Skater At 50—Thinking Outboard The Box

Let’s get this out of way before the anti-outboard-engine mob loses its collective mind: With 900 hp worth of outboard engines, a Skater Powerboats 388 catamaran is underpowered for top speed and snappy acceleration. The current favorite power-package for the 38-footer is twin 1,100-hp turbocharged engines from Mercury Racing. A Skater 388 with twin 1100s is wickedly quick and fast. Its 900-hp outboard equivalent is docile, maybe even a little sleepy, by comparison.

But as Steve Bareman knows, there’s more to performance than top speed and reaching it quickly. Bareman was more concerned about owning a catamaran that could handle his often-evil home-waters of Lake Michigan. As the former owner of a 40-foot catamaran with finicky supercharged monster engines each north of 1,000 hp, he also wanted more reliable power with lower costs of ownership.

So in early 2022 he took delivery of a Skater 388 cat he ordered with twin Mercury Racing 450R V-8 outboard engines from the Douglas, Mich., builder. It was the first 38-footer to be built with outboards.

Between West Michigan Offshore events and the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout week, he logged 65 operating hours during the 2022 season—including 10 hours, some 450 miles worth, on the Central Missouri waterway. And he enjoyed every second of it, just as he enjoyed being deeply involved in the entire build process.

“We had a ball this season,” Bareman said. “The outboards are so easy, especially coming from high-maintenance blower motors. You just hit the buttons and go.

“We always have rough water on Lake Michigan—even when it’s ‘flat,’ there’s usually one foot of chop on it—and we needed something that could handle it,” he added. “The boat works perfectly for what I wanted to do. And it had no trouble at the Lake of the Ozarks. The boat just ate it up.”

Bareman’s cat a is one of one. High-performance powerboat horse-trader Ron Szolack has a 2025 model-year Skater 388 powered by Mercury Racing 500R outboards listed for sale at Performance Boat Center.

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