A Blast On The Bay—Meet The First Twin-Outboard 27HZ
Julian Maldonado, who co-owns Manatee Marine Unlimited in Palmetto, Fla., with Sara Langheim, could be the least outspoken gentleman in the high-performance marine industry. He’s much the same in the offshore racing world, where most recently he throttled the Jackhammer racing team boat with Langheim’s husband, Reese, behind the wheel to the 2024 Super Stock-class world championship.
But it would be mistake—and a big one at that—to take his cool, reserved nature and presence as a lack of competitive fire. Those flames burn hot within him. In business and racing, Maldonado is out to win.
Just mess around, as the sanitized expression goes, and find out.
In his search for an out-of-the-ordinary brand of center consoles and more, Maldonado has cultivated a dealer relationship with Abu Dhabi-based Hayaari Marine, best-known simply as H-Craft in the United States. Manatee Marine Unlimited is the exclusive U.S. dealer for the brand.
In November 2024, a Manatee Marine-rigged H34 center console with triple Mercury Racing V-10 400R outboards on the transom topped 94 mph with Maldonado at the helm. Of course, that’s where anyone other than a professional should run it, much less with passengers on board. Nonetheless, the number was impressive.
Now Maldonado has another hot-rod on his hands as the dealership has rigged and tested the first 27HZ bay boat with twin Mercury Racing 300R engines.
Adding power isn’t always about speed, and that wasn’t the point of the twin-outboard-engine exercise. For the moment at least, Maldonado is keeping that performance-metric under wraps. It’s simply not his focus.
“It’s a family-oriented boat,” he emphasized. “But it did run 75 mph in 2- to 3-footers yesterday and it handled them really well.
“We usually offer these with a single outboard,” he continued. “But we wanted to try one with twins, and the boat is much better balanced and stable, and handles better with them.”
Then Maldonado stopped talking and smiled. True to form, he’d said enough.—Matt Trulio
COMMENTS
Source: https://www.powerboatnation.com/a-blast-on-the-bay-meet-the-first-twin-outboard-h27/
