In The Lead With John Cosker Video Live Now And A Must-Watch

When Jason Johnson and I began brainstorming subjects for Speed On The Water’s new “In The Lead” video series, John Cosker was—contradiction duly noted—a no-brainer. The 53-year-old, Mystic Powerboats founder and multi-time Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Top Gun champion, one of high-performance boating’s precious few 200-mph men, is a living legend. As you’ll learn from watching the 15-minute video, his resume includes a naval architecture degree, an internship with Rolla Propellers and an engineering gig with the late Tom Gentry on the record-setting Gentry Eagle trans-Atlantic project.

Yeah, the soft-spoken and uncommonly humble dude has serious chops.

But our connection to Cosker goes deeper than that for us. We’re proud to say it’s personal, that we count this remarkable gentleman as a friend. We’ve seen him go through incredible highs, such as watching a 50-foot catamaran he built set the never-to-be-broken, 244-mph Lake of the Ozarks Shootout record. We’ve also seen him go through benthic lows, when the recession of 2008 almost forced him to close the company’s doors forever.

We followed and reported on his reinvention of Mystic Powerboats as an outboard engine-driven center console company in 2015. Since then, Cosker and company have built more than 100 outboard-powered boats, two of which are center console models and one of which is a catamaran. His once humble, if not downright funky facility in DeLand, Fla., has become a freaking complex.

And we’ve rooted for him all the way because John Cosker—you see—is one of the good guys. In an industry notoriously loaded with shady characters and grifters, he is a beacon of integrity and honesty, a family man whose principles and priorities have never wavered. None of his success has come easy, but as Cosker knows far better than most, nothing worth accomplishing ever does.

Need a little inspiration to get you through your day? Watch “In The Lead with John Cosker” right now.

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