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Written by Matt Trulio
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Tuesday, 17 August 2010 16:25 |
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When it comes to engine upgrades, most notably supercharger kits, I lean toward the conservative side. First—and this should be obvious—anyone who upgrades an engine while it’s still under warranty is nuts. Second, in almost every high-performance marine engine upgrade scenario, the kit itself is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to expense. Adding 100-hp or more to your engine’s output can take your drive right out of its rated operating range, and make every propeller in your trailer too small.
And in a twin-engine upgrade application, a little simple math will tell you that your costs will be double.
With that said, a press release from Whipple Industries that came to me via Eric Colby, my good friend and former editor at Powerboat magazine, caught my attention. Having covered several Whipple supercharger upgrade projects over the years, I’m familiar with Whipple’s upgrade kits. High-quality stuff that’s well thought-out, for sure.
What I didn’t know? Whipple now offers an upgrade kit for every engine in the Mercury Racing line. (OK, Whipple doesn’t have one for the new turbocharged 1350, but that power-pumping monster just went into production in late July.) That means the Fresno, Calif.-based company has kits for the 525EFI, the 600SCi and the 662SCi, the 700SCi, the 850SCi, the 1075SCi and the 1025/1200SCi.
Depending the “stage”—meaning blower size, boost level and various aftermarket parts in each kit—the power increases reportedly range from 100 to 370 hp. Even with the 100-hp Stage One kits, that’s substantial. Prices vary from kit to kit, but it’s safe to say that none of them come cheap, particularly if the boat owner in question doesn’t have the mechanical and technical savvy to handle the upgrade himself. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 August 2010 16:27 |
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Written by Matt Trulio
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Thursday, 12 August 2010 15:46 |
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Caught up with Peter Hledin, the owner of Douglas Marine, which builds Skater catamarans in Douglas, Mich. Hledin remains one of my favorite people in the high-performance marine industry to inteview, particularly for his extensive base of knowledge that’s always tempered with a dry sense of humor. More important, I never feel that Hledin is being cagey with me. He goes “off the record” from time to time, but for the most part he’s on the record—often bluntly—and I respect that.
Hledin has been making news of late, most recently for offering a purse for the fastest “pleasure” Skaters at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout August 28-29. Hledin is putting up $10,000 for the fastest Skater at the Shootout, and if the cat breaks 190 mph he’ll double that purse.
“This event is for the boat owners,” said Hledin. “Most of the guys who are doing the Shootout are there because of their own competitive instincts, and because they want the notoriety. The key to this business is making sure your customers are having the time of their lives. It’s not about the boat builder, it’s not about the engine builder, it’s about the boat owner and his family and friends.
“The owners make it all happen,” he added. “They provide us with a living.”
Skater’s repair of JBS Racing, a 50-foot-long turbine-powered Mystic has also made news and elicited plenty of comment on the message boards of offshoreonly.com.
“They had kind of a small fracture in the bottom at Lake St. Clair (Mich.),” said Hledin. “It was not a big deal—it was a two-day repair. We spent more time fixing the trailer than the boat. But for John (Cosker, the owner of Mystic Performance Boats) to fix it up here would have been next to impossible. The boat is back here now on an unrelated issue. A propeller went through the bottom. Not related and, again, not a big deal.
“It’s not that John’s boats are ‘falling apart,’” Hledin added. “Not at all. It’s just the nature of boat racing. Race boats break.” |
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Last Updated on Thursday, 12 August 2010 16:04 |
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Written by Matt Trulio
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Friday, 13 August 2010 13:48 |
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This year’s Lake of the Ozarks Shootout August 28-29 is looking to be a battle of the 50-foot Mystics, at least when it comes to the fight for Top Gun honors. In one corner, there’s reigning champion Dave Scott’s Nauti-Marine, which is powered by a pair of 2,000-hp alcohol engines. In the opposite corner, you have Jeff Stevenson’s JBS Racing—officially confirmed last night according to Shootout organizer and title sponsor Ron Duggan—with its twin 1,800-hp turbine engines.
“They’re (JBS) definitely after Dave’s Top Gun trophy,” said Duggan.
Odds favor a Scott repeat, at least as I calculate them. Scott has as much or more experience at the event as anyone, and he and ace throttleman John Tomlinson have worked together in the cockpit for years. He also doesn’t face the challenge of “spooling up” turbine engines.
On the other hand, JBS Racing is, as the kids in my neck of the woods (the San Francisco Bay area) like to say, “hella fast.” Stevenson is ultra competitive and throttleman Joe Skrocki has seen plenty of success, especially when he competed in the Evolution Class of Powerboat P1.
So an upset also wouldn’t surprise me. You also can’t completely count out Bill Pyburn in his Pure Platinum Skater or Gino Gargiulo in his Mercedes MTI. Although both boats have significantly less power than the Mystics, all it would take is a mechanical issue with either Scott’s or Stevensons cat to put them in contention for the Top Gun trophy.
With two weeks left before the event, there are 40 boats registered.
“That’s pretty typical,” said Duggan. “However many we get pre-registered, we’ll get that many more on the weekend. Last year we had 63 boats pre-registered, and we ended up with 123.”
Yet another stand-out 50-foot Mystic cat, the turbine powered Aqua Mania, has not confirmed whether or not it will participate in the Shootout. |
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Last Updated on Friday, 13 August 2010 14:30 |
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Written by Matt Trulio
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Wednesday, 11 August 2010 09:40 |
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Anything “extreme” makes for good copy and even better video. And across the boating spectrum, there’s plenty of stuff that qualifies as extreme—even in sailing. (What do you expect? I’m a high-performance powerboat guy and I’m expected to take shots at sailors.)
So when my editor at Boats.com, John Burnham, a stinking sailor, asked me to compile and manage a four-part online series on “extreme boating” I was up for the job. That assignment was especially compelling because he asked me to use Lenny Rudow to handle fishing, Jeff Hemmel to cover the personal watercraft side and Kimball Livingston, another stinking sailor but a damn good writer, to handle the sailing end. I covered the high-performance side.
Short story: I couldn’t have asked for a better team. Not surprisingly, they're all colleagues of mine at Boatermouth.com, which is conglomerate of daily blogs from 12 top writers in the marine industry.
The series, which will appear on Boats.com next week, combines text and video to showcase the extremes of boating. And much as the high-flying aerial antics in Hemmel’s PWC segment blows my mind, much as the completely automated “Frankenboat” fish slayer in Rudow’s segment cracks me, the stuff that completely knocks me out is in Livingston’s sailing portion. There’s something about nature at its worst—and voluntarily heading out in it—that qualifies as truly extreme.
As for the high-performance boating segment, it taps into offshore racing, poker runs and even manufacturing with Sunsation. For the hardcore performance-boat enthusiast, none of it will come as a revelation (though there’s some very cool video from the Florida Powerboat Club and the Miss Geico turbine-powered racing catamaran). But the average visitor who comes to Boats.com, and there are 3 million of them each month, should find it plenty entertaining.
I’ll let you know when the first segment appears.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 11 August 2010 09:49 |
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