Steve Tripp Remembered
Revolution Performance Marine’s Steve Tripp, who crashed while testing yesterday afternoon, loved going fast as evident in his participation in the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Missouri every year. Photo by Robert Brown
Tripp and Mark Kent at the Desert Storm Poker Run in
Lake Havasu City, Ariz. Photo courtesy Jeff FordI remember meeting Steve Tripp, the owner of Revolution Performance Marine (RPM) in Harpersville, Ala., for the first time at the Powerboat Magazine Performance Trials in Parker, Ariz. It was September 2006 and I was still a “newbie,” just a year into my managing editor position with the now-defunct magazine.
As was Tripp, who was extremely proud to have his very first 26 Redline being tested by the magazine’s team, which included test drivers Bob Teague and John Tomlinson. Less than a year later, Tripp—and the boat company he founded after selling his software business—received an award for Outstanding Sport Catamaran Value. The 26-footer with a single Mercury Racing HP525EFI engine blew the socks off of Teague and Tomlinson after running 95 mph on the Colorado River.
Fast-forward almost eight years and Tripp and his right-hand man Mark Kent are posting video on OffShoreOnly.com of the company’s latest 26 Redline with a 1,200-hp GT Performance engine running 143 mph. Jump to yesterday afternoon on the Coosa River and it pains me to put in it writing that Tripp wanted to reach 150 mph so badly in one of his rock-steady 26-foot catamarans that he ended up losing his life after the boat crashed during a test run in the River Rub subdivision.
and then