Waves And Wheels Wraps Up Stunning Black Thunder Project

Toward the end of last week, Justin Wagner—the owner of Waves and Wheels in Osage Beach, Mo.—reached out to inform speedonthewater.com that the Black Thunder Offshore 46 Raised Deck we reported on eight weeks ago was all buttoned up and that the Hannibal, Mo.-based offshore V-bottom manufacturer was picking it up on Friday.

Thanks to the talented team at Waves and Wheels, the latest 46-foot Black Thunder V-bottom was outfitted with a modernized look and feel. Photos courtesy Waves and Wheels

Wagner also took the time to send over several videos of the new 46-footer, highlighting everything his talented team did to the boat, which included designing, fabricating and producing the entire cabin, cockpit, sunpad and swim platform, and we edited them together in a video (right) for our speedonthewater.com YouTube page, which you can subscribe to here.

“I’m so proud of everyone here at Waves and Wheels—the whole team made an incredible effort to get this boat just right,” said Wagner, who was thrilled that his crew took what was basically an empty boat—much of the mechanical rigging was in place when Black Thunder delivered it in February—from a finished product in a little more than two months. “The boat came out so nice. I’m looking forward to seeing it as well as new Black Thunders on Lake of the Ozarks and at poker runs around the country.

“I have to say, the guys at Black Thunder were very open to our designs and letting us run with it,” he added. “They had a few features that were important to them—ones that are traditional to Black Thunder—so we took those, applied the same values and even updated them where it made sense to bring them up to 2019 standards.”

Wagner estimated that from start to finish, he and his team put close to 2,000 hours into the project boat, which featured an eight-man cockpit with four motorized bolsters designed and constructed in house at Waves and Wheels and a four-person rear bench that has a bolster-like look and feel.

The custom upholstery used for the seats as well as for the side panels, the sunpad and throughout the cabin was highlighted with Waves and Wheels’ Level Two stitching. Custom carpet featuring Black Thunder’s new BT logo was included as is a nice mix of hidden LED accent lighting throughout the cockpit.

Check out the slideshow above for more images of the Black Thunder.

Of course a Bluave Marine Audio entertainment system was responsible for top-notch sound quality from front to back in the boat. Wagner, who also owns Bluave, said his team installed four pairs of M9.0CX speakers in the cockpit and a pair of loaded MS-E sub enclosures with M10S4 subwoofers under the rear bench. The boat also featured two pairs of Bluave’s newest product, the EM2.0TRs, a high-end sound quality tweeter that Wagner said is great for systems that need to overcome a lot of ambient wind noise while the boat is running. He added that the new tweeters are going to be available for purchase this summer.

At the transom, Waves and Wheels installed a pair of M9.0CX speakers on each side of the swim platform, which featured matching SeaDek and upholstery carried down from the sunpad (the team also installed underwater lighting and complementary lighting in the engine compartment). A trio of Bluave amplifiers was neatly installed to round out the system, which also includes a pair of M9.0CX speakers in the cabin.

The cabin, according to Wagner, was not easy to design, but he managed to keep the traditional spacious cabin—Black Thunders are known for their headroom—and make room for an extra seven inches of width below deck.

The slideshow above, courtesy of Justin Wagner, shows examples of a previously produced Black Thunder to show the contrast between a previous generation model and the new Waves and Wheels edition.

“We redesigned the saloon and kitchenette, which provided a larger counter space and allowed us to install a 50-inch TV screen,” Wagner said, adding that they installed a wide-angle bow camera that can be viewed on the cabin screen. “We also put in a modern, pull-out drawer-style fridge, hidden LED accent lighting above and below the bench seats and above the berth, and ample amounts of storage. I’m so proud of this boat—I really am.”

Last but not least, Waves and Wheels nailed the digital-only helm design with a stylish steering wheel, a Fusion head unit, cupholders, black Livorsi Marine controls, twin Garmin 8612 GPS displays and tons of billet switches for the accessories, trim, tabs, etc., recessed neatly in sleek black panels. Ahead of the copilot, the accompanying etched Black Thunder dash panel and step plates up to the deck finished the cockpit off well.

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