Schiada’s First Twin 300R-Powered 24-Footer Is A Winner

Arizona performance boaters Craig and Alison Krumwiede have owned several go-fast boats over the years, including models from Custom Schiada Boats, DCB Performance Boats and Hallett Boats, but their most recent one just might be their favorite. It’s definitely the most unique boat they’ve owned as their third Schiada, a 24-footer with twin Mercury Racing 300R engines that they recently took delivery of from the Van Nuys, Calif., custom boat manufacturer, is the first one built with a pair of the new-generation outboards.

Craig and Alison Krumwiede are ecstatic about how nice their new 24 Schiada with twin Mercury Racing 300R engines turned out. Photos courtesy Craig Krumwiede/Lee Spindler

The 24-footer, which features a carbon-fiber layup and another first for Schiada—a windshield, is actually the Krumwiede’s second 24 Schiada. Their first one was powered by a blown 572-cubic-inch engine from Arizona Speed and Marine. The couple also owned a twin-engine sterndrive 32-foot Schiada before they transitioned to a DCB M31 Widebody with twin Mercury Racing 565 engines.

“Our new 24 Schiada is an amazing boat,” Krumwiede said. “We’re still shaking her down but so far so good. The boat’s performance with the twin 300s is impressive. We’ve hit 85.9 mph—we think there’s more but that’s the best so far. The boat feels much different than my old 24. It handles great and takes the rough water well. It lands really well, too. And because it was built with carbon fiber, it sounds different in rough water. It literally has no give to it at all. I like how that feels—it’s so solid.”

Krumwiede said he’s enjoyed all of his sterndrive-powered boats but that he grew tired of the maintenance, especially when he took them to San Diego—his home away from home—and ran them in the saltwater. So he decided it was time to jump on the outboard bandwagon, too.

“I love the guys at DCB; they build an incredible boat unlike anything else I’ve owned, but this 24, although much smaller, does several things that you can’t do in a cat like cruising around the bay,” Krumwiede explained. “Don’t get me wrong, I love to go fast but the 24 is more conducive for sight-seeing or just hanging out. It’s still plenty fast, plus it’s a lot of fun to drive.”

Schiada Boats’ Lee Spindler said Krumwiede called him out of the blue and asked about the possibility of building an outboard-powered 24, which was something Spindler and his counterpart, Stan Murakami, had already been considering.

“We’d been thinking about building an outboard-powered boat for about a year or so, but we’re so busy we didn’t have time to build ourselves a boat—we also didn’t want to upset our customers by taking up a production slot,” Spindler explained. “So when Craig called we said why not? Once we started working on it, we did everything possible to keep the center of gravity where it needed to be. Because we were up against a CG battle with the engines so far back, pretty much everything the boat had to have in it was installed in the bow as far forward as possible.”

Check out the slideshow above for more images of the 24 Schiada, including several before the windshield was installed on the 24-footer.

Spindler, who was optimistic about the boat’s performance based on calculations, said he was “absolutely floored” at how well the boat ran.

“It’s amazing how easy the boat is to drive,” Spindler said. “It’s far and away the nicest-driving 24 I think we’ve ever built. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it has 10 propeller blades in the water, but the thing rides so soft.

“We’re happy with how the boat runs with Mercury’s Max 5 propellers, but I wouldn’t say we’re done tinkering with it yet,” he added. “We don’t want to change much because of how nice the boat runs, but we do want to test the boat with Mercury’s new 300-hp CNC cleaver props to see what it can do. My only complaint with the 300Rs is that they’re only 300 hp.”

Spindler laughed and said he’s not sure how the boat would run with Mercury’s new 450R engines because they are significantly heavier at approximately 150 pounds more per engine.

“I can’t say it wouldn’t work, but that’s a big difference in weight back there,” he added.

So far, Krumwiede, who had the 24-footer out on Arizona’s Lake Havasu before taking it to San Diego for the Fourth of July weekend, is loving the boat, especially the windshield, which he had to talk Spindler into doing.

“The windshield is different looking and I was not happy doing it, but now that it’s finished, I like it, especially at speed,” Spindler said. “If it was strictly a desert boat I would have tried to talk him out of it for ventilation purposes, but because he uses it down in San Diego area it makes sense. It can get pretty cold in the harbor.”

Krumwiede added that the windshield works great as does the 60-gallon ballast tank that was installed up front to add weight to the bow when necessary. According to Spindler, the tank, which fills on the fly and dumps on the fly, fills up in less than 60 seconds and drains in 30 seconds.

“In San Diego Bay there are a lot of tugboat wakes and you can get pretty wet so the windshield is going to keep us protected,” Krumwiede said. “I’m still getting used to how quiet the boat is. Between the windshield and the outboard engines, the boat is so quiet that we can to talk to each other at speed. The ballast tank is fun to play around with, too. I’m still getting used to it, but you can adjust the ride easily by adding or subtracting the weight.”

Schiada’s First Twin 300R-Powered 24-Footer Is A Winner

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