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Yearly Archives: 2015

Even in the swamps of Louisiana Powerboat Nation can find a ways to bring you all new and exciting venues. Powerboat Nation was privileged to be able to partner with SunBuns owner Stephen Emmons through the support and help of fellow powerboater Nate Michael.

The success could only be measured as a huge success with a packed porch, packed bar, busted bathroom pipes and docks so full there was no more space for the boats that showed up late. Sunbuns gave away over 300 special event T Shirts with the PowerBoatNation logo on the front as well as additional swag from GoFast Threads and even more stuff from PowerBoatNation.

Food flowed, drink Spilled and the Friday start of the Tickfaw 200 was a celebrated success that we were very proud to be a part of. When you find yourself back boating in the area SunBuns is a must stop.

Thank you again to all of our Louisiana friends for the great support to PowerBoatNation!

VIEW PARTY AND ALL TICKFAW 200 PHOTOS HERE

For 11 Years the Desert Storm Poker Run has marked the start of the boating season for the West Coast Crews and it is a great way to get back to boating every year. I always enjoy the opportunity to go to Havasu at least once a year to run the river and get caught up on whats happening west. After doing boat schools with Tres I didn’t think I would stick around for the run, but a last minute opportunity to ride…drive/throttle….the new 44 Mystic in the poker run I decided to stick around.

At the drivers meeting event organizer Jim Nichols told us they broke a record with 175 registered boats. They did a great job separating the boats because it was the least congested Desert Storm Poker I have ever done. The separation of the boat groups and long delays between group starts really thinned out the large fleet of boats.

A great time. The start was the usual boat parade through the channel and under the bridge. A long wait for our start boat and then a easy run down the lake to the first card stop hosted by Wozencraft near the dam. The rest of the day was really just running around the lake and up river to Pirates Cove for Lunch.

Part of the great value to Desert Storm is to honor our active duty military. We were fortunate to be able to host a Young Marine on board the Mystic. James a a Recon Sniper Scout from Camp Pendleton is a fine example of the dedicated and patriotic youth of today who defend our country, our freedoms, our rights and our pride of AMERICA! We were all honored to have him aboard with us.

Dick Boyer, designer of the latest engine blocks offerings from World Products has delivered some interesting insight in regards to “Deck Wave” on the blocks his company offers. When looking for a new engine block, this may not be something you would think to consider, but it’s importance should not be overlooked.

But just how do you check wave finish? β€œWe lay a granite plate with 300-grit sandpaper on the deck of the block and stroke it five times front to rearβ€”you’ll see the high spots, you’ll see the wave, which we measure with an indicator.” says Boyer. World Products aims to limit variations in the wave depth to just 0.001″. Use of profilometer is helpful in measuring faults in the surface but what would be the point of having a beautifully smooth surface with a potentially threatening wave depth of 0.002″ or 0.003″? “Some builders probably put too much emphasis on profilometer readings and maybe not enough on surface flatness.” continued Boyer.

Having waves with depths greater than 0.002” can create sealing problems, and we’re glad to hear that world products is on the forefront of maintains proper sealing surfaces on all their products.

2015 has already been a busy boating year and the entire month of April has been non-stop for the entire team at PowerBoatNation. We area set and ready to end the month with the TickFaw 200. The Tickfaw 200 is an absolutely fabulous run and we are ready to make it one to remember. If you are around Southern Louisiana you need to come by and if TickFaw is not in your plans then your really missing out.

This year Powerboat Nation has teamed up with SunBuns and we are ready to bring you a Party that as well cant be missed. SunBuns has undergone a renovation and is the place to be.

On Friday 1 May we are going to bring out the Powerboat Nation Girls who will be giving away T Shirts and other Sway donated by Go Fast Threads, Sunbuns, and Powerboat Nation. Lookout for a Bikini Showcase and some other craziness that will end up being one great time! Ready for bold statements. NO ONE and I do mean NO ONE brings you what we do. Boating Parties like this are only possible from the collaboration of our friends, family, and partners and this party is set to be a real one with boats and everything. What else could you expect from a Powerboating Website!

We are also excited about the waterbird that we just learned will be on hand for us to fly high above and shoot some video of the entire run.

The Lake Havasu Desert Storm Poker Run opened on Thursday to the street party gathering of boats lined up on the streets of Lake Havasu City. A little rain could not dampen the Spirit of the Event and all who attended had the opportunity to take in a fleet of the best high performance powerboats in the Country. The strong contingent of DCB’s up and down the street was expected.

I counted a total of 14 DCB’s at the street party alone. There were of course many other brands represented with one, two, or three boats on display. Expect for SKATER who was almost equal to DCB with 12 boats being represented by their proud owners.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES

Desert Storm 2015 Street Party
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Hotter than Desert Storm, PBN’s Handy Hotties are here to show you how to change out a damaged or just under performing prop for a new one. Being able to replace a damaged prop with a spare on the trailer could prove to be the savior of your next boating trip! Special Thanks to BBlades for providing us with props, new and old.

This last weekend the Florida Powerboat Club held the Tampa Bay Poker Run that was hosted by the club at the Beautiful Vinoy Resort and Marina in St. Petersburg, Florida.

With just over 40 boats the run was reported to be spectacular by many of the participants as I got reports all through the weekend from all my friends who rubbed it in that I could not attend. A Friday Fun Run to the Tarpon Grille set things off for a full weekend of bay boating.

Florida Powerboat Club owner Stu Jones reported the steady and consistent increase of new club members and smaller sport boats is continuing. This run brought a 26 Rinker from Pensacola, a 28 Sunsation, and a 28 Wellcraft Scarab ran the entire run and all reported to have a great time. Overall new boater participation is running about 10% according Stu.

Most of the big regulars came to run….Don and Alice Lightfoot ran hard in their 52 Nor-Tech, AJ Phelps was on hand and Bill Pyburn, Jr. with crew ran the new 388 SKATER pure platinum along with many others.

Photos in this article are courtesy of Florida Powerboat Club.

Tampa Bay Poker Run
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With $300,000 of horsepower bolted to the transom you’d expect this Center Console Intrepid to sound like a jet engine taking off and as this video shows, it meets that expectation. Jeff Ellerbrake of Intrepid Powerboats posted this video on youtube last summer of this quad outboard machine. Running four of the 557 drives from Seven Marine is a quite a feat if not a little overkill, but isn’t that expected these days from the powerboating world?

We can only imagine what it would be like it a quad setup of Seven Marine’s new 627 drives were setup on a boat like this. I guess we’ll just have to wait for someone ambitious enough to do it and produce a video!

You have probably heard from a friend that he replaced the rubber bushings on his care with poly (polyurethane) bushings and it improved the automobiles suspension and steering system response and feel in his vehicle.

Well boats can take advantage of the same qualities of control with a very simple bushings swap. Polyurethane seems to be everywhere in the automotive marketplace and the folks at Hardin Marine , the industries leader in after market hi performance boat parts, is bringing it to the marine industry.

So what’s so great about poly? What does it all mean ? The durometer test is used to measure the initial hardness of the poly product. This basic test applies force in a consistent manner, without shock, providing a comparative number of the hardness (depth of the indentation) of a bushing or mass of poly material being designed for a certain application. Different products require different durometers (hardness and viscoelastic characteristics) to properly perform their intended function. The ideal durometer for a out drive will have a considerably higher durometer rating than its rubber counterpart, and that will make it resist crushing and compression much better than rubber.” resulting in a more stable outdrive. This stability is the key to your boats overall performance.

What you need to know when installing these new bushing. First, one of the most important things to understand about poly bushings is that they need to be pre-loaded. β€œAlmost all polyurethane needs to be pre-loaded when installed. It needs to be placed under a little bit of stress on as much surface area of the bushing as possible. We call polyurethane bushings β€˜free-flowing’ because the material wants to move in the path of least resistance, which is toward the places where it’s not contacting metal. In order to keep a poly bushing where it is supposed to be and performing how it should, the bushing and its trim ram are designed to create a pre-load on the bushing once properly installed. That way it’s going to stay in its location, not move around and get sloppy, and have increased longevity as the travel cycles. Greasing poly bushings is also recommended.

So if your after the most from the performance of your boat you’ll find poly ram bushing a simple cost effective upgrade to any boat. You can buy the bushings here and the caps here.

Every single time I talk with SUNSATON POWERBOAT owners the single common comment and theme goes something like. Joe and Wayne Schaldenbrand are the best in the business and they build an awesome product. The dedication that Team Sunsation brings to all of their customers with both brand new boats as well as used purchases is unparalleled in the boat business.

Kort and Jessicca Wittich who reside in Covington, Louisiana are multiple boat owners. Their stable of boats range from small fishing boats to a 388 Skater with big power and not just one but TWO SUNSATIONS!

Having owned a 43 foot Sunsation F4 with Hopped Up Mercury Racing 700’s for a few years now they are familiar with the quality and performance coming from the Great Team lead by Joe and Wayne out of Algonac Michigan. Living and boating on the Blood River in Louisiana having a easy to use boat that brings no worries with turn key and go reliability and way less maintenance than regular high horse power performance boats was in order. When Kort and Jessicca decided to pull the trigger on a new purchase center console with outboards the decision of which builder to go to was bot even a consideration. Already Knowing who SUNSATION was and they type of quality and performance they bring made it easy and simple told Joe to mark the very next 34 CC in line for him and make it BLUE!

This Triple 300 Mercury Marine Verado powered SUNSATION will be at Lake Havasu at the street party and on the water for the Poker Run. Onboard will be two very excited owners who will be making the trek to Havasu for the first time with a beautiful new boat that brings comfort, fun, and easy enjoyment to powerboating!

For over ten years the Tres Martin Performance Boat School has been bringing highly valued skilled based training to the Performance Boat Segment of the Powerboat Industry. While we have conducted some classes for owners of more traditional cruisers and smaller sport yachts our primary focus has been with the high performance segments and are know worldwide as the experts in the operation of high performance watercraft for pleasure, military special operations, and racing.

Now the PowerBoat Course is an official curriculum that has been added to the Tres Martin Boat School portfolio of courses offered. Last week I presented the first session of the new course that has 32 skilled based tasks that cover all aspects of boating from simple knowledge requirements to the specific details of close quarters maneuvering, navigation, anchoring, mooring, engine causality response, and operation at speed in varying conditions. Each of the 32 tasks have supportive enabling objectives that in end support the completion of the final terminal performance objective for each of these tasks.

In the end this new curriculum brings value added skill to boat operators of any experience level in a record amount of time.

This particular class was presented to a boat owner who did have some experience on small outboard boats and was now set to operate a Monterey 328 SS with Twin Volvo 5.7 GXI Engines with Duo Prop Drives. With the prospect of being responsible for fun water time with his wife, children, and friends the class brought a high level of support to his confidence as well as bringing simplified operation and application process to keep the boating experience simple, safe, and FUN!

The day was comprised of a complete orientation and operation of all the systems aboard the boat. Plotting and navigating to a destination, selecting an anchorage and anchoring is a current, and a wide variety of maneuvering exercises with increased complexity with regard to other vessels and dock arrangements. Even time tying knots and the proper way to belay a cleat which is something I rarely see done properly on a poker run.

Yes! Tres and I still do high speed, high performance boats, but we now also offer a program that brings success to owners who wish to operate their boats with a level of skill, expertise, and eloquence that is above and beyond anything else available. Size and complexity does not matter….if you own a 125 foot Yacht and chose to run it without professional crew we can bring the program to you!

Powerboat School
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FACT: L.E.D lights are brighter , Last Longer, and draw less current. In an application like boating where being seen could mean the difference between safety and a catastrophe its no doubt the new generation of nautical lights is the only way to go. The folks at Hardin marine have just debuted a new easier to install yet smaller more compact USCG approved L.E.D Bow light. With bezels these lights can even be retro-fitted to earlier application.

These new lights are crafted from 316L stainless steel material and have entirely encapsulated electronics keeping them safe from the harshest of marine weather and elements yet providing thousands or hours of L.E.D lighting success.

We had a chance to get our hands on a set and do a quick product review so let us know what you think and here’s to a great boating season.

You can buy these lights here.

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