Fountains Awestruck By Mercury Racing 300R-Powered Skater 28

Although it’s no Tomcat—the well-known 2,700-hp 46-foot Skater Powerboats catamaran owned by Michigan’s Todd and Danielle Fountain—the couple is loving its new 28-foot Skater and the twin Mercury Racing 300R engines mounted on the transom. And the images below—recently taken by Speedonthewater.com chief photographer Pete Boden on Northern Michigan’s Torch Lake—prove it.

Powered by twin Mercury Racing 300R engines, Todd and Danielle Fountain’s Skater 28 is perfect. Photo by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

“The boat is perfect—it’s fun to drive and my wife and kids love it,” said Todd Fountain, who owns Dynamic Fire Protection, a full-service fire protection company in Newport. “We’ve been running the little Skater all summer. It’s great for the type of boating we do up north here. We can pop around on all of the smaller lakes in the area like Torch Lake, which is one of our favorites. It’s much easier to pull around and get in and out of the water (than the 46-foot Skater).”

Fountain, who is considering ordering the new 1.6:1 gear ratios for the 300-hp engines to see what overall performance gains are possible, said he’s happy with the boat’s acceleration and its top speed with its current setup—1.75:1 gear ratios and Mercury five-blade Cleaver propellers that are 15” diameter by 33” pitch with a 15-degree rake. So far, he’s clicked 116 mph.

“The boat doesn’t really need to be any faster, it’s plenty fast already,” he continued. “The engines are awesome. Mercury came up with a great platform with the 300R—the engines are so torque-y. The best part is that you just put gas in them and they go all the time.”

Check out the slideshow above for a few more images of the 28-foot Skater—and keep an eye out for a feature on the sport catamaran in the next Speed On The Water digital magazine.

The Douglas, Mich., custom high-performance boat company’s first build with the 300-hp naturally aspirated V-8 engines, the 28-footer features an incredible interior handled by Jamie Borg of Cutting Edge Interiors in Punta Gorda Fla., and a gorgeous paint job executed by the talented team at Skater, which also handled all of the rigging.

On yesterday’s drive to his cabin in Northern Michigan to do some side-by-side trail riding with his wife and their kids, Tom, 9, and Rachel, 7, for the Labor Day weekend, Fountain, who has owned several performance boats from the likes of Cigarette Racing Team, Fountain Powerboats and Statement Marine, shared even more details regarding what he likes best about the flat-deck 28-footer. Sadly, you’ll have to wait to read about that—and see more of Boden’s images—until the next Speed On The Water digital magazine goes live in the coming weeks.

Fountains Awestruck By Mercury Racing 300R-Powered Skater 28

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