Speedonthewater.com Getting Close Look At New Fountain And Donzi Models

ByMatt Trulio

As you read this, there’s an excellent chance that Jason Johnson, the co-publisher and executive editor of speedonthewater.com, and I are somewhere between San Francisco and Charlotte for the first leg of our trip to Washington, N.C. We’ll be there for the next three days running 2020 models from Donzi and Fountain.

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The speedonthewater.com crew is headed to Washington, N.C., to test the latest and greatest from Donzi and Fountain.

Among the Donzi models will be running with veteran offshore racer Billy Moore, who works closely with the Iconic Marine Group team on both brands, are the reintroduced 38 ZRC, a groundbreaking sportboat—first released in 2002—that brought sit-down V-bottoms into the modern era. We’ll also be running the new outboard engine-powered Donzi 41 GTZ and the 22 Classic 55th Anniversary Edition.

On the Fountain side, we’ll be treated to the reborn 47-foot Lightning powered by Mercury Racing 1550/1350 engines, which John Tomlinson and I ran to 118 mph—before running out of space in Biscayne Bay—in Miami last month. (Also worth noting? We ran the 47-footer to 95 mph in quartering seas, 80 mph in head seas and 108 mph in following seas in the Atlantic Ocean later that day.) We’re also being treated to time in Fountain’s new 34-foot Thunder Cat, as well as its latest 34-foot center console.

It is, for all intents and purposes, marine media week in Washington. Eric Colby of Soundings/Trade Only is already there. Johnson and I arrive tonight and leave Wednesday. Ray Lee of Speedboat magazine gets in Tuesday night returns back to Southern California on Thursday—the same day Charles Plueddeman of Boating magazine arrives.

Look for updates on speedonthewater.com during the next few days, as well as feature stories from the event in our digital magazine and 2019 Year In Review print magazine.

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