RP Elite Series Skater 368 Catamaran On Track For 2024 Tickfaw 200 Debut – Speed on the Water
Though the first RP Elite Motors and Marine Series Skater Powerboats 368 catamaran should be on the water in time for the early May 2024 Tickfaw 200 Poker Run in Springfield, La., the Mercury 1100 engine-powered 36-footer will not be delivered to its seoond owner until September. That’s because it’s the “personal demo boat” for Ross Ramsey, who owns the Springtown, Texas, Skater dealership and he wants to showcase it this season. Ramsey won’t part with the cat until the inaugural Elite RP Motors and Marine-backed Skaterfest on Lake Texoma that month.
RP Elite owner/founder Ross Ramsey worked closely with powerboat-painting wizards Steve and Jack Schulte to arrive at a captivating color scheme for his Skater 368 demo, the first build in the RP Elite Skater Series.
Of course, Ramsey is encouraging would-be buyers to step up now and make a deposit on the 36-foot creation. But he will not deliver it until the Lake Texoma happening.
“The boat is out of paint and in rigging,” he said. “It should be done by late January. The public will get to see it for the first time at the Tickfaw 200.
Key elements of a new Skater catamaran series from RP Elite Motors and Marine.
“I am so impressed with Steve and Schulte, who paint most Skaters,” he continued. “They absolutely rocked the paintjob. Steve and I are very close and, damn, can he design and paint along with his son, Jake. And Craig and Sherry Ellis at Appearance Products are taking the interior over the top. They’ve been great to work with.”
As well-known as it is for letting the good times roll, the Tickfaw 200 is not renowned for picture-perfect blue-green water. Most of the 200-mile course looks a lot like chocolate milk, which makes it an unusual choice for a new-build debut when it comes to photography. That fact is not lost on Ramsey.
But he has his reasons.
“I know the water isn’t all that pretty,” he said, then laughed. “But one of my biggest goals—and I talked it over with Peter Hledin and Tony Cutsuries at Skater and they agreed with it—as a Skater dealer is to establish a bigger presence for the brand in the South and Southwest. And the Tickfaw 200 is a great event that attracts a lot serious performance-boat enthusiasts, so a lot of people will get to see it.
Even RP Elite Motors and Marine lead technician Kyle Mayer has entered the Skater-owner family.
“That part of the reason I found the 36-foot, 2004 Black Pearl Skater cat for Kyle Mayer, my best friend and lead technician at Elite RP,” he continued. “Though he had driven plenty of them, it was his first Skater. He took delivery in July.”
Moving pre-owned Skaters continues to be vital to the dealership’s business. Most recently, as in yesterday, Ramsey closed the sale on the famed turbine engine-powered Skater 46 dubbed Hellfire. The 46-footer is the former property of former Offshoreonly.com owner Jeffrey Chang, who founded the high-performance powerboating online community.
Thanks to its recent sale, the turbine engine-powered 46-foot Skater catamaran called Hellfire will be back in action soon.
“Jeffrey was a pleasure to work with,” said Ramsey. “The new owner has had several go-fast boats. He’s a big aviation enthusiast, so the turbine-powered Hellfire Skater appealed to him.”
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