Mercury Verado 400R-Powered 32’ Doug Wright Reaches 124 MPH

Supreme Marine owner and founder Troy Hannon said he’s been inundated with texts, phone calls and Facebook messages from folks who want to know how fast the new canopied 32-foot Doug Wright catamaran he recently finished rigging is running.

Supreme Marine is planning to deliver the first new 32-foot Doug Wright catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing Verado 400R engines to its owner on Saturday. Photos courtesy Jonathan Perque/Bullet Motorsports

While Hannon acknowledges there is much more to the performance of the simple, clean and sleek 32-footer than top speed, he understands the spotlight that’s been placed on the first Doug Wright powered by a pair of Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboard engines, which is why he’s relenting and allowing speedonthewater.com to share the boat’s current top speed.

Hannon, who founded the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., rigging and service center in 2000, put the boat in the water for the first time two weeks ago and has made adjustments and tested it two more times since then. The second time out, which was on a windy day near Miami last week, the boat topped 120 mph. And on Tuesday—after some slight modifications and a couple of passes that made him wonder if the engines were a bit too high—Hannon said he hit the GPS recall and it showed an impressive 124 mph. He believes the boat will run even faster with the ideal props and right conditions.

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The slideshow above features some nice detail images of the Doug Wright catamaran and its 400-hp engines. Photos courtesy Jonathan/Bullet Motorsports

“I don’t mind talking about the top speed at this point even though I think there’s a little more in the boat since I haven’t been able to turn 7,000 rpm yet,” said Hannon, referring to the maximum rpm range of the 400-hp engines. “The thing is, the owner probably isn’t ever going to run it over 120 mph anyway. He’ll probably just cruise around all day at 90 to 100 mph.

“The boat is a little heavier than a typical Doug Wright mainly because it’s a pleasure boat not a raceboat,” he continued. “It doesn’t have a full interior—we opted for four Sparco racing seats—but it has a stereo system, intercom communications and all kinds of anodized hardware, including a cool carbon-fiber trim-switch handle and panel we made in house. It’s about 300 pounds heavier than a 32-foot raceboat because the bulkheads and stringers were reinforced and because the owner wanted a little more range so the boat was modified to accommodate two 100-gallon fuel tanks instead of the standard 60-gallon tanks.”

Hannon said the owner—France’s Laurent Besnier, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, and plans to run the boat with his neighbor and fellow Frenchman Michel Karsenti (a name familiar to offshore racing fans who remember the Yachts International Fountain Powerboats V-bottom)—is going to run the boat in the Florida Powerboat Club’s upcoming Key West Poker Run. After that the boat, which is rigged with dual helm steering for solo or two-person operation, will be housed in dry storage at TNT Custom Marine in North Miami.

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For more photos of the 32-foot catamaran, check out the slideshow above. Photos courtesy Troy Hannon/Supreme Marine

“People will say, ‘Of course it’s fast, it’s a canopy boat,’ but this is a pleasure boat beefed up to run with Verados,” said Hannon, who credited Latham Marine for the boat’s full power steering system as well as for creating new wing plates for the Verado 400R engines to connect the tie bar together. “When the boat was being constructed it originally was going to get Verado 350s, but that was before the 400s came out. When the 400s were announced, Michel, who handled the purchase for Laurent, decided to go with the bigger power.

“I expected the boat to feel somewhat heavier since most Doug Wrights have the lighter 280- and 300-hp Mercury engines, but it was quite the opposite as the SportMaster gear cases help lift the back of the boat,” added Hannon, who will be handing the boat over for Besnier for the first time this weekend. “Once the boat is on plane, and you punch it, it accelerates real hard. It has plenty of acceleration and torque.”

Hannon said he has reached out to Hering Propellers to get a set of 34”-pitch props to test on the 32-footer. With the set of 35s he ordered to begin with, he’s only been able to reach 6,700 and 6,800 rpm.

“Getting a higher number would pretty much just be for Mercury, Doug Wright and Supreme Marine—the owner is fine with where it is now,” Hannon said. “This was a fun boat to work on because it’s always cool to be the first to do something, in this case install the first set of 400s on a new Doug Wright. Plus this boat just had a lot of people curious about how it was going to perform.”

And now we know.

Mercury Verado 400R-Powered 32’ Doug Wright Reaches 124 MPH

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