Fountain Powerboats is headed overseas! According to a press release sent out earlier in the week, Fountain’s parent company, Baja Marine has announced a partnership to sell Fountain Powerboats in China and other parts of Asia. Read the full text of the release here:

Hong Kong Marine named new distributor for Fountain Powerboats in growing China market
Baja Marine June 3, 2013

JUNE 3, 2013 – Washington, N.C. – Baja Marine, parent company of the Baja, Donzi, Fountain and Pro-Line boat brands, is pleased to announce the appointment of Hong Kong Marine as the new boat distributor for Fountain Powerboats in China and other select Asian boating regions. The Hong Kong, China, dealership will offer the entire Fountain line of high-performance sportboats and fishing boats from 35 to 48 feet.

“China is opening up as an important boating market, and the Fountain brand is well-known and popular there,” said Baja Marine CEO Johnny Walker. “Who better for us to partner with in China than a trusted boat dealer that already represents another of our brands, Pro-Line Boats, and is familiar with us and our products? We are proud to welcome Hong Kong Marine to the Fountain family.”

Founded in 1991, Hong Kong Marine operates several retail locations in China where it offers a wide selection of prestige fishing boat, sportboat and cruiser brands. In addition to new boat sales, the dealership also has a brokerage division and a thriving marine service business based on excellent customer relations.

“I am very pleased to work with Baja Marine to promote its boat lines in Hong Kong and Mainland China,” said Hong Kong Marine Principal Peter Lau. “I have gotten to know more about the Mainland China market over the past six years, and understand the situation there. Although they are different than U.S. boat buyers, many Chinese customers are interested in fishing boats and high performance boats.” Lau added, “I can say that Pro-Line is the No.1 quantity in Mainland China now.”

“With the help of Peter Lau and his highly professional team at Hong Kong Marine, we are confident that Fountain also will become the No. 1 brand in China’s high performance segment,” said Walker.

PowerBoatNation was live at the H1 Hydroplane Race at Folsom lake last weekend, Our Photo and Video Guys Don Heldoorn and Frank Robinson, Rick Bassabelli and Spokesperson Adena Alati, were onsite to capture photos video and interview the boat racing stars. This was a great event and it is exciting to see boat racing so well attended and supported by the local community and the sponsors. Look for much more to come as we continue to follow H1 around the country. Below is a press release about the event directly from H1 along with a bunch of pictures from our PowerBoatNation.com Team.

When Steve David was forced to start the Championship Final Heat of BigWake Weekend on Sacramento’s Folsom Lake in lane four, it looked like the Lighthouse Point, Florida driver would have his work cut out for him. Steve David accelerated to the start line, timing his run perfectly, and had established a lead by the time the fast final heat field got into the first turn. The remainder of the five lap final on the two mile course was all Steve David and the 1 Oh Boy! Oberto. Challenger Jimmy Shane in the 5 Graham Trucking had won all three of his prelims and started the heat two lanes to David’s left, appearing to have an advantage. But the superior speed of the top qualifier and defending H1 Unlimited Series High Point Champion was too much for Shane and the rest of the field to handle. Shane finished second with J. Michael Kelly in the 37 Performance Chevrolet rounding out the top three podium finishers.

Apparent third place finisher Jon Zimmerman in the 9 Team Red Dot appeared to be running third, but was penalized a lap for a racing infraction and dropped back to seventh. Earlier, a mistake by David cost him the lead in season high points. He arrived at the one minute score-up buoy in Heat 2B too early and was penalized a lap, dropping him from first to fifth place and costing him 373 series high points. Shane’s series of three straight preliminary wins and the second place finish in the final allowed him to leave Sacramento with his team leading the series high point chase by 23 points.

“Except for a mistake in 2B, we had a great weekend and it was great to get back to our winning ways,” said David. “That will be my last mistake of the year and we’ll go win all our heats in our home town of Madison and get the points lead back.”

A big crowd of sun-baked Californians lined the shores of Granite Bay on Folsom Lake, near Sacramento, braving temperatures in the mid-90’s as they enjoyed the return of Unlimited Hydroplane Racing to the area after an absence of 46 years. David also praised the race organizers and fans saying, “The reception by the fans and media in Sacramento has been tremendous and we had a great experience here. After the reception the sport received here and the great job done by the event organizers, we are already looking forward to coming back in 2014.”

The H1 Unlimited Tour will reconvene in Madison, Indiana July 5 – 7.

Sacramento Results:

Finish / Boat / Driver

1. #1 Oh Boy! Oberto, Steve David
2. #5 Graham Trucking, Jimmy Shane
3. #37 Performance Chevrolet, J. Michael Kelly
4. #95 Spirit of Qatar, Kip Brown
5. #57 FEDCO, Mark Evans
6. #11 Peters & May, Tommy Thompson
7. #9 Team Red Dot Jon Zimmerman

Very seldom does a product come along that extends the life of an engine that is affordable. Well the folks at KE Performance have just done it. It’s no hidden secret that long hard runs at increased engine rpm’s in any high performance boat is brutally tough on the engine’s valve springs. Heat and harmonics are constantly beating your engine valve springs to death. The cure has always been valve spring oilers. By spraying the engine oil on the valve springs the temperature of the spring can be reduced thus extending the life span of the springs dramatically. Valve spring oilers are an industry standard in many forms of professional motorsports. Unfortunately until now this option has been costly but those days are over. KE Performance has launched a new affordable valve spring oiler system that is within any boaters budget. These billet aluminum valve cover rails sandwich between your engines valve cover and the cylinder head and are easily plumbed with oil from your boats remote oil filter or engine block port. The valve spring oiler rails are 3/8″ thick and incorporates 8 precision oil metering spray ports that deliver jets of additional oil towards the valve spring. Simple single oil inlets per rail provide ease of plumbing. Sold in pairs for big block Chevrolet engines. $189.95 per pair.

Check them out: http://www.keitheickert.com/p-12519-…ng-system.aspx

These days we hear a lot of talk about marine engines in the 1350HP range and even up to the extreme products from custom engine builders such as BoostPower USA’s 2200HP killer. But when we hear numbers like 8000HP, 250 plus MPH, and a chance at a virtual ride along, -well they’ve got our attention and we know we’ve got yours as well. At what could be considered a professional “Gearheads” level. What I mean by that is if it makes more power than anything else on the water and if goes that fast then we all need to pay attention. There are few things on earth more thrilling to watch than drag boats. So when the guys at Kahn Media produced this new video featuring the world record-top fuel hydro “Problem Child”, we just had to share it with you all.

While all of us here can relate to boat speed at some level drag boats are the fasted boats on the water. Top Fuel Hydros are incredible machines and use the very same 8,000 horsepower, supercharged, nitro-burning, 500 cubic inch Hemi engines as a Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car’s do. In fact, the Problem Child team has an association with the Kalitta Motorsports NHRA team, which certainly pays dividends with the close crossover in parts and technology. The “Problem Child” boat, owned by “Fast” Eddie Knox, is the reigning Lucas Oil Drag Boat Series Top Fuel world champion and holds the 15 quickest 1,000-foot elapsed times in history, including the current 3.396, 258.26 mph national records. The boat has been quicker yet, however, having recorded a 3.36 last season and a speed of over 260 mph.

The video here captures the “Problem Child” team and its driver Darryl Ehrlich as they competed at the recent Lake Irvine Classic in Irvine, Calif. as the team went on to another event title Rocketing to a 3.42 at 253 mph over a light rippled lake surface. Enjoy as hells fury breaks loose and Ehrlich takes his hands from the holding rope, pulls the canopy lid down, and lets the monster eat! Ride Along!

Whether you realize it or not there is a hidden secret in the marine industry. That secret is no one sells a “Good, Used, Propeller”. What that means is a good propeller or a great propeller on a particular boat is like gold. It doesn’t mean you can’t take a used propeller and make it great it just probably needs a little prop magic. A great or even good propeller may be one of the most valuable assets to any great running boat. You can buy horsepower as there are a great number of engine builders as well as parts manufacturers selling it these days but the man and the company that harnesses the horsepower through the propeller is the most valuable. Because propellers work based on a means of slippage there are huge variations in performance from any given boat. Propellers aren’t like their automotive counterpart where a wheel on a hard surface moves one revolution for a measurable distance.

Today production propellers are just that “Production” meaning they come down a production line and merely have to fit into whats considered a wide range of accuracy. For many that’s close enough. But for the rest of us that want the very most out of our boat its not even close. So imagine you’ve just added all that horsepower to your boat and to achieve those few more MPH and possibly you could have got a similar result with lab finishing or your propeller by a pro? One thing is for sure the prop and engine combo need to work in unison.

Well That’s where the folks at BBlades come in. For all of the propellers in the world there are only a handful of professional propeller tuners that understand every angle, cup, or edge of a propeller. For a lot of us we know exactly the man, and for those of you that don’t he is Brett Anderson. Brett founded BBlades propellers after a short twenty plus year stint taking Mercury Racing’s propeller division to the next level. Brett realized his attention to detail and perfection was in huge demand not only by racers but poker runners, bass fisherman, ski racers, and the list goes on. Not to be limited to just OEM production propellers, BBlades was born and today they are one of the worlds leading propeller specialists.

Brett is extremely involved with the forums here and was a early Powerboat Nation supporter. His earliest requests were that he just wanted to educate consumers more about propellers and were so thankful to have him along. But enough about who what and where lets take five get the real facts from him:

PBN Asks: So Brett, it is of no secret to those of us in the business where you came from. But for those that don’t know gives us a quick synopsis in your eyes of what has shot BBlades to the top of the hill in regards to custom propellers? For those that don’t know this guys eats, breathes, and sleeps props.

Brett’s Response: First, Thank you for asking me to do this interview. It’s a pleasure to have this opportunity. To answer your question I believe I first must fall back on something my Father taught me years ago. That was, in order to succeed in business you need to accomplish two things. First you need to have a product that is good. A legitimate, better than most product and the knowledge to support that product from start to finish. A product that works and will stand the test of time. Second you need to have the best customer service in the industry. Taking care of his customers was something my Father was the best at. With that being said, My partner Bob Lucht and I had a wonderful rookie beginning and apprenticeship.

We both came from years of training at Mercury Marine and Mercury Racing. We were fortunate to have learned from the best in marine production, service, sales and marketing in the industry. The mentors we had are the founding fathers or the propeller art form we work with daily. Since those beginnings, we have taken performance propeller knowledge to the next level. We are kind of your propeller blacksmiths on steroids. Also, we work with great vendors and propeller companies that support our efforts as well.

PBN Asks: How long have you been doing this ? I mean you’re no spring chicken (haha) , so all of your guys combined means you have 80 years of combined experience in the propeller world. That’s Impressive!

Brett’s Response: A long time. Actually I have been in and around boats my entire life. We were a boating family. I definitely had a love for propellers even as a youngster. I remember asking my Dad questions about a heavy black 3 blade propeller off a Evinrude 70 hp engine when I was around 12 or so. Something didn’t seem right. All the other black propellers were so light in weight. What I learned was it was a SST propeller. A OMC stainless propeller with a Teflon coating. It was a marketing ploy to suggest it would make the prop faster. Ok, the writing was on the wall, I had propeller issues already! Anyway, professionally I have been in the industry almost 21 years. There are 3 of us with Mercury Marine backgrounds and BBLADES experience totaling 65 years. With the other folks we have an board, the total number years of experience is 80 years! That doesn’t include our metal fabricator who has 40 of experience alone.

We’ll being having more from Brett and the BBlades Operation here soon! So Stay tuned to PBN to hear more as we go in-depth with BBlades…

In a follow up to our previous coverage regarding Steven Knight’s imprisonment in Mexico, we received an email from Steven’s sister Bonnie. The Mexican government has handed down an unexpected 5 year sentence to Steven and Davis for what the Mexican Authorities are calling “money laundering”. Bonnie said “It has been 2 days of hell for all of us. On Monday I got a call from Steven and Davis the clerk of the court and the interpreter had just left, the bad news. They handed down a guilty verdict and 5 yrs.”

It has been reported that Steven’s Mexican Lawyers were not even notified of the verdict and it appears the Mexican judge just doesn’t care about the facts and based her ruling on the assumption that what they were doing was illegal.

We will work to get another phone call from Steven set up to try to get some more information.

ABC 7 News Coverage

All roads lead to Jacksonville, Florida! Tomorrow is the kickoff for the Jacksonville River Rally Poker Run Benefiting: Camp Amigo – Children’s Burn Center I have talked today with at least three boaters who are en-route and plan to have a great time at this years event.

The Jacksonville River Rally Poker Run was founded by Bill Pyburn, SR. in 2001 to benefit the firefighters in Jacksonville, The event grew in popularity and quickly became one of the leading events around the country, In recent years Bill has brought in Stu Jones and the Florida Powerboat Club to run the great event. Bill is back on board this year and coordinating the land side logistics. City of Jacksonville Marine Coordinator Jim Suber is back again doing the on water safety planning and coordination with the city and Coast Guard. In a twist John Woodruff is not bringing his 48 MTI to the event this year. While the 1350 Mercury Twin Turbo Engines are being rebuilt he is doing the entire Poker Run in his matching Bell Long Ranger Helicopter.

The entire event will be a full new episode of Powerboating in Paradise Television which is back on the air with 12 completely new episodes for 2013. Check your local listing for Sunsports/Foxsports for listings. http://www.powerboatinginparadise.com/

I have to go to Detroit for boat school and regrettably wont make it this year but I am looking forward to hear all the stories and see the great pictures that typically come from it.

Safe and Fun to all

This Weekends Activities:
Friday: Fun Run & Sand Bar Party, A great way to get the poker run started! Fun in sun with great tunes & BBQ!
Friday Night: Check-in and registration, 6pm to 9pm.
Saturday Poker Run: Mandatory Captains’ Meeting for all Participants, 8:30am.
General Times: Poker Run starts at 10am and finishes approx. at 4:30pm.
Saturday Night: Poker Run Party, 8pm to 11pm, Location: Fionn MacCools, Jacksonville Landing

PowerBoatNation is excited to announce the Grand Opening of our all new online store. Many of our sponsors have extended exclusive deals on their apparel to PBN.

We know we are constantly bringing new features to PBN and for some a store may not seem new but our concept is new and unique for the boating world. For those of us who maintain a dress code primary based in boating T-Shirts then I think you are going to really like what we have set up here.

We love to wear BOATING T-SHIRTS and figure you do too. So why just offer PBN Shirts why not provide the place where you can buy everyone’s T-Shirts. We are stocking apparel from all of the PBN’s supporters, Sponsors, and best of all Poker Run Apparel designer “Go-Fast Threads” awesome designs into one location. Now, you don’t have to wait for a poker run to buy what you want from the run. With our online Store you can order 24/7 and be ready to go!

PowerBoatNation.Com brings the lifestyle of power boating garb one step closer. Our easy and seamless order to ship system will get you what you want fast and it’s simple. There are many more products coming as we move along and we will be adding new products almost every week as well as some killer new features coming! From T-Shirts, koozies, prop covers, and more this is just the beginning and you can’t find this anywhere else!

BOAT ON with Powerboatnation.com!

VISIT THE STORE!

One of the best parts of Powerboat Nation is having the opportunity to meet some of the best people in boating and making a great number of friends that are pure hard core power boaters. So when one of our friends decides he wants to make or leave his mark on performance boating and we get to take that journey with him, I’m not sure whose more jacked up about his boat, us or him?

Whether you’ve heard the name or not there is a player in the game of high performance boating that is cut from a different cloth. Simply put there seems to be no limits to how far this person will go to raise the performance bar on his 40SS Skater, one of the world’s finest performance boats. His name is Jeff Asbell, a well spoken professional in the business of construction and disaster response. Jeff has been racing in one form or fashion his whole life, and while his boating experience started in a modest power boat like most of us, the evolution up to high speed high horsepower offshore catamarans was quite rapid.

Although I know a lot of people that are driven, Jeff is one of those guys that when he says he is going to make something happen, it happens. He really doesn’t accept the words “NO” or “Can’t” without requiring a damn good explanation. Prior to making his transition from the V-bottom ranks to a high performance Catamaran, Jeff did his homework. Before long he was off to visit Skater Nation’s Skater Nation | The Last Powerboat You’ll Ever Need To Own own Tommy Hofstetter. Tommy had a 40SS in stock with Chief Performance 1200’s ready to go and the rest of that is mere history or should I say, just the start of a new history. Jeff spent the better part of last year putting in 175 boating hours and 35000 tow miles on this Skater 40SS in just 5 months

While 99% of us would have been ecstatic with this combination Jeff is of those people we call the “One Percenters” . The type of guy that less than perfection just seems like failure. The burning desire to improve upon what he had could not be tamed and it wasn’t long before Jeff was back at Skater working with Peter on the goal to make some changes to his boat and bring it closer to the ultimate ride for him.

Unfortunately there was one problem, “TIME”! Jeff wanted his boat done before the Jacksonville Poker Run. Peter told him “get the boat to me and I’ll make it happen”. Skater removed the ski slope style rear tail section over the tunnel extension and added more convenient boarding steps. With the planned added horsepower Skater added knife style edges to the chine for improved high speed handling. The new engines were also going to require improved cooling and water flow so Skater added their water pickups. After these modifications, it was off to visual imagination VISUAL IMAGINATION INC, PO BOX 74, PECULIAR, MO 64078 who spent more than 1000 man hours laying down what will become one of 2013’s most stunning paint jobs. The paint design was a collaboration between Jeff and Mark Morris who created a visual sensation. Next the boat was treated to the comforts of Craig Ellis, owner of APPEARANCEPRODUCTSINC.COM upholstery. Jeff sketched his design thoughts and Craig brought them to life in a highly stylized and comfortable cockpit design.

Now with looks and handling under way, the time had come to put the 1200’s out to pasture and add the kind of power that would really let this boat put its money where its mouth is. After really doing his homework, Jeff turned to Brad Smith of Smith Power engines in Joplin, MO. Brad has been building some of the fastest most reliable power plants in a number of Skaters in the country.

Together the two men collaborated to build new 1725HP power plants, make some changes to the gearing in order to get the boat ready to lay down some big numbers and make a real statement to the power and passion of a committed boater, armed with a Brad Smith Powered Skater gleaming with Visual Imagination.

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Looking like a stealth fighter merged with a boat, these new Stealth Drone Boats are the equivalent of the unmanned drone aircraft used by the UK and U.S. military in the war on terror. The aptly named “Eclipse” unmanned surveillance vessels are invisible to radar, can operate in all weather conditions 24 hours a day, travel at 60 MPH and can be fitted with enough weaponry to take on its intended adversary: Pirates and Terrorists operating in small boats.

Featuring state-of-the-art technology that allows it to undertake search and rescue missions or patrol dangerous waters without requiring crew, they have a range of up to 600 nautical miles and can idle at low speeds for up to 10 days without refueling. Powered by two 500 horsepower jet drives made by Rolls Royce, the Eclipse range of boats also can be built with $985,000 gyroscopic HD cameras which take pictures of their surroundings, analyzing them for potential threats and and transmitting information back to a manned control station. The boats can be decked out with weaponry including a high powered fire hose, a cannon that fires nets to foul propellers and even a 50 caliber machine gun.

These incredible vessels belongs to the world’s first fleet of remote-controlled ‘robo-boats’ designed to take on dangerous and covert missions without endangering the lives of any crew. They can see in the dark thanks to infrared cameras and can also identify radiological and chemical matter, detect underwater mines and profile the sea bed underneath. As well as the flagship 35 ft. Oscar model, the fleet features a small 3-metre jet-ski style boat called the Sea Serpent that can be deployed from another boat and a 35 ft. semi-inflatable powerboat named Bravo capable of operating with crew or unmanned. The price tag starts at $394,000 for a basic Sea Serpent – and goes up to a whopping $3 million for the basic Oscar boat. The boats can operate by remote control and can also be programmed to carry out missions entirely on their own.

The fleet has been designed by engineers in Abu Dhabi by American military robotics experts 5G International. Keith Henderson, spokesman for Al Seer Marine, said:

“Our fleet of USVs is unique. Various companies have prototype boats but none offer a whole fleet. The size and type of USV depends very much on the kind of mission you want to send it on. We have something for everything – our fleet is the first in the world. The drones have a range of up to 600 nautical miles and can loiter at low speeds for 10 days without refueling. They use cutting edge technology to carry out high speed chases and provide top level surveillance while at the same time operating totally undetected. Unlike with manned boats you don’t have to worry about a crew getting sea sick, tired or even scared. The boats themselves are built with a radar reflective superstructure allowing them to scatter radar signals rather than bouncing them back. They can travel in shallow water or deep oceans, and are barely affected by weather. We believe our boats will be at the forefront of the fight against piracy, and crucial to search and rescue missions around the world.”