Phony Cobras”, a 289 cu. In. Ford Interceptor of supposed 271 HP on Eaton “C” drives. That drive had a good idea, bad idea feature. It had an aluminum pin (should have been stainless steel) that allowed the drive to be turned down vertically to run, or up, to get the prop out of the water. Unfortunately, if you yanked the steering wheel hard enough at speed, it sheared the pin, the drive fell out, the boat ‘swapped ends’ immediately, and threw your ass out if you were not driving, then started to sink with a big hole where the drive had been. Everyone in the water donated clothes to stuff the hole. I got thrown out twice in one day. If you look at the picture of an early 16, it does not have a hand rail around the cockpit. After my second swim, they all had rails. We started winning one race after another, and unlike today’s races, they generated press all over the world.

In April, 1965, Aronow sold Donzi and me to Teleflex, Inc., and signed another (Hah!) non- compete agreement. By the time he sold Magnum and Cigarette, he would legally have had to brand his race boats ‘Formula-Donzi-Magnum-Cigarette-Squadron’. Ahh, **** ‘em! If there was ever a person who was not cut out to be corporate employee, it was me. Under Aronow, I pretty much ran the place. Under Teleflex, they sent down a corporate executive to watch me. Dick Riddle became GM. I forget what they called me. Well, I remember some of the things they called me. Dick soon succumbed to drinking, Gin Rummy and lots of boating. They sent another and another. We sent them back with Tilley hats, flowered shirts and flip-flops. The chairman of the board of Teleflex sent down his brother to be out sales manager, while I was building, designing and racing boats. Dick and I fired him. Two weeks later, he bought the company. Uhoh!

Hope you like scorchers – this weekend’s Big Cat Poker Run saw temperatures from 90 up to the low 100s. To some that might be a good reason to stay inside, but for most powerboaters on the Sacramento River Delta the exceptional weather was an even bigger incentive to hit the water. It certainly didn’t deter too many, with over 60 boats soaking up the sun at the event in Discovery Bay, Stockton. The weekend began on Friday with a lunch run, led by local boaters who give a tour of the Delta to out of towners. A welcoming party and registration follows before the main course on Saturday. After a potent dose of fun in the sun, evening parties crowned both nights.

Many dedicated participants help in organizing the event, but recently the brunt of organizing the event fell to the Discovery Bay Lions Club, who is sponsored in part by many great companies such as DCB, Wozencraft Insurance and Imco. The final amount hasn’t been counted yet, but all proceeds from the event help the Discovery Bay Lions Club support charities for visually impaired children.

When you visit a city for the first time, the flavor of the city brings something new and exciting to you that you may have never experienced before. The sights, sounds, and flavors of Nashville, Tennessee along with the gracious hospitality of everyone involved with the Old Hickory Fun Run made for an incredible experience. Our video from this run brings you a little closer to actually being there! As you watch this keep in your mind the reason people made this run happen – the Wounded Warriors Project – and how we can all continue to provide additional support to the many surviving military members who will struggle for the remainder of their life with the sacrifice they and their families make each and every day to protect our freedoms and our abilities to live amazing lives… An incredible list of charity donations such as guitars from Dolly Parton, Eric Church, 38 Special and more brought some badly needed money to this great charity.  While we are still waiting to hear what the final total raised came out to be, you can read from our previous coverage all about it HERE and see all the photos here!

By now you know how PBN video coverage does it; we show you the biggest parties and best events out there and today is no exception. Relive the moments if you were there or watch and wonder if you should’ve gone – we think you’ll be easily convinced to give it a go next time. Enjoy:

DCB is on a roll and we don’t know when they’ll stop. You’d think we’d be tired of singing their praises after covering their stunning new ebony M41 widebody they just delivered and going in depth with a DCB rep into the fine details and bells/whistles of their M29 series. But they keep plugging along with new deliveries that never fail to impress.

Next in line for delivery is DCB’s most powerful M29 to date. Loaded with a pair of 825 HP TCM engines, the open-bow 29 ft. cat should be field tested and ready to hit the water in a couple weeks at its new home in Wyoming.

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Following that delivery is a twofer: Preston Woolery of Horizon Watersports is eagerly awaiting the rigging of his two new M31 widebodies with twin Merc 700SCi engines. The first, a 31 foot red and black beast is scheduled for a late August delivery. Woolery said he’s already had interested buyers contact him, so if you want to beat them to the punch give him a call at 928-855-9555. The second is a two-tone white and black beauty fresh out the mold. There’s still time to customize the dash and interior options on this one so don’t hesitate.

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Last but certainly not least is a new M35 widebody in the cut and buff stage, supplemented with two Merc 1100 engines. The new owner in Alabama should expect delivery in about 8 to 10 weeks and will probably be the envy of the water with its stunner of a blue shade/yellow-black pinstripe combo.

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We’re eager to see what else they in store. It’s almost like they top themselves with each new incarnation, which you’d think would be an impossible task. But for DCB that seems like just another day at work keeping their customers happy and on the water.

Have you ever wondered what oil cooler you needed to use on your engine? The tube and shell style is the most common oil cooler used in a larger variety of applications, however despite it’s widespread use it’s not the most powerful oil cooling system that can be used on your engine. The plate style oil cooler, that can be mounted remotely or on a bellhousing type mount, is much more efficient than it’s tube & shell cousins. This week our Tech TV staff goes over the differences between tube style and plate style oil coolers and the applications that they’re used on. Take a look and enjoy!

Last weekend marked the occasion of the fifth Skaterfest for all of the loyal Skater Powerboats owners that could make it out – and there were a lot. Few are more devout than Skater owners; there’s a reason they take a page out of our book and call themselves the Skater Nation: these guys are truly passionate about their hobby and just committed to having a good time. Nearly 25 Skater and over 120 attendees graced the waters of Lake St. Clair, Michigan for the run. Skater Powerboats founder Peter Hledin and wife Maria were on hand for the event, as well as Devin Wozencraft of Wozencraft Insurance and a host of other well-known powerboating community members. Wozencraft noted the intimate, down-to-earth nature of the event, saying you could really get to know people beyond the small talk you can manage to slip in at larger events. He praised the course of the run itself, saying that “half of the time we were boating between the U.S. and Canada in many narrow spots, which was pretty cool…Our mobile phones occasionally picked up the Canadian cell phone network.” Chip Miller of Miller Marina scoped out the sky with his drone to bring you the aerial snapshots you see below.

Overall, we’re not surprised that this Skaterfest was another success but we’ll always be impressed at the loyalty Skater nation brings to the table. We can see it’s for good reason. Put this one on your bucket run list if it’s not already which of course means you need to be a SKATER owner!

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