DCB has delivered yet another stunning DCB M31 Widebody as part of their ever expanding arsenal.

The key to this unique build however, is the twin Merc 860/SSM#6’s that can push the craft to a whopping 142MPH. And finished with DCB’s high quality interior and technology, this boat epitomizes everything that the brand is. Performance. Craftsmanship. Quality.

· 9’ 7” beam

· Twin Mercury Racing 860/SSM#6’s

· 100% Alcantara interior with matching under cuddy

· Vacuum Infused Resin (VIR) process, balsa-cored, with some carbon-fiber reinforcements

· Two (2) Simrad NSS9 Evo3 touch screen monitors

· One (1) Garmin 7608 GPS center plotter, with rear-facing transom camera

· Rigid LED lighting package (mood lighting, courtesy lighting, LED cupholders)

· Stage II stereo

· 6-person intercom system with boat-to-boat VHF

· Extreme Custom Trailer, triple-axle with customized 18” rims, SS fenders and triangular drive guard.

· Top speed as currently tested last week was 142mph @ 6850rpm’s

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Boaters know that propellers are the easiest and least expensive way to improve boat performance and boaters in the know, know that winter is the best time to have BBLADES Professional Propellers inspect, repair or improve their favorite wheel.

During the slower winter months the highly-skilled technicians at BBLADES can renovate and restore banged-up blades to like-new condition, or custom tweak extra performance from a prop through “Lab Finishing”. So between New Year’s Day and February 28, 2018, BBLADES will do so at a discounted hourly rate of just $85.00 – $20 an hour off the regular rate.

Take advantage of the slower winter months and have propeller work done while your boating buddies are just dreaming about their next run. Don’t be forced to wait in line when spring rolls around, get your propeller work done until February 28th for a special price!

BBLADES can perform magic on almost any propeller– aluminum or stainless steel – from any manufacturer, inspecting for dents, dings and cracks the owner may not even know are there until they hit the water…when it’s too late.

Those needing replacement wheels can order on line, where BBLADES offers its own line of performance propellers; competitive pricing on most major brands, and can match the perfect prop to your boat through free consultation or the propeller demo program that allows boaters to “try before you buy.”

It’s never too early to start planning for your next boat outing, so BBLADES suggests avoiding the spring rush and taking advantage of its winter service discount.

For more information, join us at www.bblades.com or by calling 920-295-4435. BBLADES can also be found on Facebook.

I consider my self to be one of the more fortunate planetarians (Considering that I am old, poor, damaged, disheveled, etc.) to have rubbed elbows with many of my personal heroes in my second favorite sport. I have previously related that I arrived in Miami at exactly the moment of the rebirth of offshore powerboat racing. Coincidence? I don’t know. I do know that I was exposed to a cross section of characters that probably would have never become friends under any other circumstance. Everyone knows the big names: Sam Griffith, Dick Bertram, Don Aronow, Jim Wynne, Odell Lewis, Jack Manson, Jim Breuil, JIM BREUIL? He isn’t famous! He is, in our circles. Actually, there were two, Senior and Junior. Jim Sr. was a rough and tumble oil man, wildcatter, boat builder, rich sumbitch, tough guy, big game fisherman, and father of Jim, Jr. Jim, Sr. actually owned the first two Miami-Nassau race winners.

Jim Jr., hereinafter known as “Jim”, had all the traits of his dad, and then some. He was probably the all around toughest guy of all my friends, and some of them are pretty frickin’ tough. When he was younger, he was involved in the Tulsa oil boom with his Dad, and he lived the life of a wildcatter. He told us the story of being in a western saloon, sitting at the bar, when he noticed a damsel in distress being slapped by a cowboy (You can tell cowboys by their big hats, big belt buckles and… well, never mind) while sitting in a booth. When the cowboy went to the “Juan” (southwestern for John), Jim slipped over to comfort the poor maiden, probably named Miss Ellie, or equivalent. Jim was comforting away, when the guy with the big hat showed up, and asked Jim politely to depart. (Hit him upside the head). Big Hat was only about 5’8”, 150 pounds, so Jim assumed that he could probably hold on to one of the maiden’s breasts, while handling Big Hat with the other, no problem. Well, one problem. BH was tougher than a boot! He clocked Jim a couple of good ones, forcing him to drop the tit, and pay attention to business. As I said, Jim was tough! They fought a pitched battle with chairs, fists, etc., until Jim finally knocked him out through the swinging doors, just like Shane. He went back to the booth, to resume his comforting, when, Lo and Behold! Big Hat came back in, went to bar for one shot, then jumped astride Jim for Round Two. They broke some more furniture, got a few more lumps, and BH got another trip out the swinging door. This time, he didn’t come back so quickly. Jim finished comforting, and went back to bar to finish his Cutty Sark, when BH showed up and came to the bar, next to Jim. Jim was alert for a sucker punch, when BH said “Dang, you put up one hell of a fight. Let me buy you a drink, no hard feelings”. “Sure”. “Bartender, two Jack Daniel’s down here”. “I don’t drink Jack Daniel’s”. “You do when you drink with me”. “Screw you!” Upon which Jim threw the whiskey into BH’s face and socked him. This time, Jim got knocked out. When he came to, he was being comforted by Miss Ellie. He said, “Who in the hell was that guy?” “Oh, that’s my husband, Casey Tibbs, World Champion Cowboy.”

On another occasion, Jim Went to Viareggio, Italy, to race in the Via Reggio-Bastia-Viareggio offshore race. They were lunching in a Trattoria. Jim, Don Aronow, Knocky House, Dick Genth, Billy Shand-Kydd and a few others were having a few adult beverages at the bar. Jim was standing back to back with an Italian oil man, who was describing, in great detail, the wonders of the oil business to someone on the side opposite Jim. The Oil Man was taking credit for some of the recent technological advances in the oil business, when Jim reached his boiling point. Jim whirled around and shouted, “You mother****rs couldn’t drill a rathole if we didn’t show you how!” BAM! Jim hit him right between the eyes. Unfortunately, there were a dozen other oil guys there, and all the racers had to lend a hand. They won, but had to pony up $2400 American to stay out of the local hoosegow.

In those days, Jim was President of Enterprise Boat Co., the family business. They built excellent sport fishermen, designed by Bob Hobbs, and had a brand new, full service marina “Harbour One”, in North Miami Beach. Jim placed an ad for a new secretary, and was delighted to interview one of the first applicants, a gorgeous redhead. The interview was running overtime, when Jim suggested that they look over the Harbour One Yacht Club bar and restaurant. They were discussing salary and such, when the potential new employee’s bitter half showed up and yelled at the girl, accusing her of screwing the boss already, and calling her a very bad female name. She burst into tears as her redneck husband slammed doors on the way out. Jim comforted her (I don’t recall him ever comforting a man, come to think of it.) “Don’t worry, my dear, I will go explain to him that you are being hired for an excellent paying job, and that I am happily married. Just sit tight.” In a few minutes, he returned, smiling. “There, I told you. He is fine with it, and said that you should finish your drink and our conversation, and that he would wait in the truck. After a few minutes, she left, and, upon reaching the truck, screamed when she found her husband knocked unconscious in the driver’s seat.

Jim raced outboard marathon boats successfully. He raced a twin Mercury powered 17 foot boat in both the Miami 250, and the famous 9 Hour race, solo. He got the nickname “Iron Man”. Jim’s high point in the 9 Hour was crashing into the race leader, “Tiny Tim” as they were both at the fuel dock.

Jim left us on April fool’s day, about 20 years ago. He died the same day as our friend, Dick Genth. Being a veteran, Jim had a service from the American Legion. They cited Jim’s military service. He had volunteered at 18 years old to join the Army Air Force, then further volunteered to be a tail gunner in a B-24 in Italy. He survived the murderous Ploesti Oil Fields run. They flew 100 or so combat missions, and shot down several Fokkers (He explained that some of those Fokkers were Messerschmitt’s).

Several years ago, I wrote a story about Jim in race program for the Key West World Championship. It follows. Part of it has printed here before, but it is worth the read. Smooth seas and fair winds, Jim….

The Bernico 43 Quad is the latest creation from boat builder Nico Bertels, and we recently had the opportunity to speak with him about the inspiration behind the brand and how he arrived at this latest model.

Since Bertels founded the company in 1991, the brand has serviced the needs of the ski racing industry and smaller offshore boats for over 20 years, consistently designing and producing high end performance boats built to customers’ specifications. But as his customer base began demanding larger and more luxurious boats while still maintaining the high level of performance and speed seen in his smaller models, Nico arrived at the perfect boat to bring the two worlds together, the Bernico 43 Quad.

The Bernico 43 Quad, as you guessed, is powered by quad 400R outboards that push the boat up to speeds of 98 mph. And the luxurious interior is of a quality usually found on high end yacht tenders, but what really makes the boat unique is the entirely custom hull design specific only to Bernico boats.

Nico discussed with us how the company collaborated with Belgium company VOXDALE, that specializes in CFD simulations in order to design a better and more efficient hull. The hull was in fact designed for the V1 racing series in Europe and offers customers the increased efficiency and performance usually only found in professional racing boats.

Nico also pointed out that while the acceleration and maneuverability are more than impressive for a boat of that length and size, one of his favorite aspects of the new design is the interior seating. The new style which is designed and built in house is hydraulic powered to adjust the height, has regulated suspension, and features an electric folding option. All of these combine to give you one of the most versatile seating options on the market.

But while the Bernico 43 Quad is certainly one of the most impressive boats to leave the factory, Nico shared with us that they are also working on several other custom designs as we speak. They are currently building a version of a quad Lamborghini boat as well as a Bentley version, as we see more and more customers choosing to have their boats modeled after their favorite cars. And finally, Nico shared with us a tiny bit of info that they are working on a Cat 333 that will feature double 400s, but that the design is being kept under wraps until its release in 2018.

Ultimately, Nico Bertels is quickly overtaking the luxury performance market and we are more than excited to see the Bernico 43 Quad running on the water as well as their other new designs.

In the early eighties, I was the cheese at Cougar Maine on fabled 188th Street, North Miami Beach. At that time, most recent high speed boat development had sprung from that womb. We were a division of Cougar Limited, Netley, England, led by James Beard and Clive Curtis. That pair had solved the racing Class One Catamaran problem of weight vs. speed vs. strength, at least for the moment. That caught the eye (and a bob or two) of Ted Toleman, who was a small-potatoes Formula One car owner and test pilot for a number of Scotch whiskey distilleries.

One of the first projects that they gave us was the construction of a 58’ x 22’ aluminum catamaran, to weigh about 28 tons, be shoved by a pair of 1400 HP Stewart and Stevenson V16 Detroit Diesels at 50 knots. It took a couple of years to launch it, and initial tests were dismal. The expected 50 knot speed was, in fact, 33 knots, due to a number of reasons. Number one reason was an Italian named Scaccabarozzi, who was the head Guido at SBM Marine in spaghettiland. We gave him the order for the props before we started construction, and did not receive the props until after completion of the vessel. That would not have been so bad, except that, had it been a school exercise, he would have received an F-. The prepaid props were the wrong pitch, the wrong diameter, the wrong rake, the wrong bore, and the wrong number of blades. Except for that, they were perfect! Clive Curtis (Steve’s Dad) and I took a pair of huge “rosebud” acetylene torches and two sledgehammers and reworked the props the best we could. That helped, but we still couldn’t get the required RPM’s for the speed goal.

I wish I had a good picture of the original configuration of the stern of the boat. It had a “back porch” that covered the surface props, rudders, exhausts, etc. It turned out that the same principle that gives racing cars their downforce, essentially just blocking the air from the front and sides of the vehicle, creates a vacuum that can be in the thousands of pounds of downforce at a couple hundred miles per hour. Well, if an F1 car could get a ton or so of downforce, we had tons and tons. I (who fortunately knew EVERYTHING) made a “fix” by installing a pair of 6” exhaust hoses through the back porch, right above the propellers, to break the suction. Turns out I didn’t know everything. We took the boat out on test, same results. I crawled back into the back porch and was amazed see that the very stiff hoses were sucked flat! I added some plywood forms, and it sucked the hoses closed over the forms. We gave up, hauled the boat, and changed the back end of the boat to allow plenty of air flow. Bingo! 50 knots.

Now that we were big fast catamaran guys, we got a lot of play from various militaries, smugglers, and Richard (Fricking) Branson, who, being unsuccessful at killing himself flying balloons around the stratosphere, decided to try racing across the ocean in a catamaran.

Class act, Mr. Branson. We set out to design, build and test a 67’ catamaran with a pair of big MTU Kraut Diesels. The effort was to be an all-British affair, with the craft built at Cougar’s aluminium (not a misspelling) works, Cunninham’s, in Arundel, down the road from the three car garage headquarters of Cougar Netley. I was allowed to be project engineer for the initial workup. Fun project. None of us know much about it, and the stakes were high. They assembled a crack crew of Brits over there. We compared notes by Telex, as I couldn’t quite understand the jargon, what with all the stiff upper lips and colloquialisms. “Heave on the Forsythe, there!” “Hike the Fenstermocker!”

Somehow, it was coming together. The leader of the program was Steve Ridgway, my General Manager, who spoke the King’s English, and could get along OK in American. I always suspected that he wasn’t full Brit, as he tipped generously. After a couple of months, we had a meeting in England to compare notes with the suppliers, and to see the behind schedule carcass of the TADA! “Virgin Atlantic Challenger”. Steve was socially aware (I wasn’t. Still ain’t), and he made all the arrangements. I met the British crew, and liked them all, immensely. I was explaining what I had learned to the interested parties, and kept getting interrupted by a sailor, who would navigate. I finally said “Sir, have you ever crossed the Atlantic in a powerboat?” He said “Son, I rowed across the fooking Atlantic!” It was Chay Blythe, one of the top round the world sailors. Steve had made arrangements to host lunch at the White Swan Pub, on top of a nob hill in Arundel, in sight of the workshop and the beautiful Arundel Castle. As luck would have it, noon on that particular day was incredibly beautiful. The sun was peeping through the fog, it was warm, and we were to dine outdoors (happens every couple of years or so, in the South of England).

Being socially aware, Steve had arranged the lunch to a T. We had pecking order, Since I was the ranking Cougar exec there, I had to sit next to the Fuhrer of MTU Mercedes Diesel and Panzer company, on whom we were putting the arm for the engines, parts, support and riding mechanic for the crossing. All the other major suppliers were there also. They had pulled three or four tables together, with twenty or so folding chairs. We exchanged pleasantries, I think. We all took a turn at oratory, explained who we were, and why they were lucky to get to finance our project. I made small talk with the Fuhrer “You guys invaded anyone lately?”

We ordered lunch. I gave the Spotted Dick a pass, for obvious reasons. The Germans orders steaks, “Very vell done!” They still don’t trust the Brits, who didn’t have the courtesy to surrender. We had a couple of warm beers, which loosened up the tension, and lunch was served. Bear in mind, this might have been the first outside lunch at White Swan in memory. The Germans were earnestly sawing on the corpses of their big steaks, and shaking our table. I dropped my napkin, and while retrieving it, noticed that the legs of my neighbor’s chair were penetrating the soft sod. I got Steve’s attention, and motioned with my eyes. Steve’s eyes got wider and wider as the rear legs of the German’s chair wend completely through the sod into the soft earth. He went over backwards, and his toes caught our side of the table, flipping it over on Steve’s group. There’s more.. The big German rolled ass over teakettle to the bottom of the hill, about 25 or 30 feet. He marched back up, diagnosed the problem, moved his chair forward and sat back down. Stony silence around the group. I couldn’t stand the status quo. I drew a big nine on my napkin, and held it up. Brought down the house!

Oh, yeah, the boat sank 116 miles from the finish, and Branson stoles Steve Ridgway to be Chief Executive of Virgin Airways.

As we all know, the team at Sixteen Power derives their name from their love of and dedication to building the industry’s highest performing, naturally aspirated 16 cylinder engines.

The Sixteen Power guys have had their heads down working hard on the 1100 HP model shown in the video. This power level coming from 854 cu in and 16 cylinders is going to be very reliable, with peak power occurring at 5800 rpm.

The 1100 version of the engine is aimed at customers who want reliable power without supercharging or turbo charging, but surprisingly, it has also attracted the attention of boat builders looking for an upgrade option to inline 6 cylinder diesel engines. With similar physical dimensions the V16 fits in the same hole and has the same torque, but a much larger RPM range and twice the power.

Of course, as often happens in this business, there is also a lot of interest at the opposite end of the scale i.e. 2000 HP. When you are starting at 1100 HP naturally aspirated, this power level can be accomplished with moderate boost and without turning the engine into a grenade.

As they continue to tweak and refine both powerhouses we can expect to see increased performance and reliability, further defining Sixteen Power as one of the lead high performance engine builders in the boating world.

Watch the Video Here.