Top Ten Go-Fast Boat Stories of 2014: Part I
Amazing—that’s the best word for 2014 in the high-performance powerboat world.
In terms of human losses, the high-performance powerboat community has never seen a more devastating year than 2014. In the space of 12 months, the go-fast boat realm lost Steve Tripp, the founder of Revolution Performance Marine, Mike Fiore of Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats, Carey Downs of the original Pier 57 Marine, and super-fan Reese Lewis. The performance boating community is small, so those losses were acute.
Outerlimits president Mike Fiore and company left North Carolina with a remarkable kilo record. Photo by Matt Trulio.
But in terms of accomplishments on and off the water, 2014 was huge. In 20 years of covering this market, I’ve never seen anything like it. Big numbers fells, new models came to a generally better marketplace—now that’s a big deal in this segment—and hot trends continued to be, well, hot. What follows are my picks for the Top 10 Go-Fast Boat Stories of 2014. To get keep this list from getting too long and unwieldy, I divided it into two parts (Part II), and in each of those lists I’m ordering my stories by news value in the go-fast boat world. Any number of qualities, from the obvious (major accomplishment) to the subtle (trend or significant movement), in a story determines its news value—it’s not an exact science, that’s for sure. And that means these lists likely will spark a few debates.
1. Outerlimits Smashes Fountain’s Kilo Record
The Outerlimits team arrived in Washington, N.C. last spring fully expecting to break Reggie Fountain’s 171-mph V-bottom with longtime customer Joe Sgro’s SV 43 raceboat powered by twin Mercury Racing 1650 engines. But with a two-way average speed of 180.464, Brian Forehand and Sgro didn’t just break the record, they smashed it. Fiore, who would die several months later after a high-speed boating accident during the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri, left Washington delighted with the new mark.
2. Mystic Marks Market Trends
With a few exceptions, John Cosker of Mystic Powerboats has offered just one model—a 50-foot catamaran with twin turbine engines from 1,800 to 3,500 hp—since he founded the DeLand, Fla., company in 1996. But in 2014, Cosker took on two all-new projects, an outboard-powered 39-foot luxury performance center-console and a 44-foot piston engine- powered catamaran that essentially tripled his company’s product offerings. With eight models between the two new releases already sold, Cosker is proving that two segments in the go-fast boat world—performance center-consoles and catamarans—remain white hot.
In a sign of the times, Mystic is releasing a luxury performance center-console and a smaller catamaran, shown here. Photo by Scott Sjogren/Pier 57 Marine.
3. The Saga of Qatar
In less than one year, the Spirit of Qatar team went from being one of Super Boat International’s best customers to being banned from the organization’s annual world championships in Key West, Fla. With the team’s throttleman and United States representative Steve Curtis being involved as president of the new Offshore Powerboat Grand Prix series—a potential SBI rival—the Qatar team’s ban was more than predictable. In the meantime, the Qatar Marine Sports Federation and OPGP continued to move forward with plans for the first Qatar Cup next month, which reportedly will host 50 raceboats from around the world, including a dozen from the United States.
For the Spirit of Qatar team, there was never a dull moment in 2014. Photo by Andy Newman/Monroe County Tourism Development Council.
4. Boom Times in Buffalo and Boyne City
With a lot of poker runs just holding steady or even declining in fleet size despite the upturn in the nation’s economy in 2014, the ones in Buffalo, N.Y., and Boyne City, Mich., continued to grow. Both events are organized by passionate, local volunteers. Both give back generously to local charities. All of those elements have served both runs very well. It also doesn’t hurt that both are held in beautiful parts of the country that don’t typically make it into the go-fast boating limelight. Look for both runs to continue growing in 2015.
The Boyne Thunder Run (shown here) and Buffalo Poker Run went big for all the right reasons this year. Photo by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
5. Cigarette Takes Stern Approach
Without question, Cigarette Racing Team’s 41’ Stern Drive 1040 luxury performance center-console was a bold move on the part of the Opa-Locka, Fla., company. The new 41-footer defies conventional performance center-console wisdom that says— for reliability reasons—outboard power is the only way to go if you want to attract former owners of stern-drive go fast boats. But Cigarette’s Skip Braver believes his new and existing customers will love it. What’s more, he believes the boat will attract an entirely new group of buyers to the market.
Continue to Part II.
With a new stern drive 41-footer, Cigarette took an alternative approach to the luxury performance center-console market. Photo courtesy Cigarette Racing Team.
