Last year during the Desert Storm event in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., I stood in front of the Mercury Racing trailer with company president Fred Kiekhaefer and ogled the company’s new twin-turbocharged, quad-overhead-cam 1350 engine. It was the second 1,350-hp model I’d seen—I caught the first one at the 2010 Miami International Boat Show two months earlier—and like the first it was on a stand. Production of the engine was slated for early fall.

What a difference a year makes. At Desert Storm 2011, there were seven pairs of 1350s in boats that included a pair of vibrant DCB M-31 Wide-Body catamarans, Derek Wachob’s spectacular black carbon-fiber, canopied Corvette-themed 48-foot-long MTI catamaran and Albert Haynesworth’s wild 48-foot Terminator MTI catamaran.

“This (Desert Storm) is our gateway to the West Coast,” said Kiekhaefer.