Howard Custom Boats 36 Bullet: Evolution of Species
Howard Custom Boat saved the biggest and baddest of its Bullet series for last, proving that good things are worth waiting for.
November 18, 2010
Way back in 1998 when the economy was a whole lot more robust than it is now and all was right with the West Coast performance-boat world, Howard Custom Boats of Valencia, Calif., introduced the 28 Bullet. The single-step V-bottom was an immediate hit with consumers and critics, and it went on to win Powerboat magazine’s Sport Boat of the Year award.
The 36 Bullet is Howard’s first offering designed to handle offshore water.
Knowing they needed to capitalize on their success, Gene Willen, the owner of Howard Custom Boats, and his son, Mike, the company’s designer, went right to work on a sister model. That offering, a single-step 25-footer dubbed the 25 Bullet—go figure—also earned raves when it was released in 2002.
“We went with a 25-foot model because our core market at the time was the family boating, weekend warrior lake boating type that occasionally did some ocean use,” Mike Willen explains. “We had nothing between our 22-footer and our 28 Bullet, so it was a good fit.”
What the Willens had hoped for but hadn’t necessarily expected was a strong push from 28 Bullet owners for a bigger boat. But the push did happen, and soon after the 25 Bullet was released Mike Willen found himself back at the drawing board working on designs for what would be a 36-foot addition to the line. But while the single-step bottom designs for the 28 and 25 had come to Willen relatively easily, the dual-step hull for the 36-footer proved challenging, even frustrating.
“That one kept me up at night, trying to figure out how to keep the boat’s attitude level without getting it too loose and keeping its back end in the water during high-speed turns,” he says. “There was a point at which I was going to design the 36 as a single-step boat, but I decided to stick with a dual step and work it out.
“Top speed is always a concern, but it’s not the No. 1 concern,” he continues. “”The No. 1 concern is stability and handling at all speeds. I went for it (the dual-step configuration) and everything came out fine.
“I can take any model and make it run ‘faster,’ he adds. “But I’d be making sacrifices in other areas. The 36 runs exactly the same way 28 does, which was our goal.”
It also happened to be a goal the Howard team achieved, because when the first 36 Bullet hit the water in 2008, it earned raves. Unfortunately for the company, the release of the new model coincided—or collided—with the sharp decline in the go-fast market as dictated by the spiraling economy and the consumer credit crunch. Sales of the 36-footer were not as brisk as those of its smaller siblings.
Howard’s 36-foot long twin-step V-bottom should be right at home on the Colorado River-fed system of lakes, which is Mecca to West Coast custom performance-boat enthusiasts.
Regardless, the 36 Bullet has proven to be an outstanding and particularly efficient performer. With mild power in the form of twin Mercury Racing 525EFI engines, one of the first 36 Bullet’s built reached 92.5 mph. On the upper end of the scale, a 36 Bullet with a mid-cabin and an open bow reportedly runs 116 mph with a pair of Mercury Racing 700SCi engines providing the power.
Like its siblings, the 36 Bullet exhibits exceptional stability and agility. But thanks to its greater overall length and heft, the 36-footer is significantly better in rough water, which makes it a good candidate for ocean use in mild to moderate conditions.
Priced from $250,000 to $500,000 plus depending on power and options, the 36 Bullet is offered in both closed-deck and mid-cabin/open bow versions, the latter being particularly popular on the waterways formed by the Colorado River—Mecca to the West Coast go-fast boat crowd. As a custom builder, Howard will load the model with just about option or gelcoat color scheme a buyer is willing to pay for.
No wood is used in the 36 Bullet’s construction. According to company literature, the boat is hand-laid with vinylester resin and Knytex knitted bi- and tri-directional fiberglass fabric. The entire hull is cored with 1-inch Diab foam from Sweden, as is the boat’s sole, sundeck and full inner liner, which is bonded in place with Plexus adhesive. The transom, stringers and bulkheads are fabricated from Penske board composite foam encapsulated in fiberglass.
Though Willen says he and his father have no plans to add another model to the Bullet line at this time, he also says it wouldn’t be difficult—and he wouldn’t rule it out down the road.
“We definitely learned a lot from the 28 that we applied to the 36, and now that we’ve done the 36 we have a simple mathematical formula we plug into any size boat and make it work,” he says.
Bi-weekly columnist Matt Trulio is the editor at large for Powerboat magazine. He has written for the magazine since 1994. Trulio’s daily blog can be found on speedonthewater.com, a site he created and maintains, which is the high-performance arm of the BoaterMouth group.
