Brand X Making Rapid Progress On Dirty Money Racing Super Cat
Less than 30 days ago, Beau and Tiffiney Renfroe of Atlanta purchased a Skater Powerboats 388 catamaran, which began its life as the STIHL team raceboat, later became Gone Again and most recently flew the Justice League banner. As you’d expect, the cat had a layer of wrapped graphics from the Justice League team atop a healthy layer of paint from its original owner.
The transformation of a well-traveled raceboat into the new Dirty Money Racing Super Cat is well on its way.
Thanks to Jason Ventura and his crew at Pompano Beach, Fla.-based Brand X Hi-Performance Marine, who’ll share the cockpit with his longtime friend and client, Bill Pyburn, Jr., the 38-footer already looks like a completely different boat. The new paintjob will reflect that of Dirty Money, the Renfroe’s 2015 model-year 36-foot Skater pleasure cat that Brand X restored to perfection in 2018, while paying homage to the STIHL raceboat originally commissioned by the late J.R. Noble, the owner of the former Super Cat-class team.
“As soon as we started to pull off the wrap, I was like, ‘Beau, I can’t handle the Creamsicle orange up front,” Ventura said, then chuckled. “I said, ‘I am painting this whole boat.’”
Once the Renfroes and Ventura settled on the proper orange hue—the choice was between the Lamborghini and McLaren versions and the latter got the nod—the job went quickly. But before the first paint lines were applied, the Brand X team “air-filed” the entire boat.
“My guys can’t live with lines on a boat that aren’t straight,” Ventura quipped. “So they’ve done a lot of fiberglass work.”
Next up for the 38-footer is wet-sanding and buffing.
And before that, Ventura and company repaired some hullside damage sustained in a tangle with the Broadco raceboat several years ago.
“All we have now to do is wet-sand and buff,” Ventura said.
While Ventura and the Brand X team went to work on transforming the catamaran’s look, they also handled a fuel tank repair and expanded the cockpit for Pyburn and Ventura—Pyburn will drive and Ventura will throttle. The expansion required cutting out and replacing the catamaran’s dash. The next step is installing all-new AIS instruments and setting up the helm station.
Ventura said he expects to have a “complete boat” ready for the installation of its engines from Hameetman Racing Engines—commonly know in performance circles as HRE—in approximately two weeks.
If the current schedule holds, Dirty Money Racing will debut at the Race World Offshore-produced 7 Mile Grand Prix, April 28-30, in Marathon, Fla.
“They have all the parts now at HRE to build the engines,” he said. “Once they’re done, they’ll be sent here and we’ll install and rig them.”
Editor’s note: Look for another update on the Dirty Money Racing Super Cat-class Skater on speedonthewater.com when it goes into rigging.
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