When it comes to vintage Cigarette Racing Team 38 Top Gun sportboats, they don’t get any prettier than the 38-footer built in 1993 and formerly owned by Jim and Patty Kirkland of Crystal River, Fla. The Kirklands called the beautiful boat their own for 18 years and it became well-known up and down the Southwest Florida coast, as well as in farther-flung environs such the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri for the annual Cigarette Owners Rendezvous.
With a new 30-foot Skater sport catamaran and a pre-owned Cigarette 39 Top Fish center console, Florida’s Jim Kirkland has the best of both worlds (click image to enlarge). Photo courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Things change, of course, and in keeping with the times and at least one upcoming current event—the Kirklands will become grandparents next year—they sold their prized Top Gun earlier this year. They replaced it with a 2011 Cigarette 39 Top Fish repowered with triple 2017 model-year Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboard engines.
In honor of their future grandchild, they called the 39-footer Patty Cakes. “It’s going to be the ‘haul the baby’ boat,” said Jim Kirkland.
and then