Pure Platinum Skater: Still Mind-Blowing

Of all the hardware at the Miami Boat Show Poker Run, which I covered last weekend for Boats.com, the most impressive piece wasn’t brand-new. In fact, it was a boat that’s been around for a few years—Bill Pyburn’s Pure Platinum 388 Skater catamaran.

Here’s why: The boat can flat-out run. Consistently. The cat passed the 39-foot Outerlimits I was fortunate enough to be on board as if we were anchored. We were running 92 mph. I’m guessing Pure Platinum was running around 170 mph, not its top speed but plenty fast by any measure.

But it’s not the speed I found so impressive—it’s the way the cat runs at high speed. It appears flat, stable and, hard as it to believe unless you’ve seen it, effortless.

Take nothing away from Derek Wachob’s new canopied carbon fiber Corvette MTI, Albert Haynesworth’s Terminator MTI or Gino Gargiulo’s timeless Mercedes MTI—they’re all spectacular catamarans capable of superb performance. But at least last Friday, Pure Platinum was in a league of its own.

Editor’s Note: A complete feature on the Miami Boat Show Poker Run will appear on Boats.com in March.