This 46′ aluminum Cougar v-bottom is being set up with triple 710-hp Ilmor Marine engines.

The team at AMF Offshore Rigging in Riviera Beach, Fla., is going big—literally. In addition to preparing Miss Geico, the well-known turbine-powered 50-foot Mystic catamaran, top rigger Gary Stray and his crew are working on three other big-boat projects.

One of the projects, a restoration of a 47’ Apache V-bottom headed for Trinidad, is being equipped with twin 1,450-hp turbine engines. Yet another classic high-performance powerboat, a 46-foot aluminum Cougar V-bottom, is being fitted with triple 710-hp Ilmor Marine V-10 engines. The boat will be used in the 2012 Cowes-to-Torquay endurance off the coast of England. On the less “vintage” side, AMF is installing triple Yanmar diesel engines in a 51-foot Outerlimits V-bottom.

Visible on the left is one of the turbine engines going into the 47′ Apache to the right.

“I can look out my office window and see all three of the boats being work on,” said Scott Begovich, one of the partners in AMF Offshore Rigging and throttleman for Miss Geico. “It’s really cool.”

Another look at the turbine engines heads for the vintage Apache.