MTI Exhales After Four Boat Deliveries During Busy Lake Of The Ozarks Shootout Week

Along with delivering an outrageous new 48-foot catamaran to longtime customer Johnny O’Loughlin of New York, the team at Marine Technology Inc. in Wentzville, Mo., was rather busy last week delivering a pair of new MTI-V 42 luxury performance center consoles with quad Mercury Racing 450R engines and another 42-footer, all the while representing MTI at pretty much every event surrounding the 31st annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout.

Johnny O’Loughlin’s 48-foot MTI catamaran stole the show at Performance Boat Center in Osage Beach, Mo., during last week’s Lake of the Ozarks Shootout festivities. Photo courtesy Jimmy McIntyre

“We delivered Mark Schouten’s gorgeous new all-red MTI-V 42 center console with 450R engines and we delivered Bill Pyburn’s new 42, which is absolutely stunning with four 450Rs as well,” said MTI’s Taylor Scism. “Johnny O also got his new 48 with Mercury Racing’s dual-calibration 1550/1350 engines, and it’s over the top with the paint and other details like his previous MTIs. And we delivered a pre-owned center console to Shawn Moe, and he’s as happy as can be to have that to go with his 340X cat.

“With seven boats on display, we had a great showing at the Shootout on the Strip on Wednesday night and again at the Performance Boat Center welcome party on Thursday night,” she continued. “We’re extremely happy with how well everything went during the week.”

Scism also ran the Shootout a few times with her father, Randy, the founder of MTI and the original Top Gun champion of the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout with a 101-mph top speed 31 years ago. In the company’s demo 340X with twin Mercury Racing 450R engines, she twice recorded a top speed of 123 mph to win her class. And in an MTI-V 42 with four 450Rs, she went 87 mph down the three-quarter-mile course for an uncontested class victory.

Taylor and Randy Scism ran 123 mph in an MTI 340X cat with twin Mercury Racing 450R engines. Photo by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

“We were hoping for 120 mph in the 340X and we hit 123 mph in our first pass so that was pretty exciting,” said Scism, who drove a 340X with twin Mercury Racing Verado 400R engines to 116 mph in the 2018 event. “We had a couple of other props we wanted to try but our first combination took us over 120 and was so stable. The boat felt great with the new 450s on the back.”

Schouten, who owns El Gato Patrón, a 43-foot MTI cat with twin Mercury Racing 1350/1100 engines, was excited to get his new MTI-V 42 with the new 450R engines.

“The 42 is a blast to drive, especially on a rough lake like Lake of the Ozarks,” said Schouten, who is from Phoenix but is no stranger to the lake as he has participated in both the Shootout and Super Cat Fest in previous years. “It’s a fun boat, but it’s a much different style of boating, which is OK, I just don’t know if it’s the only boat I could own. I really like the cat.”

Mark and Jennifer Schouten were excited to get their gorgeous new MTI-V 42 with quad Mercury Racing 450R engines.

Schouten said the boat, which was designed and painted in house at MTI, has a full cap; and yes, he knows he’s brave going without a rubrail.

“MTI was so easy to work with again,” Schouten added. “Besides the full cap, I think the biggest difference between our boat and other 42s is that we added some custom paint in the cabin to make the cabinets look like wood and the counter look like marble. We also have a red sink, which I don’t think MTI has done before. We did a cool-touch leather and Alcantara combination for the interior and we went with the Italian-built Seasmart pop-up cleats and a FLIR night vision camera. Oh yeah, we also have a soft-serve ice cream maker, although that isn’t finished yet. The boat is at MTI now getting that installed and we’re making some changes to the lounges in the bow. We should have it for the Lake Powell Challenge, our ‘hometown’ event.”

Of course Pyburn was excited to take delivery of Platinum Addiction, his high-end MTI-V 42. After running into him at Big Dick’s Halfway Inn, the first stop of Friday’s poker run presented by Poly Lift Boat Lifts, he called the boat unbelievable.

Running with his friend, Louisiana’s Michael Pierce, in Pure Platinum, his old Skater Powerboats catamaran, Florida’s Bill Pyburn enjoyed kicking back on Platinum Addiction, his new MTI-V 42 powered by quad 450-hp engines last week in Missouri. Photo by Jason Johnson

“The boat is incredible—it’s got everything we need,” said Pyburn, who, like Schouten, admitted that it’s a different boating experience because it’s not a go-fast cat and because way more people can join him and his longtime girlfriend, Fallon Thibodeaux, in the boat. “I have barely even driven it. I’ve let everyone else drive. The girls are having fun driving it, too.”

O’Loughlin, who was joined by Jimmy McIntyre of Falcon Performance Marine Center in New York for the delivery of his impressive eight-seat 48-foot cat, which features Iron Maiden-inspired graphics on the backs of the front seat, appeared to be in awe with the MTI.

Check out the slideshow above for more images of MTI’s latest 48-foot catamaran.

“This boat is nails brother; it’s better than the last one—I don’t know how MTI did it, but they pulled it off,” O’Loughlin said from the Camden on the Lake Resort docks during Super Cat Fest. “This thing is fast and gorgeous. It doesn’t get any better in my opinion.”

Next stop for the MTI crew—Lake Powell Challenge with Schouten and company. If all goes as planned there may even be more deliveries at the event hosted by Antelope Point Marina in Page, Ariz.

MTI Exhales After Four Boat Deliveries During Busy Lake Of The Ozarks Shootout Week

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