The unusually cold weather in South Florida this weekend did not bring great incentive to drive to a small Lake in Central Florida for a boat race but I am really glad we did.

My friend Larry Goldman of Xtreme Powerboats of North Miami and his son Jacob drove me up to Lakeland Florida and when we arrived at Lake Hollingsworth I was super impressed with the turnout in spite of the cold. APBA racing is alive and well in Florida and this APBA double points race brought participants in from as far away as New York and they brought the weather with them.

One particular boat that caught our eye was Charlie Hamill’s V-Drive Biesemeyer “Peeps Pride”, Charlie and his wife drove down from New York to escape the cold and found a little warmth in Lakeland, Fl. He also took first place to begin his 2013 points total. Charlie was the 2012 World Champion 2012 SE Class Champion and told us he is relocating back to California and looking forward to continuing his racing efforts from the warmer San Diego climate.

We got to meet and greet with the Amsoil sponsored Rinker Team and the APBA Hall of Champions inductees, father and son, Terry and Rob Rinker as well as the other son Ashton who after spending 10 year in the US Marine Corp is back and racing with his dad and brother. Ashton took his SST120 to a impressive first place finish in the windy cold conditions. The coolest thing was the passing on of the Katie Billiter Future Star Award to a new young boat racing which to me shows how the spirit of the grass roots efforts of these small regional boat clubs keeps the dream of powerboating alive for the future.

We have a long way to go but this visit to boat race in central Florida revitalized my ideas of Powerboating and you can be sure to see more from PowerBoatNation.com covering these events across the country.

Fast, Stock, Low Cost of Ownership, Attainable and Outerlimits Powerboats. Those worlds usually don’t go together. When I bought my boat I would probably of bought an Outerlimits but the budget made it unattainable for me. Now Brett Manire owner of Performance Boat Centerhas a solution. Today Brett told me that just his morning he ordered anther 36 Foot Outerlimits Super Leggara. This one Brett said “will be Stock. A 90 MPH Outerlimits with stock Mercury 8.2 Liter Mag HO’s, with a full multi year warranty, nice paint and amenities at a previously unattainable price point for an Outerlimits. Cost of ownership of this boat over the years will prove to bring an incredible value.”

Performance Boat Center already has a 565 Mercury Racing 36 Super Leggara on order but Brett believes this stock version will be at such a lower price point it will make the difference and draw new buyers to this boat over comparable speed and quality offerings of other brands. “Being able to buy a 90 MPH Outerlimits that runs on 87 Octane and warranties. This is a boat to own for years.” said Brett.

In other news from Performance Boat Center, just last weekend they held an open house that packed customers in and resulted in actual boat sales and the sales listing of a couple of new boats.

Also in mid March the dozers will break ground on the new Marina and Red Head Yacht Club. Brett is very enthusiastic about the future and said things are booming at Lake of the Ozarks. “Marinas are expanding, new blood at the lake, buying boats and bringing new life to LOTO” said Brett.

PowerBoatNation.com will of course be at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout and will continue to bring you news about these incredible Outerlimits Powerboats and happenings at Performance Boat Center!

With spring upon us, please make sure your first trip out is not your last. We may plan all year for our big boating vacation or it might be last minute hurry up and go, but what we can’t plan is how well the weather may cooperate with us.

All too often the push to go forth outweighs the reasonable care for preparation of your boat and yourself. Sometimes the biggest hurdle is the modification of route or using the go-no-go rule.

The let down of not being able to complete your boating trip is really hard for people to take, and rather than stay on the trailer or in the slip they will push to accomplish what they set out to do. Sometimes, with catastrophic consequences…

Sea Story Time: One early winter Friday we got a call from a gentleman who wanted our advice about moving his boat from his wet slip to a indoor storage facility about 15 miles to the north. The forecast for Friday and most of Saturday was terrible and called for cold, freezing rain, with very limited visibility. The Sunday forecast was a little better but still not an enjoyable boating day by any means. The push to this was it was the last available day for him to get his boat on the hard. He had to work and wouldn’t or couldn’t pay someone to move the boat for him. The call came again on Saturday morning and we again recommended to him not to go. The call came again Saturday night asking about Sunday and we again recommended he wait for better weather. The next call came late in the afternoon on Sunday. This time it was his wife, she had been waiting at the marina to the north for about four hours and her husband and young son had not arrived and she feared something was wrong.

The boat crews immediately dressed out in dry suits, ran to the boats and began to execute a multiple of searches. Additionally, calls went out to anyone and everyone who may have any information on the location of the boat. Trackline searches from departure to destination revealed nothing and helicopter over flights found nothing. We then began to zero in on a channel area to the north near the designation. Well into the night and early morning, the boat crews had exceeded their fatigue hours and the helos had to continue to divert from the planned search area due to heavy concentration of birds in a marsh area to the north, the search was suspended until first light. I slept in a chair near the radio room for a few hours and just as the sun broke to the east we got a radio call from a freight ship that was south bound in the channel and was replying to our distress
radio calls about the overdue boat. The crew of the freighter had sighted a small boat in a shallow area to the east matching the description of the overdue vessel.

We scrambled the boat crews and called for a helo. The boats got on scene before the helo and the water was too shallow for them to get in. Rather than wait for the helo, the larger 41 foot Utility boat took the small whaler in tow and then positioned it windward of the boat in distress. The crew then slacked the tow line and drifted the Whaler with the engines raised into the shallows to come alongside the grounded boat. A quick search
found no one, it was the boat but no one was onboard.

The helicopter arrived a very short time later and began a sector search, almost immediately they spotted a person and deployed a swimmer. Sadly, it was the young son found frozen on all fours from attempting to crawl through the shallows on his hands and knees trying to reach land. A few hours later, the father was found floating deceased.

Poor visibility, very cold conditions, and a lack of knowledge. and boating skill resulted in a horrific and tragic end. The push to accomplish the task at hand consumed all thought and even against the recommendations of the Coast Guard, father and son proceeded ahead into their unknowing death. This type of scenario is often replayed with a variety of outcomes, from uncomfortable to death.

How to prevent yourself from similar situations!

If conditions are not favorable, Don’t Go! Simply leave the boat at the dock or on the trailer and find an alternative thing to do. If you find yourself out in it, then you have some work to do and you must consider the following.

Fuel: You will consume more fuel than usual in heavy seas and wind. Do you have enough?

Comfort: Rain gear, or even garbage bags, gloves, towels, whatever you have to keep dry and comfortable.

Tides: If the seas and wind are building and you are trying to return to an inlet from offshore, you should aim for high tide or as close to high tide as possible. Running boats, especially performance offshore V hulls through a large or breaking inlet is not advisable. Your best conditions are going to be at high tide. You really should know what the tides are for where you are running or at least have reliable electronics you can operate properly to tell you.

Anchor: Sometimes your best option is to wait. A properly set anchor with sufficient scope will hold a boat on position in heavy weather for days, weeks, or months. While it may not be a fun night out on the hook, it may be the best thing you could do.

Float plan and Communications: Make sure someone ashore knows where you went where you’re going, and when you should return. If you don’t make it back they must know who to call. The plan won’t work unless you can trust those you left the information with. A cell phone is not enough. A good VHF radio plus a couple of phones with chargers are what you would need for a near coastal emergency. If you are going well offshore or making a crossing, a satellite capable phone would be required to keep you in constant contact.

Above all else use your weather forecast resources, boating skill, and judgment from putting you in a position that becomes difficult to get out of. Unless you’re running out to save “burning babies in the surf”, let the weather conditions dictate what is pleasure boating and find a great place ashore to ride the storm out!

Stay Safe,
Brad

On August 12 2005, the crew of the Bradstone Challenger crossed the finish line at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, smashing the world record for circumnavigating the British Isles, with at time of just 27 hours and 10 minutes. Their powerboat, a 51 footer, had averaged 63 mph through the rough water surrounding the isles, reportedly making max speeds of around 83mph. The Bradstone Challenger broke the old record by more than three hours and 40 minutes, and that record still stands today.

Seven years later, after a series of secret sales, the Bradstone Challenger is now docked Bandar Abbas, on the southern coast of Iran. Western Naval forces fear the boat itself has been fitted with an array of fast attack weapon systems, and furthermore has become the basis of Iran’s new fleet of fast attack vessels. Iran’s Navy doesn’t stand a chance face to face in any confrontation with western fleets, so they’ve decided to base new tactics around small, fast boats.

American military planners understand the serious threat of these powerboats following a 2002 war game exercise in which Iranian speedboats destroyed 16 U.S. warships. Replicas of the of the Bradstone Challenger would be a particularly deadly version of that threat. The Bradstone Challenger’s designer Lorne Campbell says that precise identification is difficult in the long-range photograph (shown below). But he speculated that the boats at the new Iranian base may be more closely related to an Italian-designed speedboat.

Iran has tested these new tactics as well: In 2008, a small swarm of speedboats buzzed the USS Hopper in what then President Bush called a “provocative act”. If it were a real attack, there is no doubt most of the small boats would be destroyed, but it only takes one to break through and cause serious damage. From personal experience, there was a time I was leading a Poker Run Pack to the Bahamas and crossed the path of a US Nuclear Submarine on the surface. I would love to have known what was going through the Commanders Mind with 20 plus small boats coming at him at about 70 kts. I steered the boat I was running well aft of the sub to make sure there was no confusion with what our intentions were.

The US isn’t sitting idly by however, many new systems are coming online in US fleets to monitor and track these small fast powerboats. Despite their size, hundreds of powerboats don’t just appear out of thin air, and US Naval Ships will make sure they are not surprised.

Following the Miami Boat Show the Florida Powerboat Clubs Miami Boat Show Poker Run is one of those events that you must do if you are a real Powerboating enthusiast. I have been doing this Poker Run since 2006 and this 18th year for the club was the best one ever. Beginning with perfect weather conditions we left The Biscayne Bay Marriott on time Thursday morning with about 60 other boats broken into three running groups and had a beautiful run south to Islamorada with the regular lunch stop at Gilberts resort on key Largo.

On Friday a small group of us including Craig and Nancy with their 38 Cigarette “Old School”, Bill Robbins with his 40 Nor-Tech Roadster and the new M41 DCB ran north back to Gilberts to meet up with Fridays group of about 16 additional boats for the rest of the run back to Islamorada. The run back down was even better with fewer boats and we got more helicopter time for what we hope are great videos and pictures.

Saturday came and what I estimated to be about 50 boats all headed out with us to a simple raft up party about 10 miles south of Islamorada, at the Channel Marker 5 Bridge. I have not had this much fun with a great group of people in a very long time. The music blared until we killed the batteries on the boat and everyone had a great time. The boat count was so large there were four separate raft ups in the shallow area near a sand beach.

Stu flew the Helicopter again and a few boats put on a show doing fly bys, off the beach. Particularly cool were the 28 and 32 Outboard Skaters and a couple of STV’s that managed their way down with the rest of us. We fired the PowerboatNation.com T-Shirt cannon and gave away our t-shirts to as many as we could.

This on water camaraderie and fun is really what this is all about, powerboating enthusiasts using their boats and hanging out together. No keyboard warriors or wannabes at this raft up. There were brand new million dollar rings tied up to older smaller boats and no one cared. The new boats, old boats, big and small we were all the same on the sand bar at the same time having the same fun and it was outstanding. A special thank you to “SPICY” for letting me use a battery to get fired back up to get home fast and a special thanks to Stu and Jacky of the Florida Powerboat Club for putting it all together and giving us all a excuse to play.

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“If it don’t go Chrome it” and if it goes “Show it “

One of the biggest challenges for the builders and dealers who display at the show is to get ready for Florida Powerboat Clubs Miami Boat Show Poker Run. When the boat show closes Monday night some of the builders have to work feverously to get the boats out the door to the water and down to the Biscayne Bay Marriott in time for the departure Thursday Morning. Some builders like Dave’s Custom Boats didn’t have that problem since their new M41 is already in the water at the hotel marina. In fact the days between the show and the run give these guys a little time to relax in Miami and enjoy the Miami Boating lifestyle without the herd of about 70 other boats that will be participated on this year’s run.

The Miami Boat Show Poker run is not the biggest, the venue may not be the best, and the dock/rafting situation is tight. But as far as I am concerned if you are a player in this world then this is an event you can’t afford to miss, this is where all the new boats are splashed and if it’s real it runs, if it’s just boat show bling it doesn’t come.

“If it don’t go Chrome it” and if it goes “Show it “. If I was a new buyer I would almost insist the delivery of my new ride was to include that the boat be ready to run on the Miami Boat Show Poker Run. This is where you can see it all, inside protected waters, real offshore conditions and a destination venue that keeps everyone at one place to swap stories, tell lies and then be forced to prove them offshore or walk away

On this year’s run we saw show boats from Statement, Cigarette, MTI, Formula, Skater, and Nor-Tech. All the new owners had the double pleasure of showing their new boats off at the show and then running them on one of the best boating events of the year.

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While the Miami boat show was the unveiling of 2013 for so many new boats and products nothing stopped traffic quite like the trio of beauty’s from Powerboat Nation. The trio of professional south beach Florida models decked out in matching skin tight lycra body suits adorning the brand of Powerboat nation greeted virtually thousands of boat show attendees while taking pictures and welcoming new members to the brand and it’s offerings. The girls conducted interviews and posed in feature shots with industry Icons and the most stunning boats on display. The ladies were just a few of a team of beautiful woman that Powerboat Nation provided for what was to become the largest boat show celebration to hit the south beach area during the boat show. Many a lucky show goers ran across these lovely ladies at the show and had their picture taken. We’ve compiled them all online here so take a look!

While we will have to wait for the final numbers to come in, the proof positive is back. The Miami Boat Show sold boats. Powerboat Nation talked to Builders and Dealers and all of the reports are positive, Nor-Tech sold boats, Sunsation sold boats, MTI, Skater, Legend Marine, Pier 57, Fastboats.com, Xtreme Powerboats, Performance Boat Center, Outlerlimits, DCB, and Hustler. Everyone we spoke to at the show has not only confirmed the optimism, but has said they have deposits, signed deals pending and even fulfilled contracts on boats that were in the show and on boat orders that will go into the production schedule as slots become available.

Terry Sobo of Nor-Tech has had to add a second shift to fulfill the new orders from the show and went on to say they have never had a show like this one. “This year’s show even with the rain was actually overwhelming” said Sobo. “We are looking to hire more people and increase our production schedule to keep up with demand”

Casey Freeman, quoted “Legend Marine Dallas Texas has contracts on multiple boats and Cigarette wrote many additional sales at the show.”
A very happy and excited Wayne Schaldenbrand along with Brother Joe was thrilled with the response of their new Center Console. The innovation they built into the boat has generated sales at the show and they go back to Michigan happy and busy with a full schedule. I was onboard the boat at the same time Bill Tweedy of Myco Trailers was there and got to hear firsthand on how they were pushing the delivery schedule of new boat trailers for the new boats they were building.

Powertboat Nation is thrilled so many of our friends are back from the economic dulldrums and we can get back to Powerboating across the Nation!

If you are at the Boat Show in Miami this week or attended the Powerboat Nation Party, don’t forget to check out all the photos and join the discussion! We’ll be adding photos constantly throughout the weekend.

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Cigarette and MTI have stolen the show so far with their stunning new introductions. Cigarette debuted its AMG Mercedes inspires Electric Powered 38′ Top Gun. The boat is powered by Twelve 138 kW electric motors. Many components of the SLS AMG Electric Coupe were fitted into the Cigarette. The car is the most powerful electric automobile in the world, can this new electric powered Cigarette become the fastest electric boat in the world? We can’t wait to see!

MTI unvieled new 38 and 52 foot Catamarans with the 52 foot “Black Diamond” being the centerpiece. Powered by twin 1350’s this stunning boat is equipped with an array of custom electronics and lighting. With sharp diamond shaped lines, this boat is a beauty to behold. Black Diamond has 6 seats, all of which are air-conditioned. Both the 38 and 52 Cats will be making their maiden voyages in the Miami Boat Show Poker Run.

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The MIAMI INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOW and the YACHT AND BROKERAGE SHOW in Miami Beach are now open! Powerboat Nation has been reporting out from the Miami Beach Convention Center since last Friday showing you progression photo’s of the boat show set up. After all the preparation and planning it’s Show Time! The show is expected to attract more than 110,000 visitors from around the world and bring big business to Florida and the recreational boating industry.

This year’s shows, which run concurrently Feb. 14-18 in Miami Beach, have added optimism since the release from the National Marine Manufacturers
Association’s announcement that recreational boat sales were up 10 percent in 2012 and are projected to rise another 5 to 10 percent in 2013. This year’s Miami show is expected to bring about 1.1 Billion to the south Florida economy.

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