Mirage Performance Boats: The Rise and Fall of a Classic Boat Brand with a Cult Following
The name Mirage in the boat industry has been used several times, but one brand, Mirage Performance Boats from Arlington Washington, is a less well known and made excellent family performance boats. Founded in 1984 by Mark Baseler, the stylish boats were built for the rough water of the Pacific Northwest and had a great reputation, becoming reasonably big by 1990. The company had also made general market fishing boats under a different brand name. The brand was sold in 1999, and then sold again in 2001 and fizzled out after some unfortunate events.
My brother has a knack for finding great deals on unique boats. He has had some really neat boats over the years and one that he had briefly always stood out to me and it was a 1990 Mirage 232 Trovare with a 454 Magnum. What made the Mirage notable was the quality and the design details. During the 90s there were quite a few family performance boats in the midsize sterndrive market; and big manufacturers were involved. A few things were different for Mirage, they were built in Arlington Washington, where the Pacific ocean defines the area, which is usually home to commercial fishing boats and rugged trawlers. And they had elements of a custom hand laid boat, but were generally a production boat with high quality materials.
My brother had a 232 Trovare very similar to this and it was an amazing boat.
The popular Mirage hulls had a 24 degree deadrise with full length strakes, and some had a pad. Although they were sleek and had a nice wrap around windshield, the popular 232 and 257 Trovare’s felt bigger than their size; due to the deep hull, high freeboard, and bow entry. You could tell a lot of thought went into these boats and the high quality materials showed, from nice interiors to really nice gelcoat work in tasteful colors. You could compare them to other popular brands at the time and in most cases the Mirage was either really competitive or just better.
I was lucky enough to be around all sorts of boats at that era and got to drive quite a few, and my brother agreed, there was something about the Mirage. The 232, which was very similar to the 257, sliced waves yet felt light and fast over 60 MPH. And again, for a 24’ it felt a little bigger. For a stock 454 MerCruiser, it ran around 66 MPH and with an 8’ beam there was plenty of room inside as well as in the cuddy cabin. For me, this was a pretty good time for performance boaters interested in family leaning semi performance boats.
With Donzi, Formula, Falcon, Baja, Velocity, Checkmate, Fountain and many others offering varying degrees of mid size family performance boats. At the time, even brands like Sea Ray had a line of boats called Pachanga that had really decent design and decent performance. Now it seems like most performance boats are much better performing but not nearly as commonplace or mainstream; for better or for worse.
The boat business has always been entrepreneurial and it was expanding rapidly in the late 80s. Mark Baseler saw an opportunity and must have been a great operator because although many boat companies can exist for a time, it is hard to scale up and last. Baseler at one point was making about 50 to 75 boats a year. He offered a few smaller models in the 18’ to 21 range; dubbed the 182 and 211 respectively but the bigger 232 and 257 Trovare were the popular models and the best performers. You can see the early 27 Mirage was a more squared off 80s design, whereas the Trovare’s had a more modern look.
Some Trovare’s had standup bolsters, some had captain’s chairs like these.
Personally I really like the 257 Trovare, it was slightly nicer proportionately to the 232, although very similar. If you look at specs, the 257 was sometimes listed as slightly lighter than the 232, both boats had a 8’ beam and the hull design is only slightly different, and some 257s were 1 or 2 MPH faster with the same power. A well setup 257 with a later 454 Magnum, should run high 60s. And a 502 should break 70 MPH. Both the 232 and 257 had a full running surface, some boats at the time with a notch and lower freeboard felt like smaller boats comparatively. Also, many 23 to 25 footers you would squeeze into the cuddy, where the Mirage’s had a generous cuddy.
An early 27 Mirage was definitely from the 80s. The later models really showed off the companies design and building skills with a much more refined finish.
For comparisons, I would say a Mirage 232 Trovare is more like a 25’ boat size wize. And a 257 Trovare compares to a 27 of the time; like a Formula 272 or a Fountain 27’ in size. With the full length 24 degree hull, and lighter weight, it would outperform some of the popular boats of the time. They had about a 7” V pad to add some lift to the deep hull design. A few twin engine 257s ran small blocks, 6.2Ls, ran upper 70s. If you repowered a single with a modern Mercury Racing 565 or Ilmor 570, you’d have a monster and a real sleeper family boat.
A rare twin engine 257 shown, you can see the V pad and deadrise of the Mirage.
Word on the street is the original 27 was heavily influenced by a popular 26’ from a mainstream builder at the time, but from my research, the Trovare’s were Mark Baseler’s designs. I can imagine the company faced the usual challenges of scaling and by 1998, when the brand was still popular and highly regarded, it was sold to 2 gentleman by the names of Scott H and David C, who teamed up with former Mirage Performance Boats employees, Brad W and Brian T. The company became Mirage Boats Inc and followed the same path producing high quality production boats, the same models and seemed to go for a few years until it was sold to Global Marine Specialties Inc in 2001. This is when things went badly for the company.
The owner of Global Marine Specialties Inc was a gentleman names Phil Warnock who had a checkered past and used Mirage, among other marine companies, as vehicles to commit fraud. It’s a classic story of taking orders but not delivering the product and unfortunately it has plagued the industry. One reason why this is common is that there are genuine boat builders out there who are too small to build, or intend to only build custom orders but their funds run out before they can deliver, creating a problem for the buyer. It can happen in any business I suppose but many bad actors use the business as a personal ATM with no intention of filling orders on time or ever. Phil was that guy.
A reader from Michigan contributed his beautiful red 257 to the article. He runs it in Michigan and it has been in the family since new in 1992. It has a 454 with 365 HP and a Bravo drive.
Without turning this into a full crime series, Phil Warnock used Global Marine Specialties, Mirage and another brand of ski boats to take many orders. Customers were lined up because of the brands previous ability to deliver, and although some boats were built, it seems Phil was happy to relocate and claim there were no funds, or his boats were being held against his will. His history is jammed with court records of fraud accusations and even was tried for boating death involving a quality issue with a ski boat he produced where someone died. I do believe he was eventually convicted of various fraud related crimes but had previously avoided real charges and jail time. Records indicate he was charged in 1994 with multiple counts of fraud, so this was nothing new to Phil.
Presumably after many relocations and relaunches, the brand was either sold or adopted by someone else, Dan Walker, and it appears the last Mirage Boats were produced up until 2011 in Kent Washington, under Global Marine Specialties.
A nice 257 with simple clean graphics. Understated but could really perform. Even the dog can’t stop looking at it.
The good news is if you have a Mirage made between 1984 and 2001, you had a well made well designed boat. Don’t confuse the company with Mirage of Texas or the old Mirage from Miami. It was an unfortunate end to a brand with real potential but I’m glad some owners are out there that still run them. Mark Baseler continued in the boat industry up until recently and was well regarded. I can’t speak for the guys in 1999 to 2001, but it seems like they were legit. Phil Warnock is a known bad actor though, and ultimately undid the company that to this day has a cult following.
