Eliminator 255 Speedster With AMS-Equipped Mercury Racing 300Rs Delivered To Southern California Buyer
A longtime go-fast powerboat owner, Bobby Basso and his wife, Lisa, live in Alpine, Calif., about 30 miles inland from San Diego. They do most of their boating on Martinez Lake, some 140-plus miles from Lake Havasu—its larger and better-known Colorado River-fed sister waterway—and roughly 30 miles from Yuma, Ariz.
With its Mercury Racing 300R outboard engines with Advanced Mid-Sections over-propped and running well below their maximum operating speed, this 25-foot Eliminator catamaran has so far reached 109 mph.
Obscure as it may be to folks outside the West Coast go-fast boating scene, Martinez Lake doesn’t lack for high-performance hardware. The most recent example is the Basso’s new Eliminator Boats 255 Speedster catamaran powered by Mercury Racing 300R outboards with Mercury’s Advanced Mid-Sections, a relatively new option for the naturally aspirated V-8 powerplants added in April.
The couple took delivery of the open-bow 25-footer last week in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. So far, they have run the boat to 109 mph with 90 gallons of fuel in its twin tanks and the wrong propellers, at least for maximizing performance, on the lower-unit spindles.
“I have 300R cleaver propellers ordered,” Bobby Basso said. “We only had 400R outboard cleaver propellers and got our top speed at 5,800 rpm. I know we can run it to 6,400 rpm with the 300R props with less fuel and probably get 10 mph more out of it.
“It’s like driving a Lamborghini,” he continued. “The power is right there.”
Basso, whose prior boats included a 21-foot Eliminator with a 200-hp Mercury outboard as well as several sterndrive boats, said he appreciates how “balanced” the 255 Speedster feels at all speeds. He also likes the tidy appearance that the AMS setup creates on the cat’s transom.
Enjoy the slideshow above for more images of the latest Eliminator Boats delivery.
“I like how clean everything looks now—you don’t have the steering rams coming off the sides of the outboards—and I like how they’ve made the tie bars connect,” he said. “They really simplified how everything looks back there.”
The owner also praised the Mira Loma, Calif., custom high-performance boat company for the 255 Speedster’s fit and finish. Since Eliminator introduced the model in 2019, Basso has wanted to own one. Now, he does.
“I couldn’t be happier with it,” he said. “Eliminator builds an amazing boat.”
This Eliminator 255 Speedster catamaran will be a frequent sight on Martinez Lake this fall.
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