Pratt Chasing 200-Plus MPH In New Turbine-Powered Good Boy Vodka Mystic

Alex Pratt, the go-fast-boat enthusiast behind Good Boy Vodka who took Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks (and beyond) by storm in 2020 with the launch of his fun-loving, charity-driven alcohol brand and an event-filled campaign with his radical 48-foot MTI, has moved into a bigger and faster boat for the 2021 boating season—a 2010 canopied 50-foot Mystic Powerboats catamaran powered by twin T-53 turbine engines.

Alex Pratt can’t wait to show off his Good Boy Vodka X Insurance-sponsored turbine-powered canopied Mystic this summer. Photos courtesy Alex Pratt and Hydroflat

That’s right, Pratt’s new Good Boy Vodka boat is sure to be one fast and flashy machine, especially with the updates he’s been making to the C5000 that he purchased from New York’s Chris Cox, who also owns the Envy C5000 Mystic raceboat.

Pratt, who splits time between his hometown of Clearwater, Fla., and his residence in Saint Joseph, Mich., where he heads up sales for Pratt Industries, decided to purchase the boat a few months ago after taking it for a test drive near the Mystic facility. With his good friend, Louisiana’s Nate Michel, along for the ride, Pratt pulled the trigger and immediately went to work on making the boat his own with help from the Louisiana-based teams at Hydroflat and Marine Turbine Technologies.

“Why did I buy the Mystic?” Pratt replied when asked the question. “Because I want to run fast and run fast for a long way (laughs). I’ve always wanted to go 200 mph on water, and we think the boat could even be much faster than that. In all honesty, the power output and the maintenance of turbine engines is very intriguing to me. When I test drove the boat, we went 183 mph at 90-percent power and we should be able to run them up to 100- to 104-percent power for hours.”

The talented team at Hydroflat was tasked with applying the graphics designed by No Coast Design to the 50-foot Mystic.

Along with having fun—his No. 1 objective with his boating habit—and promoting Good Boy Vodka and his new sponsor, X Insurance, Pratt hopes to reach 200-plus mph in the 50-footer powered by the T-53 turbines that are currently at Marine Turbine Technologies in Franklin, La., where Ted McIntyre and Stuart Duncan are handling any necessary maintenance and adjustments before he puts the boat back in the water.

Pratt, who will be in Louisiana this weekend promoting the launch of Good Boy Vodka’s distribution in the state via sponsorship of the Sun Buns 4th of July Uncle Sam Jam, is hopeful he’ll be running the boat in the near future—the detailed project took longer than he anticipated so he’s not sure when he’ll get to shake it down. He is, however, going to be at next week’s Boyne Thunder Poker Run in Boyne City, Mich., with the 2017 Cigarette Racing Team 41 GTR center console he picked up in May from fellow Michigander Ron Szolack. Pratt said Michel is going to bring Cloud IX, his 40-foot MTI, to the popular run as well.

“One of the turbines was super healthy and the other one needed a rebuild,” Pratt said, adding that both engines are being polished and painted to match the boat’s vibrant graphics. “We’re keeping the original interior for now—it’s in good shape—but we’ve turned the six-seat cockpit into an eight-seater and just matched the original stuff since it was so clean. I’m also thinking I’m going to run it as a closed-capsule boat for a season or two and then cut the top off and turn into an open-cockpit boat. We’ve already started working on some designs for that.”

Pratt turned to Evan Schaubhut of Hydroflat in Des Allemands, La., a company that specializes in fiberglass repair and boat service to handle prepping and painting the boat with graphics designed by No Coast Design in Indiana.

“Alex brought the boat to us and it looked like it was in decent shape, but it ended up needing more body work than expected,” Schaubhut said. “It took a lot of work, but we whipped it into shape and blocked it down to its beginning surface, resealed it, painted the whole bottom and worked with Thomas (Kulesia of No Coast Design) on custom colors made specifically for the boat. It’s not the biggest boat we’ve painted but it’s the most detailed and the most colorful. Every color—they are all custom colors made for us from our supplier—has a flake in it and the carbon-fiber detail took days to apply. The boat has some serious detail. We applied the Mystic Blue followed by blue ice pearl flake, the Mystic Grey followed by white ice pearl flake, and the Good Boy Green followed by gold ice pearl flake—Alex wanted the gold on top.”

Check out the slideshow above for more images of the Mystic project.

At the same time Schaubhut and his team did some minor upgrades in the form of a full-size Garmin display, front and rear cameras, engine bay cameras and interior lighting. They also spent some time modernizing the boat’s trailer.

“I’m excited to see what Alex has planned for the boat,” said Mystic founder John Cosker. “As everyone knows, those boats hold a special place in my heart even though we don’t build them anymore. Depending on the power, those hulls are very fast. I’m sure Alex is going to have some fun with that boat. I’m looking forward to seeing it back on the poker run circuit.”

Pratt plans to hit several notable poker runs, including the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout and Super Cat Fest in late August and the Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run in November, in the Mystic. And while he’s never ran a boat down the Shootout’s three-quarter-mile course, he said he may have to give it a try this year. Not because he thinks he can lay down a big number, more so to support his sponsor X Insurance.

“In the insurance business I meet a lot of people and Alex is one of those people who exudes energy,” said X Insurance owner Rick Lindsey, who owns several boats, including a 39-foot Yellowfin center console. “He and I talked about the idea of sponsoring his boat and I thought it sounded fun so we’re doing it. We know that people who own go-fast boats usually need other things insured so having Alex promote X Insurance certainly can’t hurt.”

After wrapping its finishing touches, the Hydroflat crew sent the boat over to Marine Turbine Technologies this morning to install the engines.

Lindsey, who lives in Utah and has spent a lot of time on Lake Powell, which borders Arizona and Utah, said he decided to sponsor Pratt’s boat not because he’s looking to sell boat insurance—he already underwrites some of the largest insurers in the business—but because his company can offer insurance to go-fast boat owners for their businesses and anything else they need insured, especially with things regarded as “high risk.”

“Rick is an amazing individual—I truly appreciate this opportunity and the opportunities to come with him and his amazing staff,” Pratt said. “Rick provides creative insurance solutions for almost every industry and I know a lot of people will benefit from working with Rick and X insurance in the years to come. “

Pratt Chasing 200-Plus MPH In New Turbine-Powered Good Boy Vodka Mystic

Address

Quick Links