Skater Business Booming

With the 2015 Miami International Boat Show just around the corner in February, Peter Hledin and the crew at Douglas Marine/Skater Powerboats are “cranking,” according to Tony Cutsuries, national sales manager for the Douglas, Mich., custom high-performance catamaran and V-bottom company. Including three Miami debut-slated models—a new wide-bottom 50-foot catamaran, an outboard-powered 30-foot cat and the next-generation Platinum Series 388 catamaran for longtime Skater client Bill Pyburn—the builder has more than 10 boats currently in production. So busy is Skater, in fact, that the company hired additional employees last week.

Douglas Marine/Skater founder and owner Peter Hledin works on the plug for his new 52-footer. All photos courtesy Tony Cutsuries

“The new 428 (read the story) is in the mold,” said Cutsuries. “That’s going to be a really nice piece, a really nice rough-water boat because frankly it has more deadrise than anything we’ve ever built. We have two 30s, one wide-body and one with outboards, two 46s and a 50, three 388s and a couple of 338s in production.

“We’re going to be flipping over our new 439 V and putting a deck on it,” he continued. “That’s going to be a really nice V-bottom with a full cabin and deep cockpit. We also have a new cat with a 52-foot running surface coming.”

To see what’s happening at Douglas Marine today, check out the slideshow above.

Two of the new Skater 388 cats including Pyburn’s eagerly anticipated Platinum Series model, as well as one 46-footer, will be equipped with twin engines from Goodwin Competition. With the exception of the new the 428 cat—the engine package for which has yet to be selected—the rest of the boats will be powered by engines, primarily in 1350 form, from Mercury Racing.

According to Cutsuries, Skater fans can expect to see a new Skater catamaran on the offshore racecourse next season. The company received an order for a Superboat-class 388 raceboat during the recent Super Boat International Offshore World Championships in Key West, Fla. (Cutsuries declined to name the buyer of the 38-footer that will join the growing SBI class in 2015.)

“We’re crazy busy now, and it’s good,” said Cutsuries, who arrived at the Skater facility earlier today and is meeting with Jaime Borg of Cutting Edge Interiors of Punta Gorda, Fla., who also is currently in Douglas to install interiors in two cats, including Pyburn’s new 388. “We are very happy to have so much going on right now. We are blessed.”

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