Whether you’re talking about conventional fiberglass and vinylester resin or epoxy and carbon fiber, composite plastics last pretty much forever if properly cared for. Keep it clean, store it properly and treated it kindly and you’ll go through a slew of repower projects long before your hull and deck tucker out.
High-performance marine engines, unlike the vessels powered by them, are not forever.
But “kind” treatment does not include launching a 38-foot catamaran into the air at more than 200 mph and performing uncontrolled aerobatics before it comes back to the water. That’s what happened last Saturday morning to a canopied Skater Powerboats 388 catamaran competing in the Shugrue’s Shootout on Lake Havasu during the Desert Storm Poker.
A testament to the cat’s build-quality, both driver and throttleman miraculously lived to tell the tale.
While most folks were still watching the viral video of the wreck on social media ad nauseum, I reached out to Tony Cutsuries, the national sales manager for the Douglas, Mich.-headquartered Skater catamaran brand, with one question.
Can the boat be repaired?
I didn’t mean in time for the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in late August. I meant ever.
“I think so,” he said. “It looks pretty good.”
At that moment, I realized that for the first time in our long friendship that Cutsuries and I define “looks pretty good” differently. Of course, he comes to structural restoration of heavily damaged powerboats from a different perspective—and a far better-informed one—than I do. Still, I had to ask again.
“You’re kidding, right?” I said. “Have you seen it?”
Cutsuries laughed. “Dude, I was there,” he said, then paused for a moment. “Oh yeah, it’s not bad at all.”
“Really?” I countered.
He laughed again, then added, “Dude. It’s a Skater.”
Consider me schooled and looking forward to seeing the finished—I mean refinished—product.—Matt Trulio
