Mystic M4200 Center Console Owners Double Down

During the Florida Powerboat Club’s 2016 Winter Poker Run, Ray Gremaux, a longtime performance-boat owner and full-service plumbing contractor who lives in Long Island, N.Y., spied a Mystic Powerboats M4200 luxury performance center console. Hull No. 6, the boat was owned by Ron Szolack and—like most possessions in the Michigan-based powerboat enthusiast’s life—it was for sale with just six hours on its quad Mercury Racing 400R outboard engines.

Painted Gold Rush Pearl, Ray Gremaux’s Mystic M4200—his second—has reached 90 mph so far.

Gremaux fell in the love with the 42-footer that weekend and bought it from Szolack. And now, some five years and 50 Mystic M4200 builds later, he’s currently at Mystic’s headquarters in DeLand, Fla., taking delivery of M4200 No. 56, which he had built from scratch and equipped with four Mercury Racing 450R outboards.

“John Cosker, Ryan Zivitski, Greg Weber and the rest of the crew have created an incredible culture at Mystic,” he said. “I am in the service business and—let me tell you—these guys take it to another level.”

As it happens, Gremaux, is one of four M4200 buyers currently going on their second builds. Among them are Neil and Cindy, Campbell, who formerly owned traditional Formula V-bottom sportboats, bought a 42-footer powered by triple Mercury Racing 400Rs when they moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., three years ago. An M4200 with quad 450Rs and a Seakeeper stabilization system, which Zvitiski ran in the 2020 Florida Powerboat Club Tampa Bay Poker Run, got their attention and inspired them to order a like-equipped 42-footer of their own.

Neil and Cindy Campbell enjoyed their first M4200 (in photo) enough to order a second one.

It will be hull No. 60 for the model.

“I said, ‘What the hell?’” said Neil Campbell, who initially had considered repowering his first M4200, which was hull No. 27 for Mystic. “I want the 450 motors. I may as well get the Seakeeper, too. Other than those two features, it will be almost identical to our first Mystic, but they’ve made a dozen or so little improvement to it since then.

“Customer service has been excellent,” he continued. “We had a few little issues with our original boat, just nits and gnats really, and they came all the way over her from DeLand to fix them.”

(From left) Joe Gilmore and Ben Onken are replacing their M4200 with new builds that will be completed this year.

Like Campbell, second-time M4200 buyers Joe Gilmore of Massachusetts, who has a second home in Jupiter, Fla., and Ben Onken, who lives near Springfield, Ill., will take delivery of their new boats later this year.

The nephew of Don Onken, who owns the 51-foot American Ethanol Mystic catamaran that has claimed the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout Top Gun title for past six years with Cosker on the throttles, Ben Onken has owned pure performance boats from Fountain and Outerlimits. Once performance-boat owners as well, his parents, had moved on to a Formula sport cruiser.

In 2018, Onken bought an M4200 with triple 400R outboards, which became the boat-of-choice for the entire family. Now, it is his only boat—and one that will be soon replaced with a 42-footer powered by four Mercury Racing 450Rs.

“The performance boats were fun but between maintenance, insurance and fuel I wasn’t getting out of them what I was putting into them,” he said. “But I am 43 years old and also wasn’t ready for a cruiser. This is a happy medium.

“What drove us to the Mystic was its taller freeboard and rough-water ability,” he continued. “It gets pretty snotty on the Lake of the Ozarks. My parents have a condo there, and when we go out we’ll have eight to 14 people on board. We’re looking forward to our 450R boat.”

In the meantime, Onken’s fellow Mystic family member Gremaux is gearing up to run his center console in the Florida Powerboat Club Miami Boat Show Poker Run later this month, where Mystic will his new boat as well as a C4000 catamaran on display. He’ll keep the boat, which was painstakingly painted Gold Rush Pearl, at Grove Harbour Marina in Coconut Grove for the rest of the winter.

“Between John and Ryan and rest of Mystic’s employees, they really get the whole customer experience,” said Gramaux. “I will never buy another other than a Mystic. My next one will be a C4000 catamaran. I just have to sell my wife on it.”

Mystic M4200 Center Console Owners Double Down

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