Inside SOTW Mag: Fountain 47 Lightning Profile—Rocket Ship

ByMatt Trulio

Chances are good that when you close your eyes and picture a Fountain Powerboats model, you don’t see a fishing- oriented, slippery-fast center console, despite that by the early 2000s center consoles had become the Washington, N.C., company’s bread and butter.

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With its new 47 Lightning, the team at Fountain Powerboats showcased its formidable capabilities (click image to enlarge). Photo by Mark Spencer/courtesy Fountain Powerboats.

Instead, you picture a sleek and stylish sportboat. Fountain’s roots are—and always will be—in the high-performance, closed-deck V-bottom world. And from “safest, fastest, best handling” to “miles per hour per dollar,” company founder Reggie Fountain, Jr., made performance the focal point of his marketing and advertising campaigns.

Fountain’s struggles in the mid 2000s and beyond have been well documented and we won’t revisit them here. That was then, this is now. And for past two-plus years under the ownership of Fred Ross, Fountain Powerboats has been on a path to reestablish itself as a premium sportboat brand. The journey hasn’t been without its challenges, but spend a little time in models such as a new-for-2020 47 Lightning powered by twin dual-calibration Mercury Racing 1550/1350 engines and you realize just how far the Washington, N.C., company has come.

In short, the outrageous new 47 Lightning is exactly what the Fountain faithful have been waiting for. And their patience has been rewarded.

To enjoy the complete feature, click the download link for the PDF of the November/December 2019 Speed On The Water magazine, and please share any feedback with us below, via email or on social media.