With his new Cigarette Racing Team 39 GTS performance center console dock-locked for five days during the Miami International Boat Show, which closed on Monday, Bob Christie was understandably eager to run the new 39-footer powered by four Mercury Marine Verado 350 outboard engines. The New Jersey-based performance-boat enthusiast has owned everything from a 38-foot Donzi to a 44-foot MTI catamaran—the famed Speed Racer cartoon-themed boat—to (most recently) a pre-owned Cigarette 42 X sportboat. But based on his self-described “excellent experience” with ordering and specifying his first new boat from the Opa-locka, Fla., sportboat and center console builder he was ready for a little closure.

Said Bob Christie of his new Cigarette 39 GTS: “This is so simple—you just turn the key and go. Photo courtesy Susan Munro

And during yesterday’s Florida Powerboat Club Miami Boat Show Poker Run from Biscayne Bay to the Faro Blanco Resort and Yacht Club in Marathon in the Florida Keys, Christie, with his wife, Madelyn, and a few friends, got that closure. In the image at the right, speedonthewater.com chief photographer Pete Boden of Shoot 2 Thrill Pix captured them having fun in the beauty.

“I’m very, very happy with it,” Christie said. “We ran 75 mph most of the way and in two- to three-foot chop and had a great ride all the way down. Now we’re sitting at Hawks Cay by the pool, having lunch. We came up on the outside and we’ll go back down on the outside. It’s a 14,400-pound boat and it can definitely handle open water.

“The fit and finish of this boat is beautiful,” he added. “I think the painted blue top is what really sets it off.”

Asked what he likes most about his new 39-footer, Christie didn’t hesitate to answer.

“It’s so nice with the outboards,” he said. “No bilge pumps, no sea strainers, no worries about picking up junk and worrying about water pressure. It’s just so simple and easy.

“Don’t get me wrong, I still want to have something that goes fast when I want to,” he continued. “But in my Cigarette 42 X with Mercury Racing 1100s we ran 75 mph in poker runs, the same as we ran in my new boat. And that’s all you need. This is so simple—you just turn the key and go.”

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