An Outerlimits Rarity, Part 1—One Of Eight
No Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats model owner or Florida Powerboat Club member is more loyal than Octavio Valdivia of Georgia. The retired businessman has been a diehard supporters of both entities since 1993, the year that—quite coincidentally—they were founded.
Valdivia’s 48-foot catamaran is one of three built by the Rhode Island-based company.
But until he purchased a 2010 model-year, open-cockpit SC 48 catamaran dubbed Royal Flush earlier this year, Valdivia had only V-bottom creations, a 51-footer and before that a 47-footer, from the Bristol. R.I. builder.
Now that catamaran, one of eight 48-footers built by Outerlimits, is sitting at docks in front of Margaritaville on Lake Lanier in Northern Georgia, the host venue for today’s Pirates Of Lanier Charity Poker Run.
Said Valdivia of his first catamaran, “I love it. It’s beautiful.”
Built for well-known performance-boat owner Johnny O’Loughlin and sold not long after, the 48-footer spent most of its life in Turkey before returning stateside to Outerlimits last summer for service work. Dan Kleitz, the general manager of the company, brokered the sale from the boat’s former owner to Valdivia.
Valdivia in turn tasked the Outerlimits team to update it.
“The boat was all red and Octavio wanted to spice it up, so designed—with a lot of input from Octavio—and installed a new wrap created by our friends at Ad-Pro,” Kleitz recalled. “We updated the entire dash with all new electronics including two Garmin GPS units, the latest Mercury Marine VesselView monitor and an update JL Audio sound system. We also created a beautiful new cockpit carpet and cover.
“By the way, the 48 cats are animals in the bump,” he added.
Flanked by their friends Jorge and Frankie, Octavio, Karen and Luke Valdivia are looking forward to today’s outing in their rare Outerlimits catamaran.
The 48-footer is powered by pre-owned, refreshed Mercury Racing 1350 engines. Despite his extensive experience operating go-fast boats, the SC 48 is Valdivia’s first catamaran. So he took Shaun Torrente’s high-performance catamaran driving course.
“I learned a lot from Shaun—he’s a very good man,” he said. “He also is very a good and knowledgeable instructor.”
Twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines power the 48-cat.
Valdivia, and his wife, Karen, own a second home in Pensacola, where they currently spend most of their time. The SC 48 will live there. Their son, Luke, as well as a couple of dear friends with join them in today’s event on Lake Lanier. Next up for the family is the Florida Powerboat Club Emerald Coast Powerboat and Key West Poker Run events.
Valdivia’s review of his new prize is simple.
“I love it,” he said. “It’s beautiful.
“And it handles the waves really well,” he added, then smiled.
The 48-footer was one of the first boats to arrive at the docks ahead of this weekend’s Lake Lanier Charity Poker Run.
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