For the customer who custom ordered this custom painted Chaudron Pro-S25 it was a way to combine his passion for cars and boats, using the famed Grabber blue color scheme from popular Ford Mustang performance models.
Roark Summerford, who I’ve written about before, was a fantastic designer who raced what he built and made quite a few game changing boats
When it comes to early offshore powerboat racing the industry had its fair share of colorful characters but when you talk about design and innovation you have to mention Larry Smith from Team Scarab.
Although it has been a long time coming, the new V6 based Mercury Racing 200R and 150R outboards offer great features and just enough choice for a large variety of performance boaters.
When it comes to offshore racing, there are a few classes for single engine V hulls and the Class 700 is the most accessible as a single engine outboard. But if you want to get into an outboard cat, right now it’s the Super Stock twin 300R boats, and the 450R class
If there is a sure sign you're a boating enthusiast, or you have a major addiction, it is measured by how much time you spend perusing the classified ads.
In the constant quest for more performance, there are few simple principles to keep in mind. The most basic one is efficiency.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget with all the press the V8, V12 and now the V10 outboards from Mercury Marine get that it was in fact the V6 3.4L that really introduced the new architecture of Mercury’s four stroke engine roll out
When it comes to cool offshore brands from the good old days, Sonic USA is a boat company that comes to mind.
Mercury Racing likes to do big things and celebrate achievements and for their 50th anniversary party in Charleston South Carolina they went really big.
When it comes to early offshore powerboat racing the industry had its fair share of colorful characters but when you talk about design and innovation you have to mention Larry Smith from Team Scarab.
In September each year a group of Tuff Marine owners get together for a run starting in Parry Sound Ontario in Georgian Bay, which is just north of the Muskoka area
In the world of high performance boating there are a small number of people that help make that world go round
In the performance boat world there are many brands and builders that have come and gone but if you were to pick one boat company that has continuously pushed the envelope in design and performance, it is Allison Boats.
In this article, we are were fortunate enough to ask Jean Pierre Mouligne, from Gurit, a global leader in composite materials, some questions about some of their marine products. We talk about a new breakthrough technology that is very exciting for builders, some features and benefits of modern core materials as well as their application.
As part of our 10 questions series, we are incredibly fortunate to be able to pick the brains of some of the leaders in the performance boat industry. This time around, we are extremely grateful for the opportunity to ask John Tomlinson some questions about how he got into boats, his passion for racing, the work he enjoys doing
In today’s world of performance boats and V-hull sport boats in particular, Tuff Marine has developed a reputation for building some of the fastest and well constructed custom boats you can find anywhere.
There are some boats that earn their way into “classic” territory; usually a game changing design, incredible performance or race winning hull. In the case of the Activator 27, it really defined the company in the early days, being a winning APBA Factory One race winner multiple times.
I got to see Justin Kelly’s 21 Scorpion up close in Ontario Canada during the Tuff Marine run in the fall and after talking to Justin about it, there was no question, beyond the triple digit speeds, this was a passion project and incredibly done restoration
Shortly after hurricane Irma struck, Joey Clawges was in the Keys helping his in-laws clean up the mess. They noticed a boat for sale, a Hewes Red Fisher 16 with an old early nineties Merc 150. The sign said it ran but it didn’t, so Joey got it for the price he wanted
Several months ago I sold the Evinrude G2 250 in order to repower the Activator.
After some preliminary testing I ended up getting some great drone footage in Miami. We lucked out and had an absolutely perfect day to run the 22 Activator
In Episode 17 of Project Activator, we look at installing the interior, running the Evinrude G2 for the first time
After some delay, Project Activator has made some progress. Now we are getting into the fun part. The final clear coat was done last week, and now we can start rigging. Plus, we have the interior getting ready for upholstery.
In this episode we talk about the paint, the jack plate, and some other hardware and rigging. The color is Porsche GT Silver Metallic, which is a really dark silver with a lot of depth.
In episode 14 of Project Activator, we look at the boat in tinted primer, and walk around talking about some of the details.
In this episode, we talk about the deck being put back on the hull, and some of the details preparing for paint. The bulkheads were trimmed, and the deck was reinforced at the edges to be stronger and fit better.
In Episode 12, we talk about grinding out the rotten core in the deck, final paint scheme, and some jackplate options.
The good news is Project Activator is slowly moving forward, the bad news it has been delayed quite a bit in the last while. I apologize for that and hopefully I can get a video edited and up soon for Episode 11.
In this episode of Project Activator we look at the floor that is fiberglassed in with layers of 2408 and 1708 fiberglass. Since the boat structure is finished, and it has integrity, we can turn the boat over and begin blueprinting the hull.
In episode 9 of project activator, we look at the installation of the fuel tank, and the Coosa floor. Plus, we talk about the hardware we ordered and how we changed our mind on the gauges.
After a bit of a delay with Project Activator, we are back.
This week on Project Activator we talk about the bulkheads being installed, the notch in the transom and if we will fill it or not. We also talk about some of the new Mercury Marine engines.
In this episode of Project Activator, we look at different ideas for paint colors and design.
In this episode we go over Coosa Composites high density polyurethane closed cell foam structural panels