Invitational Outboard Skater Fun Run On Tap This Weekend

Starting tomorrow, the waters of Sarasota Bay and beyond will teem with Skater Powerboats catamarans of the outboard kind as the Invitational Skater Outboard Fun Run returns to Southwest Florida for its fifth consecutive year. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Electronics Unlimited company owner Ron Muller—who is currently boat-less having sold his Skater 308 cat to friend Shane Mahieu of Upstate New York but has a 368 model in production—organizes the annual event with New Jersey’s Chris LaMorte.

The Invitational Outboard Skater Fun Run celebrates the roots of the legendary catamaran brand. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

The smallest outboard cats in the 13-boat mix are two 24-footers. The largest is a 36-footer owned by Michigan’s Brandon Burgess.

Speedonthewater.com chief photographer Pete Boden is returning to capture the Friday and Saturday action from a helicopter. Friday’s outing will see the fleet run to St. Petersburg for lunch at Doc Ford’s Rum Bar and Grille in St. Petersburg. On Saturday, the group will travel to Riviera Dunes Dockside restaurant in Palmetto.

A first for the event, a dinner at the Sarasota Hyatt—the event’s home base—is set for Friday night.

“Everybody is excited about this year’s event,” said LaMorte. “It should be a great time.”

The Outboard Skater Fun Run Class of 2024.

Skater cat owners in town today took advantage of cool temperatures in the mid-70s and flat water on Sarasota Bay for an 22-roundtrip mile lunch outing from the Sarasota Hyatt to Shore Restaurant. Of the seven boats that made the run, just one—LaMorte’s 36-footer powered by Mercury Racing 700 SCi engines—was the exception to the outboard-power rule. And it wasn’t in the mix because LaMorte is an organizer.

There simply weren’t enough seats in the six outboard cats to accommodate the folks in town for the event. Thanks to the seating shortage, LaMorte has received something akin to a special dispensation to run the 36-footer in the Friday and Saturday lunch outings.

LaMorte, who throttled while Muller drove as the latter has his first new stern-drive Skater 368 cat in the works, took Skater company founder/owner Peter Hledin, Muller’s wife, Dawn, and a reporter to the lunch spot. LaMorte’s former outboard-powered 28-footer is the current property of Texan Jimmy Speros, who s already in town with his that self-renovated cat.

Today’s 22-mile roundtrip lunch run for early birds in Sarasota for the weekend event attracted six outboard cats and one with inboard power. Photos by Matt Trulio.

That begged a question: Will stern-drive Skater catamaran owners eventually be allowed in the event?

“We’re considering something like that, sort of an Invitational Skater Fun Run South, for next year,” he said. “But it will be limited to 15 boats, max. Will still want to keep the group small and intimate.”