Project Update: Cigarette 46 Paintjob Strikes Gold With Silver

Earlier this month, we published an update on a 2007 Cigarette Racing Team 46 Rough Rider being painted at Stephen Miles Design in Owensboro, Ky. The 46-footer’s new graphics are the finishing touches on a project, which included replacing the boat’s supercharged Mercury Racing 1075 engines with their newer 1,100-hp turbocharged, that began in May 2020.

Said Miles of the ongoing 46-foot Cigarette paintjob, “It’s just so much different than what we’ve been doing.”

Performance Boat School founder Tres Martin has managed the project since it began. Between the installation of its quad-cam four-valve engines and its delivery to the paint shop, the owner ran the repowered boat in Florida and to the Bahamas. 

Now that Miles and his crew are digging into the job, the boat’s graphics are starting to come alive. And in the use of “like five different shades of silver,” they’ve struck Cigarette gold.

“It’s just so much different than what we’ve been doing,” said Miles. “Plus, I really dig the color combo.

“The paint on this thing looked like something on a ’90s mini truck,” he added, then laughed. “So seeing the transformation is obviously pretty exciting.”

The emerging graphics package isn’t the only unusual aspect of the job for the airbrush artist. His contact with the boat’s owner has been minimal.

“I’ve only had one conversation with the guy—I’m handling everything through Tres—and it’s been a pretty fun deal to be honest,” said Miles. “I always, always, always prefer to work directly with the customer. But this dude wants Tres to handle everything and so far it’s been a pleasure.

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