Just like other sports there are legends in Offshore Racing. Most other legend activities end up with full fledged Museums, Halls of Fame, and expensive private collections for the cars, bats, balls, etc. Not so in the world of boating you see old race boats that have proven their might in the most treacherous of racing conditions often end up as reborn hi performance pleasure boats.
The key is to start with a pedigree and such is the case with Matt Barnard of Northern California who recently acquired 40′ Skater. Matt is not new to boating he’s been around the power boat field for some time making the trek to not only West Coast events but even making sure to endure the 3000 mile one way trip to attend Stu Jones Florida Powerboat Club’s, Key West Extravaganza, which is undoubtedly the crown jewel of boating events.
The irony of this project is that Matt has been a loyal Fountain aficionado. He literally completely de-rigging his last boat and went through everything, down to the last screw. He prepped and re-installed everything to a show quality finish. Being a Fountain fan means Matt as others know the story of Reggie’s famous “Cat Killer” and its reign of over the powerboating world and its record runs. Fountain fans of all relished in Reggie’s throw down of the gauntlet.
But Matt had a strong desire to be able to go even faster with more control, comfort and safety. Matt’s desire to leave the V-Bottom market and head towards bigger speeds of the catamaran market lead him to a much decorated former race boat. A race boat that had started life as the famous “Mixed emotions” boat and moving on to become the Carlo & Charlies 1997 APBA Class One Champion.
Moving beyond life as a full time race boat it into a poker run winner as “Maxed Out” with Ronnie Barrette. Ronnie piloted this boat to a memorable June 14th, 2008 New York City Poker run win over the famous Cat killer Fountain.
Now in the hands of Matt the boat is set to start an entire transformation again that we will bring you a continued progress story of the boats preparation into a life as a high profile Skater on the West Coast scene stay tuned.
