Inside SOTW Mag: Skater 388 Profile—Best One Yet?

Could the Skater 388 catamaran be the finest boat that Peter Hledin and the talented Skater Powerboats crew at the Douglas, Mich., company have ever built? You’d certainly get no argument on that point from the Skater cognoscenti, meaning knowledgeable and experienced folks such as John Tomlinson of TNT Custom Marine and— across the state and to the north—Grant Bruggemann of Grant’s Signature Racing in Bradenton. Both Tomlinson and Bruggemann have extensive experience in race and pleasure versions of the 38-footer, and each of them sings its praises in both applications.

In his new 38-foot Skater catamaran, former offshore racer Danny DeSantis has found the perfect blend of performance, simplicity and reliability (click image to enlarge). Photo courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

So it was only natural that when longtime Skater owner Danny DeSantis decided to order a new pleasure boat he chose a 388 cat. A former offshore racing world champion, DeSantis has owned every catamaran model Skater has ever offered—except the 388, which was based off the company’s vaunted 36-footer.

The Massachusetts-based DeSantis ordered the boat through Tony Cutsuries, Skater’s national sales manager, during the 2015 Super Boat International Offshore World Championships in Key West, Fla.

To read the full cover story, click the download link for the PDF of the January/February 2018 Speed On The Water magazine, and please share any feedback with us below, via email or on social media.