Skater 368 Out For Team Gone Again

Fans of Kenny Mungle’s Gone Again team’s top-speed shootout campaign will have to wait for more than the finalization of his next boat’s name—they’ll have to wait see what his next boat will be. According to Mungle and Ron Szolack, the 36-foot catamaran’s owner, the two reached an agreement today in which Szolack would refund Mungle’s deposit and Szolack would hang on to the one-of-a-kind, all-carbon-fiber cat.

“I told Ron I wasn’t happy with the way the boat was handling, and I asked him for my deposit back,” said Mungle this evening via mobile phone during his drive back to Houston, Texas, with his Gone Again partner Lee Lockwood. “Ron agreed. It was all really friendly. I consider Ron a friend—he’s a great guy.”

Despite that he’s decided to pass on this Skater 368, Mungle said he’s still in the market for a top-speed shootout boat. Photo courtesy Jim Winters/Speedonthewater.com.

“We’re both happy,” said Szolack. “Kenny wanted his deposit back, and I was fine with that. I’m going to keep the boat and finish it with Johnny Tomlinson (of TNT Custom Marine). I’m not going to lose money on it—it’s a ‘one-of-one’ boat—I’m going to keep it.”

While Mungle still owns his 32-foot Gone Again Skater cat, he said he still intends to find another boat for top-speed events this year.

“Trust me, I’ve been thinking about it while I’ve been driving,” he said. “We want to find another boat, but right now we’re not committed to anything. We’re in a good position.”

When Tomlinson begins rebalancing the twin 1,550-hp Sterling Performance engine-powered 36-footer tomorrow, he’ll be working for Szolack, who said that earlier today he’s already reached out to Eddie Guardado at Guardado Marine in Miami for fiberglass work, which includes new engine hatches. He also said that once the boat is rebalanced they’ll try a new gear ratio (1.33:1) in the cat’s Arneson drives.

“If we can’t get it to work with those drives, we’ll cut off the bustle and install (Mercury Racing) No. 6 drives,” said Szolack. “Once it’s finished, I may sell it but I probably won’t be able to get out what I’ve put in it. So I’ll probably keep it.”

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