First Mercury Racing 450R Outboard-Powered Skater 368 To Debut In Miami

Skater Powerboats fans headed to the annual Miami International Boat Show next month will get a look at the first Skater 368 catamaran powered by 450R outboard engines from Mercury Racing. Owned by longtime Skater client Sam Jirik of Arkansas, the 36-footer currently is in Miami at TNT Custom Marine, where it was rigged with the supercharged V-8 outboards by the TNT crew.

The 368 is the Douglas, Mich., custom high-performance boat company’s first build with 450R outboards.

Skater will display this Mercury Racing 450R outboard-powered cat, as well as a larger stern-drive offering, at the 2020 Miami International Boat Show. Photo courtesy/copyright John Tomlinson/TNT Custom Marine.

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John Tomlinson, who co-owns TNT with Mike Thomas, piloted the catamaran on its first sea trial yesterday. And he was impressed.

“It was great,” he said. “We ran it with a set of 32-inch-pitch props—that’s what we had and we we’re just trying to get the drive height and water pressure right—with 70 gallons of fuel and it was on the limiters at 115 mph. That’s incredibly efficient. With a pair of 34s, it should run 120 mph or a little more. The customer is coming next week and we’re going to run it some more then. But it was a really, really good ride—solid and stable and without any porpoising.

“You know, it pulls great and makes good use of the (450R outboard) torque,” he continued. “Acceleration was strong like it is in a 32-foot cat with (Mercury Racing) 400Rs. The 368 with 450s is really nice—and it’s plain, simple white boat, which is my kind of boat.”

Skater’s national sales manager Tony Cutsuries said the custom high-performance catamaran and V-bottom builder will have at least one big stern-drive cat alongside the outboard-powered 36-footer in the Miami event. “We’ll definitely have one of our new bigger boats there,” he said. “I’m just working out what, exactly, it will be.”

Testing and dialing in of the new 36-footer will resume next week when the boat’s owner arrives in Miami.

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