Latest Cigarette 515 Goes Next-Level Custom

Cigarette Racing Team always has been—and always will be—a custom high-performance V-bottom sportboat and center console builder. But with its latest 515 V-bottom sportboat for a client in the Midwest, the Opa-Locka, Fla., company took customization to a level that even impressed Skip Braver, Cigarette’s owner and chief executive officer.

And as anyone who knows him will attest, Braver is not easy to impress.

The newest Cigarette 515 sportboat could be the most spectacular to date (click image to enlarge). Photos courtesy/copyright Cigarette Racing team.

“I’ve heard a lot of people describe the custom sportboat market as dead,” Braver said, then chuckled. “Well, it’s alive and well at Cigarette—all you have to do is check out our new 515 build. It’s the most custom 515 we’ve built since the Cigarette-AMG Project ONE 515, a new model that was based off the 50 Marauder, we introduced at the Miami International Boat Show in 2017.

“This was a special commission for a special customer, and we’re willing to do those as long as the customer wants to be interactive throughout the process,” he continued. “We created special tooling for this boat. Cigarette is willing to do that as long as the client is willing to pay for it.”

The new 51-footer boasts a unique, custom-designed and fabricated six-bolster cockpit. Visual Imagination of Pelicular, Mo., handled the boat’s immaculate “Signature Carbon Fiber” paintjob—and more.

Morris and his six-person Visual Imagination crew have done a lot of work for Cigarette during the past 10 years, including painting all 59 Tirrannas built to date and the two prior 515 models, one of which went to the King of Malaysia. Impressed by that royal build, a longtime Visual Imagination customer traveled twice with Morris to visit Braver and his team at the Opa-Locka facility to spec his own 51-footer.

“Skip and his organization are so professional, so when you take someone down there it’s really impressive,” said Morris.

Working closely with the buyer, the Cigarette and Visual Imagination teams arrived at an interior design that would accommodate four rear bolsters with steps between them, all-new side and dash panels and steps for foredeck access in the dash between the driver and copilot bolsters. Visual Imagination actually fabricated several of the one-off interior components for the boat, such as the LED-equipped carbon fiber Cigarette logo for the carbon-fiber engine hatch, as did Cigarette.

“This is the most elaborate boat we have ever done for Cigarette, so it was quite challenging,” said Morris. “We have done five other boats for this customer and they all turn out to be really big projects. He’s had a lot boats but he’s really excited about this Cigarette. He’s extremely happy with the way it turned out.”

Morris team was quick to praise the Visual Imagination crew.

“Over the years you build a team,” he said. “The guys I have now are just fantastic.

Cigarette continued its one-off theme in the build with a new integrated cockpit-lighting-and-stereo package and “Kandy-coated” hardware color-matched to exterior graphics.

Cigarette customized the 51-footer’s cockpit to include four rear bolsters with molded cockpit-access steps between them (click image to enlarge).

Painted to match the boat’s exterior graphics, twin Mercury Racing 1350/1100 engines power the latest Cigarette 515 creation.

“This client has owned many, many boats, but he has always wanted a Cigarette,” he said. “Now that’s he’s seen it, he said it’s the best boat he’s ever owned,” said Braver.

While the 51-footer won’t be displayed at the upcoming Miami International Boat Show later this month, Cigarette will have no less than four new models to showcase in its all-new display at the event.

Custom features, many of which required Cigarette and Visual Imagination to create new tooling, range from four rear bolsters with molded steps between them to a carbon-fiber engine hatch with an LED-Illuminated carbon fiber Cigarette logo.

“We’re in full prep mode for Miami right now,” said Braver. “We try to outdo ourselves every year in Miami—that’s part of the Cigarette difference—and that’s what we’re shooting for this year.”

Latest Cigarette 515 Goes Next-Level Custom

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