Currently in the paint booth at the highly respected Boat Customs in Caledonia, Mich., Dan and Lisa Sherman’s 46-foot Skater Powerboats catamaran is nearing the end of a lengthy conversion that is about as close as you can get to building a new boat. And in essence, thanks to some substantial changes to the 46-footer, the Shermans are getting a new boat.
Michigan’s Dan Sherman is going with Sterling Performance Engines power plants in his 46-foot Skater that is currently getting a complete overhaul from the crew at Boat Customs.
I’m not going to get into a lot of the details of what’s to come as neither Sherman or Chris Mills of Boat Customs want to disclose everything they’re up to—plus I’m going to follow the last few months of the project on speedonthewater.com as the Skater is prepped for the upcoming boating season—but up to this point, there’s still plenty to write about.
Sherman, who also owns a 42-foot Mystic Powerboats center console, a 42-foot Fountain Powerboats V-bottom, a 31-foot twin-outboard pontoon and a 36-foot Skater with partner Scott Stinebring, picked up the 46-foot Skater, which was powered by twin turbine engines, in the fall of 2015 and opted to purchase it without the power as he planned on purchasing new blower motors from Sterling Performance Engines in Milford, Mich.
Check out the slideshow above for some of the images Chris Mills of Boat Customs shared of the 46-foot Skater conversion.
When the boat left its current home in Washington that year for Michigan, it wasn’t just coming back for a repower. Sherman wanted a showpiece and he wanted Mills, whom he met at the Boyne Thunder Poker Run a few years ago, to create it.
Read more: Old School Meets New School: 46 Skater Project at Boat Customs