Killer Bee Doug Wright Raceboat Starts Testing For Key West

Jim Denooyer of New York knew the team at Grant’s Signature Racing in Bradenton, Fla., was going to be testing his new Killer Bee 32-foot Doug Wright catamaran that he plans to race with his daughter, Lindsey, in the Superboat Stock class at the upcoming Super Boat International Key West Offshore World Championships today, he just didn’t know that the shakedown cruise—and the pictures he’s seen courtesy of speedonthewater.com chief photographer Pete Boden—would have him feeling like he’s floating in the sky. In fact, he’s counting the hours until he heads to Florida on Thursday and gets to test the boat on Friday with the “Grant” behind Grant’s Signature Racing, Grant Bruggemann.

The canopied Killer Bee 32-foot Doug Wright hit the water in Florida today in preparation for its debut at the SBI Key West Offshore World Championships next month. Photos by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

“I can’t wait to get down there and get in the boat,” Denooyer said, adding that he’s not sure who is going to be by his side for the first race on Wednesday (Nov. 7) since Lindsey, who attends University of Vermont, can’t compete because she has a class conflict. “I’m so excited—so is Lindsey. She was freaking out after I sent her the pictures. I hope they don’t distract her too much from her studies. The boat looks great on the water, too. Doug (Harrell) did a phenomenal job with the paint. Key West is going to be so much fun.

“We know we’re in a very competitive class with evenly matched boats—that’s what I like about the class,” he continued. “We’re going to do our best in Key West, but mainly we want to get comfortable in the boat and gather some good information to use heading into the 2019 season.”

Although Bruggemann is knee-deep in getting the Cleveland Construction Skater Powerboats catamaran converted over to the Pro Floors Racing boat for the Superboat class races in Key West (read the story), he and Andrew Young—with assistance from Bailey Ferraro—took the 32-footer out to do a complete systems check today on Sarasota Bay.

Check out the slideshow above for more Killer Bee photos.

“We did a systems check at the shop and another one when we put the boat in the water,” Bruggemann said. “Then we ran it for a quick photoshoot and proceeded to do another systems check while it was up and running. We obviously can’t do any testing until we complete the break-in mode on the engines so we ran the boat through the different rpm ranges and made sure the water pressure, etc., was good and that the ship-to-shore intercom system was working properly. We have a full checklist of things we go through.”

Featuring a cool paintjob from Doug Harrell Design in Longwood, Fla., and twin Mercury Racing 300XS engines, the boat should be an attention-getter in Key West.

“It’s a great-looking boat and it runs really well,” Bruggemann said. “We’ll test some props next week and have it ready to leave for Key West on the 31st. Jim is more than ready—all of his racing equipment, including his scooters and truck full of spare parts, is already down here in Florida. We’re excited to see another happy customer go racing. He’s going to have so much fun in Stock class.”

Killer Bee Doug Wright Raceboat Starts Testing For Key West

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