Momma Torrente All Smiles After Getting Her New MTI 390X

Even though you’re likely to see Shaun Torrente driving a gorgeous new MTI 390X catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing 450R engines in the Florida Keys this week, the two-time defending F1 H2O world champion driver and owner of STR Components in Southwest Florida wants to make it clear that the new 39-foot cat featuring his STR X-Act HD adjustable brackets is his wife Flavia’s boat.

Shaun Torrente ran his wife Flavia’s new MTI 390X catamaran for the first time earlier this week. Photos courtesy Shaun Torrente

“This is Momma’s boat—no doubt about it,” Torrente said in an interview on Monday after he splashed the gray, white, black and green MTI for the first time. “Flavia has always enjoyed boating and been extremely supportive of my racing career, my business objectives and the fun part of this lifestyle, but this is the first boat she’s really wanted. I can tell you the exact day it happened, too. It was February 2, 2020.

“Randy (Scism, MTI’s owner and founder) brought his demo 390X to me early on in 2020 so I could test some props and play around with the setup before the Miami Boat Show to make it the nicest, most docile boat you can drive without sacrificing top speed,” Torrente continued. “So one of the days I had it, Flavia and I took the boat to dinner. She’s been around a lot of boats and she always loved riding in the Unicorn, our 31-foot Skater Powerboats cat we converted into a pleasure boat a few years back and repowered with 450Rs in 2019. But, and this is a significant but, we ended up taking the MTI out in some bigger Gulf of Mexico water that day and when we got back to the docks she was grinning. She looked at me and said, ‘We need to sell everything we can and buy this boat.’ I knew she wasn’t joking.”

Torrente said he could tell while he was driving that Flavia was having a good time cruising around in the MTI—that seems apparent in the inset photo he took that day—and that the boat would be ideal for them and their daughter, who they lovingly refer to as “Teenie.” The Torrentes will have the 390X, which is named 39′ Deep, in the Florida Keys this week, and they also are going to have a booth set up in the Florida Powerboat Club Miami Boat Show Poker Run exhibit space at Gilbert’s Resort to promote the STR line of products and the GSR High-Performance Catamaran Driving School that Torrente recently acquired.

Flavia’s catamaran, which features MTI’s latest eight-seat cockpit design with custom-painted seatbacks for the front four seats, is loaded with accessories ranging from dash blower vents and two large Garmin display screens and a Mercury Racing VesselView in the dash to a JL Audio stereo system and LED lighting under the dash and in the four cupholders. It also has custom-painted engine cowlings, matching SeaDek flooring and service lights in all of the storage compartments.

The slideshow above includes more images of the Torrentes’ new 390X, an image of the couple at a recent Fort Myers Offshore event and an image of MTI’s demo boat that Flavia Torrente fell in love with when it was at STR in early 2020.

Of course, like all of Torrente’s boats, the 39-footer has a set of props from Dewald Propellers.

“We went a little overboard, but based on Flavia’s enthusiasm we kind of had to do that,” said Torrente, who rigged the boat following MTI protocol. “I’m telling you this is her boat and she has no plans to get rid of it any time soon, so we went all out. Even the paint is over the top with all of the colors and the pearls. It’s not really my style; I usually prefer a simpler look, but I love how it turned out.”

Momma Torrente All Smiles After Getting Her New MTI 390X

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