If all goes to plan, the reigning Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Top Gun champion, the 51-foot American Ethanol catamaran should have some actual competition at the Central Missouri event set for August 23-24. That it will come from another Mystic Powerboats catamaran of similar size makes the likely top-speed showdown even more dramatic and compelling
As reported in February, the 50-foot Spirit of Qatar Mystic cat—the fastest boat in Shootout history with a 244-mph pass in 2014 on the then-mile-long course—powered twin 3,800-hp T-55 turbine engines is now the property Ohio-based Darryl Cuttell, who bought the cat from Steve Curtis. Just as he did in 2014 alongside Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani of Qatar in 2014, the multi-time offshore racing world champion plans to throttle it in the event alongside the new owner.
Powered by four supercharged engines combining to make 8,000 hp, American Ethanol is no slouch. During the 2024 Shootout, Mystic Powerboats founder/throttleman John Cosker and driver Tony Battiato piloted the 51-footer to 221 mph on the now-three-quarter-mile-long course.
Can the former Spirit of Qatar cat match or exceed that speed on the shorter course this year? Can American Ethanol repeat or even improve on its 2024-event number? Both questions are intriguing.
Curtis, who hails from the United Kingdom and divides his time between his home in England and his shop in Stuart, Fla., has been working on the Mystic cat he throttled into high-speed history 11 years ago.
“We have completely changed the aero dynamics of the deck, and we’ve also done some more modifications on the hull,” he explained. “We are also working with Cosworth electronics to compile data to see what is happening to all the surfaces at really high speed. Then we will take that information to see how we can improve efficiency stability and safety.”
Mystic versus Mystic, turbine power versus piston power, record-holding Shootout throttleman versus record-holding Shootout throttleman. Any way you look at it, the 2025 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout could produce a battle for the ages.—Matt Trulio
