Tony & Kim Jackson bought this 1988 32' Skater early in 2005.  The boat was originally built by Douglas Marine  for J.W. Marriot, of the Marriot hotel chain.  While most of these boats left the Michigan factory with Mercury power bolted to the transom, this particular boat had a pair of Evinrude Offshore motors. The original owner happened to be on the Board of Directors of OMC's Second Effort Performance Division. His boat obviously couldn't be seen with a pair of those black motors hanging out back!

The boat wasn't in bad shape when Tony picked it up in New Hampshire and pulled it back to Arizona. The hull only required a good bath and clean up. The interior wasn't in bad shape either, but looked a little dated. The seats and side panels were pulled and recovered in white.   

The real interesting focus here is the two motors. Originally designed for Offshore Racing and F-1 boats, these motors displaced 3.5 liters as opposed to the more conventional production 3.6 or 4.0 liter motors commonly seen in the mid 80's. These things are just physically big!

The motors were rated at 450 horsepower each. This pair was optioned out with twin pinion gear cases and were fully shiftable, albeit the driver has to shut the motors off prior to shifting gears.  There is even a Coast Guard waiver for this shifting nuance. As you can see in the pictures above, each 2-piece billet head was equipped with dual spark plugs and four "dual throat" carbs. Each motor has dual ignition components for back up reliability. One engine actually runs backward, not just the lower gear case, the whole motor.

This is Tony & Kim's first cat and they're sneaking up on the top speed potential as they learn the running characteristics of this true cat style hull.  Running a pair of Mazco 14 1/2 X 30 props, so far they've seen about 104 mph. Tony say's "There's still more available rpm to be used". The original owner claimed the boat could run 125 mph, time will tell.