Since Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats debuted its 450 Sport Center Console earlier this year at the Miami International Boat Show, the North Fort Myers, Fla., company reportedly has taken a number of orders for the boat. The custom center console, catamaran and V-bottom sportboat builder rushed to get the first 45-footer to the Miami event, which meant it arrived in relatively unfinished form. And yet consumers and industry insiders raved about Nor-Tech’s largest center console offering, which is powered by five Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboard engines. (The boat reportedly tops out at 85 mph with that power package.)

The finished Sport 450 CC blew away Nor-Tech dealer Michael Knoblock of American Custom Marine and his guests.

Thanks to Michael Knoblock of American Custom Marine, a Detroit-area full-service powerboat dealership that handles all Nor-Tech sales in the region, a half-dozen potential buyers got the chance to see and run the finished product earlier this week in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Through Bob Crow of South Florida Performance Boats, which took delivery of the 45-footer a month ago at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Knoblock arranged the special “Demo Day” for his customers—a couple of whom currently own other Nor-Tech models—and they jetted to the famed South Florida city from Michigan to log time in the boat on the rough Atlantic Ocean water, as well as on the Intracoastal Waterway.

“It’s been pretty windy down there so we had six- to eight-footers in the ocean,” Knoblock said. “Everyone was really impressed with the ride—we ran into the seas at 30 mph and followed them at 60 mph. Then we ran it on the Intracoastal to see how well it handled. It was a good testament to what that boat can do.

“The members of our group have owned cruisers and they didn’t want it to feel like one of those,” he continued. “They wanted it to feel like a sportboat, and it did. They were quite impressed.”

For a closer look at the first complete Nor-Tech 450 CC, check out the slideshow above.

Knoblock said he rode on the first Nor-Tech Sport 450 CC in raw form during the Miami event and enjoyed it. But with its complete upholstery and hardtop, the finished product, which he experienced for the first time yesterday, was that much better—and better looking.

“And you don’t realize how big it is until you see someone standing in it,” he said.

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