Mercury Racing 450R-Powered Wright Performance 360 Ready For Key West Poker Run Delivery

Finished in time for the upcoming Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run (Nov. 6-11), Virginia powerboat enthusiasts Mark and Nancy Tuck got a chance to see—and run—their gorgeous new Wright Performance 360 catamaran last weekend during a visit to Lake of the Ozarks and the Osage Beach, Mo.-based Performance Boat Center they ordered the boat through.

Virginia performance boaters Mark and Nancy Tuck are excited to show off their new Wright Performance 360 catamaran during next month’s Key West Poker Run. Photos courtesy Mark Tuck

It was the first time the Tucks had gone in person to see the 36-footer, which is powered by a pair of Mercury Racing 450R engines (it’s the third Wright Performance to feature the Fond du Lac., company’s white-hot outboard powerplants). Obviously they were involved in selecting paint, interior and other options—everything was done via email and video calls according to Mark Tuck—and they also test-drove a 360 before purchasing one. They even got to run the company demo during an event they help promote in Norfolk, the Powerboating For A Cure Poker Run.

“We’re pretty thrilled with the boat—it runs great and the acceleration is crazy fast,” said Mark Tuck, who also has a Fountain Powerboats center console and has owned several other boats, including a 44-foot Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats V-bottom. “We took the boat out on Saturday and Sunday. They still need to install the SeaDek, but other than that it’s ready to go for Key West. Performance Boat Center is taking the boat to Miami for us and we’re going to run it down to Key West on Thursday. It will be featured at the FPC docks at the Conch Republic under Performance Boat Center’s sponsorship. We’ve done Key West in our boats before, but not like this.”

A self-proclaimed “V-bottom guy,” Tuck said he has some things to learn about driving a cat and plans to take it easy during the run from Miami to Key West for that reason. Not that he’s intimidated by the poker run—he did it a couple of times in his Outerlimits and he’s done it in his Fountain, which he also drove as a paceboat that year for the Key West Offshore World Championships.

Check out the slideshow above for more images of the new Wright Performance 360.

“Although the weather wasn’t ideal at the lake, it was nice to get to drive the boat and get familiar with it on a low-key weekend before taking it down to the Keys,” Tuck said. “It’s a sweet boat. The guys at Doug Wright Designs and Performance Boat Center do great work. It’s really beautiful; I love the graphics. The boat looks especially cool at night with the LEDs that we added all the way down the tunnel.

“It was fun building a new boat,” he continued. “We went through the process with our Fountain and it was awesome to get Nancy’s input with that boat and this one. She’s good on a boat and had some great input from the perspective of a passenger. For example, she noticed when we did the poker run in the demo boat that there was nowhere for the people in the rear seats to plant their feet. So we added some pop-up foot supports so everyone in the boat has four points of contact at all times, which makes everyone more comfortable.

Needless to say the Tucks, who will take the boat home and store it for the winter following the poker run, can’t wait for Key West.

“We named the boat Timbercat—it is obviously a play on the business that we own and the style of boat,” said Tuck, who owns Gates Milling in Gatesville, N.C. “I have a feeling we’re going to have a lot of fun having with a cat.”

Mercury Racing 450R-Powered Wright Performance 360 Ready For Key West Poker Run Delivery

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