Bringing the old back to new. For Larry Goldman and his crew at North Miami’s Xtreme Powerboats nothing ever seems to just flow along, it is always Fast and Furious. Right now they are not just doing one complete boat renovation, they are in the middle of three!

First Up is a 1983, 44 ft Tempest that formerly served as a US Coast Guard Intercept boat that will now serve as a fun pleasure boat in Miami. The boat was purchased by Sonny Netkin, AKA “Sonny Bananas” who is a local importer of fresh fruit and bananas. Sonny, bought the Tempest as a project boat because he wanted a diesel Go-Fast to run around South Florida and the Bahamas where he is now semi-retired. He has a passion for boats and beautiful women and this boat will be perfect for entertaining around Miami. Larry Goldman actually worked for Tempest Marine Owner Dick Simon from 1983 -1985 where he would deliver boats, do rigging, and other tasks at Turnberry Isle marina for customers who purchased New Tempests. This background and wealth of experience made Xtreme Powerboats the perfect choice for this renovation. “We are completely renovating this boat” said Larry. “The renovation will include a complete overhaul of the Detroit Diesels, the gearboxes will be rebuilt by twin disc, the unique Tempest T-Torque Drive and Rudder system will be rebuilt, and a complete paint job by Donald Rossy of Trick Paint. The interior will be redone by Cover Emporium of North Miami Beach and XtremePowerboats will complete the entire re-rig which will include everything from the smallest part and piece of wire in the boat.

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Larry went on to say “We are working with a tight budget and must stay with-in the budget which is very hard with unexpected parts and labor that always arise while working with these older boats. The plan is to have this project done before the Miami Boat Show so Sonny can have the boat early in the new year.

“It’s going to be tight” said Sonny, “this boat was very rough when we found it sitting in the yard. I wanted to have a challenge to make this boat look and run like it did in the days when it was new from Tempest, Goldman was the guy that said that we could make this happen”

Next on the list is a 35 Ft Cigarette Awesome from the 1970’s. This boat just went through a complete new retro paint job at Guardado Marine. The new power is to be determined but the owner is looking hard at Mercury Racing 700 with NXT Drives. Larry Goldman told us the boat is going to be a “New” old Cigarette and expects the performance to be incredible considering how the new OEM engine packages make such a huge difference in the performance and handling of these old boats.

Goldman has completed many projects like this since he began his business in 1982 when he was re-rigging Cigarettes for customers who wanted to have updated looks from the 70s to the current boats of the day. Goldman completed many projects then like the original FERRARI boat which was a Scarab ‘Smith KV’ for a New York Ferrari Dealer, Steven Kessler. Another Cigarette Cafe Renovation was done for the owner of R/W Raymond Weil, of the famous watch company who wanted his boat to carry the Watch logo and colors design throughout the boat. “These were great projects that we really enjoyed.” those customers had open check books then and we were able to start and not stop until we were done and that’s when we added it up. Today it’s a little different” said Goldman

Powerboat Nation will bring you more and more of these three builds as well as other renovation stories we have coming!

Outboards are becoming more popular these days. Sterndrives have experienced a steady decline in sales, however a panel of Industry leaders surveyed at the Marine Dealer Conference and Expo gave weight to the idea that sterndrives will remain a viable propulsion choice for consumers.

“Our sterndrive sales the last two years have been going down each year and the outboard sales are going up,” remarked Bob Menne, President of Premier Marine. He continued on to note one of his dealers had said they used to sell sterndrives to outboards 3 to 1. However Last year, he was completely the opposite. So it is apparent there is a swing happening.

Improvements in outboards in recent years are attributed to the swing. Outboards will generally be cheaper and easier to maintain than sterndrives, and coupled with recent improvements in weight and fuel economy have swung consumers in the direction off outboards. Sales of sterndrive boats continued to decline through October, dropping about 7.5 percent from last year on a rolling 12-month basis.

Sterndrives aren’t on their way out. For top performance applications, sterndrives are, and will likely remain king of the roost. But for regular cruisers and center consoles, the outboard is gaining in influence.

“At the end of the day customers are going to choose — as long as you have both horses, you’ll be fine. But from everything we see and what technology is coming down the road, we think that [the sterndrive] is going to be a propulsion system that’s going to be around 20 years from now,” Mercury Marine president Mark Schwabero said.

Members! Use the Promo code at the bottom of this flier to get discounts if you book your room at the Clevelander for the Miami Boat Show!

Arneson Industries and Skater Powerboats latest 33BBW is progressing on schedule for the 2014’ Miami Boat Show debut.

Building on the success of the 338 Fatboy and always want to going one step beyond, this newest creation is going even WIDER! The newest creation is sporting a 12” wider tunnel than what was originally used on the first 33’ made, the “30 Prototype” owned by Dale Rayzor of California. The customer “Top Flight Marine” wanted a Bigger Badder and Wider boat than was already built, hence the name 33BBW!

Making this latest creation badder is a set of Sterling 4L Quad Rotor engines coupled to a set of Arneson Industries #7M Drive Units. Originally this 33BBW was all set to get a pair of Brad “Smith Power” engines but due to unfortunate circumstances the engine project was switched to Sterling Power from Milford MI. This boat is going to be the fastest, widest and baddest of the 33’ series built to date.

Look for more updates after the boat gets painted.

Well we’ve had a busy time getting together all of the content from the Key West Poker Run, and the final piece of the puzzle is our video coverage from the Boca Grande Raft Up! If you’ve never been you are missing quite the event. With MILLIONS of dollars of boats on the beach and with each carrying numerous beautiful ladies, or those seeking them out, one can’t help but to enjoy the party! Take a look and get to know the experience!


Part 1: Departure from Key West and Arrival at Boca Grande

Part 2: On The Beach at Boca Grande and Return to Key West

What happens in Europe may seem far and away to the future of recreational boating in the United States, but the fact is that it is significant and the future is coming fast. Last week in Amsterdam the world’s top marine product manufacturers and industry leaders attended the largest marine trade show in the world. The venue encompasses 11 large halls and has the feeling of the Las Vegas SEMA show. Why Europe?, you may wonder. If you want to look at where the worlds most luxurious and powerful super cars come from, then you’re going to have to look towards Germany or Italy. Guess what! That same technology is happening in the marine industry. While it hasn’t yet quite touched the mass of the performance industry you can rest assure it is in our future.

For Powerboat Nation, we were on assignment at the METS international marine trade show to get a glimpse of just whats happening to our industry on a global scale. What we found was exciting to say the least. This part of the world is all about construction techniques, materials, and efficiency, and they are looking hard at the automotive side for example.

But what this means to us here in the USA is that while the worlds most premier builders such as John Cosker are already using some of this technology. It is just a matter of time before the construction techniques evolve to more and more builders here in the U.S. That means stronger, lighter, and faster to produce with more efficient boats to the general consumer.

We all love race inspired gauges in our dashes but how about complete dashes the likes of your iPad that are interactive and completely configurable to a style you prefer. Take a look at the pictures:

How about trim switches built right into the steering wheel that are wireless, no more phone cord type installs. Carbon fiber everywhere as if its a industry standard.

The show represented numerous new products from hundreds of suppliers. One common theme was found throughout and that is purpose and styling. From flush style cleat offerings to latches, steering wheels, and if you’ve ever wondered if the diesel side of performance engines was near? Well there were some 1000 foot pounds of torque Duramax engines on display and ready for sale.

Lastly there’s the euphoria of walking through the area that services the high end yacht market. If you’ve ever wondered what goes inside a 10 to 50 million dollar yacht well my words can’t begin to paint you a picture as these crafts are now driven in nearly a 3 dimensional world and the opulence of luxury was incredible as they had stone artisans on display hand crafting Italian stone to the designs of the customers.

So back to earth, the best news is there were some US based distributors there cutting deals to import many of the products that are sure to be the standard for the upcoming 2014 season. So place close attention to those PBN supporters as I’m sure you’ll no doubt see some product releases soon, bringing you all the opportunity to get the leading parts first.

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We caught up with a number of vendors at Key West and got a number of quick interviews in. We spoke with Hector Rodriguez of Cigarette, Joe Schaldenbrand of Sunsation, Jessica Gamarra of Ilmor, and Chris Walker of Extreme Super Trucks.

Hector Rodriguez from Cigarette:

Joe Schaldenbrand from Sunsation:

Jessica Gamarra of Ilmor:

Chris Walker of Extreme Super Trucks:

Arneson Industries and Douglas Marine Skater Powerboat’s introduce their latest 338 FatBoy displayed in “Poker Run Village” in Key West FL.

Customer Sam Jirik, brought his brand new Skater 338 FatBoy down to the 2013 SBI Offshore World Races in Key West over November, 4th to the 10th 2013 displaying it in the “Skater Powerboats” exhibit in Poker Run Village.

Sam’s boat is equipped with a set of “Smith Power” 588 cu/in engines by Brad Smith of Joplin MO. The engines were setup with Whipple 4L Blowers, Hardin Marine Serpentine Belt Kit, Hardin Marine Dual Cooler Bell housing, Hardin Marine “Multi Stage” water pump and Hardin Marine “Hurricane Headers”. The engines are coupled to a set of BAM 1350 transmissions and then connected to a set of Arneson Industries #7M Drive Units tied together via a Zeiger Marine Mechanical Tie Bar. The boat is spinning a set of 5 blade Mercury Racing Propellers.

The boat is also equipped with an Aero Marine wrap around windshield in a custom bronze color for this application. The boat was custom painted at Douglas Marine in White Base with pearl clear coat and “Skater Powerboats” Logo on the hull. Following a trend set by the larger catamaran boats, this beautiful 388 FatBoy is riding on a Tilt Trailer built by American Tilt n Tow.

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Initial sea trial was carried out in Michigan in the freezing cold right before the trip down to sunny warm Key West FL. The boat performed flawlessly stated Skater and the boat accelerates so hard they are calling this boat a pocket rocket! Currently Jirik is waiting on scheduling and weather to sea trial the boat in Arkansas River

Congratulations to Sam Jirik on his new boat!!

For about five years now Bill Pyburn’s 388 Skater, Pure Platinum has dominated the performance pleasure boat world. Powered with Chief Performance Motors and maintained by Brand X Hi Performance the boat has seen thousands of hours running big numbers on pump gas at events around the country. The boat has been so good Bill has been reluctant to change anything.

But now, it is time for a change and coming from Skater is not just one new boat for Bill, it will be a series of three boats. These spectacular new Platinum Edition 388’s are being built right now, with one set for Bill Pyburn, one for Kelly Sills, and one for Chris Bradley.

These special edition Skaters will each be individually unique, but most importantly be refined, detailed, and tuned using the experience of the last five years that Bill has accumulated running his current boat.

Look to Power Boat Nation to bring you the exclusive progression of the builds, first with Kelly Sills boats which will have Mercury Racing QC4v 1100’s and Mercury Racing NXT6 SSM Drives, then Bill’s boat with Mercury Racing NXT6 SSM Drives pushed by Chief Performance Power and then Chris’s boat also with Chief Power and Six Drives.

Kelly’s Boat will be completed at Skater and MAY be at the Miami Boat Show. Bills boat will come next followed by Chris’s boat. After paint the boats will be finished in South Florida. All rigging will be done at Brand X Hi Performance Marine in Pompano Beach and the interior work done at Fine Line Marine Interiors.

Power Boat Nation will be visiting the factory with all three new owners at progressional intervals as well as the first sea trials and performance runs.

Watch the Key West Interview here and check back for the updates!

If you’ve ever been to the Duvall Street Party at the Key West Poker Run, then you know it’s akin to the Mardi Gras of Key West. This year we took our cameras along and live-streamed the event as well as filming some HD footage which we’ve assembled here for you to watch. We’ve got a bunch more video content coming from Key West including interviews, the Boca Grande Raft Up and more! For now take a look at these videos of Duvall Street to catch an incredible part of the Key West Poker Run experience!

Part One:

Click here to check out the coverage from out Livestream Cameras!

The PowerBoat Nation reality media team was all over the Key West Poker Run and Super Boat Internationals World Championships in Key West, Fl. With a dozen men on the ground we streamed live from boats on the run, from Card Sound Bridge, Gilberts lunch stop, the street party, and swim wear show. For a few thousand of you that were able to follow along with some of our live stream content we hope enjoyed it. Yes, it was a work in progress and at times the narrative should have brought some laughs. The future will bring some advances in both the technology we use for the streaming and how we do it. So just hang on as we look to bring to you the real live experience at many of the events we will be participating at this year.

If you were out of the loop, we have posted multiple clips for you to catch up on the action that went down over the past few days. If you attended this event then you’re going to be thrilled to see the thousands of images we shot and are posting daily. If you didn’t make it, well we have numerous video highlights we will be posting throughout the week as well (our editing team is working as fast as humanly possible)

Beyond all of the action that happened was a number of big announcements that PBN is going to bring you first through addition video coverage. To say that we have some great stuff coming is an understatement so stay tuned.

Attendance at this year’s poker run was big, but maybe even bigger was how well the vendors did in Poker Run Village. There were multiple deals going at the same time as three different customers were trying to buy the 34 Sunsation in the village and it stayed in Key West with its new owner. Pier 57’s Scott Shogren exclaimed they had better success at the Poker Run Village than they did at the boat show.

There was never a dull moment all week long, welcome parties at the new Hardin Marine interactive consumer trailer, swim wear show, Duvall street party, and a grand prize giveaway by Florida PowerBoat Club to the poker runs best hand.

As for the racing situation, well it was announced that the race will be changing venues leaving some even bigger opportunities for new promoters to work closer with the poker running community. Race boat attendance was literally a fifth of what the poker run entourage brought.

We know now one thing is for sure, that while this last weekend’s event was a huge success it gave us a glimpse into the future of what’s ahead in 2014. It is going to be a bigger year than 2013 and you should probably start making those plans for the season opener at the Miami Boat Show because it’s the next “Not to be miss event for PowerBoat Nation. You won’t believe what we have in store for you at this year’s Boat Show Party!

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For those of you with the love of power boating and all things that resonate with it then you would have literally been overwhelmed with Stu Jones Key West Poker Run Village this year. While the village has morphed over the years in shape and size it would seem that Stu’s experience and careful choice of vendor selection has made it liken to a high end shopping mall for power boaters. The attendance seemed as strong if not stronger than ever with booths and vendors open as late as 11:00PM trying to accommodate all the visitors. From displays, to hospitality trailers, manufacture support, as well as new boat displays. Highlights of the show would have been Dustin Whipple’s new Outerlimits, Chief Performance total refit of their support trailer with a bevy of engine offerings, Hardin Marine’s new interactive product support trailer, and of course we would remiss not to mention the Powerboat Nation Billet display booth run by a bevy of beauties. Honorable mention for attendance would have to be the Mercury Racing Apparel sales booth that always seemed to have a line out front.

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