During last year’s Miami Boat show, long time MTI dealer Larry Goldman of Extreme Powerboats sold the first production MTI Center Console from the model on display. The buyer who is a multi boat owner with boats and homes in Miami and Europe and is giving up his current ride, a big power 42 Outerlimits for this new center console and is looking forward to a different boating experience.

The idea of being able to entertain many guests aboard and show them the wonderful Miami boating lifestyle in this stylized new model is very appealing to this active family.

Giving up big block power does not come easy for performance purists and to suggest a center console is a simple substitute for performance and the ride at speed, could be described as a stretch, BUT, the cost of ownership, ease of care, and utility of these boats makes them hard to beat for a pragmatic performance power boater.

The MTI offering to the center console rush could be the closest boat to the performance side of our world. This 42SV MTI center console has been carefully and thoughtfully designed to meet the utility design and keep the heart of the boat in high performance.

Larry Goldman based in Miami has sold way too many MTI Cat’s to list and has tons of time in other center consoles. He described this new SV 42 as “Incredible”. Larry said “The ride is outstanding; the boat accelerated, turned, and handled big water unbelievably well” We look forward to our first South Beach test ride in this new Sport Vessel from MTI.

This Sunday January 13th Powerboat Nation took part in a powerboat display in Palm Beach at the final day of Super Car Week in Palm Beach, Fl organized by SuperCarWeek.com

Joining us were Offshore Races Teams, GEICO, AQUAMANIA, P1 and a display of boats from Extreme Powerboats. The day was a huge success for Palm Beach with a reported 60,000 attendees strolling through the boat, auto, bike displays and exhibits. Hundreds of over the top exotics, hot rods, choppers, and all other variants’ were on hand.

Just to demonstrate the difference between the car sound and boat sound. Powerboat Nation and Larry Goldman of Extreme Powerboats placed a hush over the whine and snap of the Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, and muscle cars by firing off a 1550 Sterling Race Engine on the main road to give the car guys an idea of what a offshore race engine sounds like. To say the least this was very well received by the huge crowd on hand and yes I may have scared some old women and babies. Sorry for that!

The cross over from the Palm Beach car crowd into the world of performance Powerboating was really well received and we met up with many familiar faces as well as making new friends.

The producers of this event are friends of mine and were glad to support them this weekend and we are also excited to know they have secured a deal for a replacement to the PRI show previously held in Orlando each December and we will be at Disney this December to participated in a great performance industry event in Orlando at a Disney Park!

Powerboat Nation has just confirmed that publishing company Source Interlink Media has cancelled sport boat magazine. Even though the magazine was making money and was very well produced, evidently the returns were not substantial enough .

This now leaves Performanceboats Magazine as the only print periodical in the performance boat segment.

For me personslly I had the pleasure to work with a wonderful team of professionals that supported my efforts with my safety column. I wish them all the best and I am confident we will continue to work together in the future in some form or fashion.

2013 Began in a familiar way. A wonderful group of like minded powerboaters gathered at the 10th street boat ramp in Sarasota to participate in a Powerboating fun run that began over 10 years ago. Coordinated and supported by Ryan Beckley, owner of Kinetic Animation and a long time Offshore Powerboat racer, this event is now something we never want to miss and if you are a powerboating enthusiast who lives within striking distance you shouldn’t miss it.

Since 2012 this Sarasota Fun Run is now known at the Joey Gratton Memorial New Years Day Fun Run, to not only remember “The Man” but to raise money for the Joey Gratton Foundation.

www.JoeyGratton.com

The mission of the foundation is to help provide the opportunity and the means by which children can actively participate in an organized sport that values personal integrity, team and leadership skills, in a fun and healthy learning environment. This is accomplished through donations of equipment and scholarships.

With just over 60 boats and one float plane in attendance, people came from all over the world to participate this year. Boaters from as far away as United Arab Emirates, and Seattle, Washington came to Sarasota to celebrate the life of Joey and raise awareness and money for his foundation.
The event was truly for enthusiasts, powerboats of just about every type lined up for the departure. Flats boats, small to large center consoles, party barges, real race boats, and a large selection of performance powerboats.

The crew on hand to support Powerboat Nation was lucky enough to be invited to Offshore Racer Billy Glueck’s shop for an outrageous New Years Eve Toga Party, complete with roasted pig, party beverages and interesting video show brought by David Branch and his entourage.

I am now committed to spending all of my foreseeable New Years Days in Sarasota. A grass roots fun run that brings a really cool group of people together to bring in each New Year and now to remember and celebrate the life of our lost Friend and Offshore Racer Joey “The Man” Gratton. Special thanks to the Powerboat Nation Crew, who made it all possible to attend this year. Jason Ventura, Celeste Segredo, Greg Harris, Yvonne Aleman, and Travis Loftland. Brand X Hi-Performance Marine and Native Engines!

Powerboat Nation has just confirmed the “oh so quiet” under wraps version of the legendary Outerlimits 43′ V-bottom will debut in Miami at the international boat show this February. We were able to pry a few specs and some preliminary photos of the new boat during its construction. It seems as if there is a ton of new technology in this boat and many of its concepts were a collaboration of both Dustin Whipple (future owner) and Mike Fiore, President of Outerlimits Powerboats. Fiore is no stranger to building some of the worlds fastest and most prominent V-Bottom boats and this will be no exception.

Outerlimits is using a proprietary Carbon/Epoxy construction for the hull and deck lay up. Beyond the construction materials Outerlimits has developed a new, advanced 5 step modified pad bottom. Whipple being a purist of performance at heart convinced Fiore to cut down the hull’s height by 4″. Not only will these modifications allow the new SV43 Outerlimits to lower the boats center of gravity for increased performance, but it will give the opportuniity to showcase the new sit down front suspension seat that Whipple and Fiore have been developing. We will be bringing you even more great details on this boat so stay close for the latest in what’s coming from Powerboat Nation.

An Orlando boat dealer was convicted of being the pilot of the boat that killed a 20-year-old and injured several others, while he was drunk.The crash occurred about 4:30 a.m. July 30, 2006. Mark David Watts,owner of Liquid Sports Marine, was charged with killing Shelby Harper, a former Amateur Athletic Union basketball star, during the accident on Lake Irma in east Orange County. Watts was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday. Orange County court records show that Watts, 51, pleaded no-contest to charges of operating a boat under the influence of alcohol, and three counts of boating under the influence. State prosecutors dropped the more serious charges of vessel homicide, boating under the influence causing damage, and reckless operation of a vessel. In addition to prison, Watts will have to serve three years’ probation. A judge also ordered a special condition that Watts will have to speak publicly about the dangers of drinking alcohol.

Harper and her friends met Watts and his wife at the Roxy nightclub shortly before the accident, initial reports said. When the club closed early that morning, the Wattses invited Harper and her friends to their canal-side home on Lake Irma near University Boulevard, reports said.Witnesses told deputies Watts drank at least eight cocktails before taking the boat out. Two guests skipped the boating after they saw Watts fall into the water when he first tried to board his speedboat.Reports taken at the time showed that witnesses told authorities that when Watts finally got in the boat, he sped away from the dock at full throttle. Watts, who was boating without running lights, rammed a dock. Those on board the boat suffered broken arms, a collapsed lung, a lacerated liver and facial fractures. Harper suffered a broken neck and died at the hospital.

2012 is gone and of course it went by fast. Our new PowerBoat Nation came on fast and we are now rigging for what is expected to be a incredible 2013. I am convinced you will like what you see and will hopefully be surprised by what we have coming for you.

Looking back at 2012 I am not sure we as a sport/industry had any highs and lows as it all seemed a little flat. The lows were really the beginning of the year; coming out of a horrible Key West we started 2012 remembering those lost just months before. The Miami Boat Show came and went as well as all of the Poker Runs and fun runs.

Individually my personal Powerboating life certainly had some highs and lows. I put the engines back in my boat got ready to leave on trailer boating trip. Tres and I had a busy early 2012 and our U S Navy Special Warfare training remains strong, the balance of the year trailed off to being very slow.

I did spend the month of July trailer boating across the country. I know some of you thought I was crazy to tow a 38 Top Gun all the way from Florida to the Pacific Northwest, down to California and then back on the southern route across Nevada, Arizona, and Texas. Butttttt, it was one hell of a trip and at least in my mind got to the true essence of what Powerboating in PowerBoat Nation is all about. There are so many side stories and takeaways from that trip it will take me years to get the book done. What I can tell you is I needed another 23 months to do all I wanted too. But the theme of the trip remained, I got to go boating in new places with my boat and hang out having fun with friends and family in the way I remembered what boating was all about.

The re-launch of our website and brand giving us the opportunity to bring the essence of the PowerBoating lifestyle back to the WWW is certainly a high and just the beginning.

The low of my personal experience was tearing up a newly rebuilt engine because if leaned out for some unknown reason. But thanks to all of boating friends we seemed to get it back and running in time and have not missed a planned event. As much as having to buy new pistons and rebuild the rebuilt engine sucked and really hurt financially, the whole experience reinforced my true feeling and belief that the trust, friendships, and true spirit of lifestyle is what makes all this what it is and life worth “L I V I N I N”.

I hope you are all ready because as bleak at our government leadership seems to be. My blind optimism and cup half full running over all the time is propelling me to believe that at least what is coming from Powerboat Nation may very well be what the industry high becomes for 2013!

PowerBoat On!!

– Brad

Hurricane Sandy left a $650 Million bill for the 65,000 boats lost or damaged in the great storm. Sandy surpassed Irene as the most destructive Hurricane since Insurer BoatUS started keeping records in 1966. Last Years major Hurricane Irene racked up $500 Million in damages, while previous hurricanes Wilma and Katrina together caused $700 million in damages. Most of the damage was centered around the Tri-State area in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Nearly 60,000 of the damaged boats came from this area, the remainder came from other areas on the eastern seaboard and the Great Lakes area.

Scott Croft of BoatUS had this to say: “Like we said before – we’ve never seen anything like it, Sandy was such a huge geographic area — 900 to 1,000 miles wide at one point. The topography of where the storm hit the hardest played a major role. The lowlands in the tri-state area have little elevation above high tide. So when you take that topography and combine it with a record surge of 14 feet there was no place for those boats to go except up off their blocking and out of their cradles and into yards, other marinas and neighborhoods.”

The storm struck at lunar high tide which allowed for a massive tidal surge, which set records in many places, including Lower Manhattan where it rose to 13.8 Feet, 4 feet higher than the previous record. The extra high surge was responsible for most of the damage, as is typical in most hurricanes. Many of the boats damaged were set up for winter with their drains unplugged which led to their ultimate demise as they got floated in the storm surge, took on water and sank. The one silver lining to this disaster is the work that will need to be done to rebuild, repair and replace boats lost in the storm will help jump start the boating industry.

View the Thread of Sharkey-Images Sandy Photos

Fineline Industries Inc., producers of Centurion Boats, has announced the acquisition of Ski Supreme Boats. Fineline Industries will begin immediate production of all current and new Supreme boat orders.

Les Clark, vice president of manufacturing, said, “It is an exciting time of growth for the Fineline family as we welcome Supreme back to the factory floor. There’s a rich heritage of Supreme in this factory!” From 1994 until 2009, Fineline Industries manufactured Supreme alongside its Centurion brand in its Merced, Calif., factory. The existing 2013 Supreme lineup will again be coupled with Fineline’s commitment to building boats with the highest degree of quality craftsmanship, attention to detail, fit and finish.

Fineline Industries will market Supreme boat models as a separate brand. Centurion and its divisions, including World Championship Towboats and the Commercial Flight Division, producers of water taxis and parasail boats, will continue to be marketed separately.

Since the 1970s, Centurion Boats has pioneered tow sports and continues to lead the industry with towboat technology and innovation. Rick Lee, president of Fineline Industries, said, “Introducing our innovation practices, efficiencies in manufacturing, best-in-class warranty and customer service will translate to immediate value to our existing and future Supreme owners. The entire organization is committed to building strength in the Supreme brand by holding these new boats to the highest degree of Fineline’s standards and quality.”

News from Dave Hemmingson

Congratulations to the whole crew at DCB!

Message from Dave:

170 PLUS FIRST DAY AND STILL GOING LOTS LEFT IN HER , BEING EASY ON HER STILL NEW , PERFECT AT ALL SPEEDS !!!! ABSOULTE HOME RUN