At least in my experience, no one in the high-performance marine industry enjoys being on the water than Mark Fischer, the fun-loving, gracious owner of Deep Impact Custom Boats. And that’s saying given the almost universal passion for “being out there” shared by most boat-builders.
Truth is, most of them would be rather be running their boats than their companies.
Fischer takes that to another level. Last weekend, for example, he and his wife, Eileen, and four friends ran a Deep Impact 499 center console in the Florida Powerboat Club Tampa Bay affair.
But the Fischer’s didn’t just show up and run the boat on Friday and Saturday. Their adventure began in late-March when they ran the six-outboard-engine-powered 49-footer from their Palm Island home in Marathon, Fla.., to Naples for another Florida Powerboat Club event with yours truly along for the ride.
By the time they returned to Marathon last Sunday, they had logged more 1,000 miles in their brawny 49-foot beauty.
“That’s the bigger story,” Fischer explained. “The two-part journey included the FPC Naples event along with a trip to our friends at Marlow Marine in Sarasota to store the boat until the Tampa event.”
“Sunday’s conditions were less than favorable for our 300-mile trip home,” he continued. “The 499 performed flawlessly the entire trip cruising at 70 mph most of the way home through some very rough weather. We made one quick lunch stop at the Rod and Gun Club in Everglades City and headed back out for the last 90-mile leg home.”
Fischer has now piloted the 499 for several thousand miles, and no less than 1,000 of them I have enjoyed with him. Running together, we seem to be magnets for mean water, from seven 7- to 10-footers traveling from Bimini to Nassau under blue skies last June to 4- to 6-footers we encountered during a nasty squall in last December as we made our way north from Miami Beach Marina to Lighthouse point.
No one is more impressed with the boat than the man who owns and swears by the Deep Impact brand. His most recent adventure in the 499 reminded him why he’s so passionate about it.
“I was thinking about this ride home Sunday,” he said. “The 499 is beyond any other boat’s capabilities with six people on board traveling at speed for approximately five hours comfortably in uncomfortable conditions.
“But what stood out the most to me was the reliability of six Mercury Racing 500Rs,” he added, then chuckled. “They never had a single complaint the entire time.”