Cosker's Proudest Moment At Lake of the Ozarks

Although he’s tremendously proud of the sixth-straight overall Top Gun championship Don Onken’s American Ethanol 51-foot Mystic Powerboats catamaran won at the 32nd annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout last weekend, Mystic founder John Cosker, who is the throttleman for Onken’s four-engine boat, was even more grateful for the week he spent at the lake with his wife, Robin, and his oldest daughter, Rachel.

John Cosker and his daughter, Rachel, ran the family’s new Mystic M4200 luxury performance center console powered by four Mercury Racing 450R engines on Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks for a speedonthewater.com photo shoot. Photos by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

It had been 13 years since his kids had attended the event—back then the Shootout was held at Shooters 21 and the naval architect had yet to even dream up the idea of building center consoles, Mystic’s main line of business now. He was just happy to be building boats for Dave Callan, David Scott and other offshore racers looking to go even faster in a bigger boat than what was available at the time.

Today, Rachel Cosker is the company’s CFO, or CFOIT (CFO in training) as Cosker likes to jokingly and lovingly refer to her since the 21-year-old joined the company in the spring after graduating with a Business Finance and Family Enterprise dual major with a minor in business law from Stetson University, which is located in the same city as Mystic—DeLand, Fla.

Cosker would be proud of both of his daughters whether they went into the family business or not—Rachel’s younger sister Kendall, who couldn’t make it to the Shootout because of school, is currently attending Stetson University as well and works part time at the factory handling photo shoots, Instagram and inventory control. But he’s obviously overjoyed that both of them have shown interest in the industry.

“Having Robin and Rachel come to the lake with me this year was great—they were in awe of how much this place has grown,” said Cosker, who brought Rachel with him in his new personal boat—a gorgeous M4200 luxury performance center console—for the Thursday morning photo shoot organized by speedonthewater.com. “Rachel had a blast during the shoot. She was a little freaked out about the helicopter being so close at first but I told her ‘just keep smiling!’ I’m pretty certain she has a new level of respect for Mystic and the performance boat industry in general after going to the Shootout and Super Cat Fest.”

“It’s kind of funny how they grew up around this stuff and it was just normal to them,” he continued. “Dad going 200 mph in a boat wasn’t a very big deal. It wasn’t until college when other people knew of Mystic from other states that it started to click that this wasn’t a normal thing.”

Powered by quad Mercury Racing 450R engines, Cosker’s new 42-footer features a Doug Harrell Designs paintjob, which Cosker said is BMW Tanzanite Blue and Cashmere.

“Doug was just about to shoot another blue on the boat and I saw that color at the BMW dealership,” Cosker said. “We changed it and I love it.”

Along with American Ethanol driver Tony Battiato, the Coskers—John, Robin and Rachel—were a big part of the celebration with Don Onken and company after the Mystic cat earned its sixth straight Top Gun title. Photo by Brad Glidewell/Brad Glidewell Photography

Cosker’s Proudest Moment At Lake of the Ozarks

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