First RP Elite Series Skater 368 Going To Utah-Based Owner – Speed on the Water

A longtime Skater Powerboats fan who has owned several 36- and 38-foot catamarans from the Douglas, Mich., builder, Jim Mellor will take delivery of RP Elite 368 Series model No. 1 in early 2024. Mellor, who lives in Utah and does most of his boating on Lake Powell out of Antelope Point Marina and Lake Havasu in Arizona, learned about the Mercury Racing 1100 engine-powered 36-footer through media coverage and reached out to Skater national sales manager Tony Cutsuries.

Sold before it could become a demo boat, the first RP Elite Series 368 catamaran from Skater Powerboats is going to a longtime Skater owner in Utah.

“The 368 I was having built at Skater was going to be a while,” Mellor said. “So I asked Tony about the first one Ross Ramsey (the owner of Texas-based Skater dealer RP Elite Motors and Marine) was building and pretty soon we had a deal.”

Though Ramsey had planned to use the 36-footer throughout next summer as a demo boat for the RP Elite Series—models No. 2 and No. 3 will be 388s with 1100s—selling hull No. 1 made more sense. As part of the deal, Ramsey took Mellor’s under-construction 368 and it, too, will be finished as an RP Elite Series offering No. 4.

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The first RP Elite Series Skater should be delivered in early 2024.

“We’re not going to have a demo boat, but my wife and I are boaters so we’re going to find a nice used Skater for the season and we will have it in time for the Tickfaw 200 Poker Run, where we had planned debut the first RP Elite 368,” he said. “The second RP Elite build, the 388 should be finished around May.”

As for Mellor’s new prize, it currently is in rigging and should be complete by March.

“We always do the Desert Storm Poker Run, so it better be ready in time for that,” he said, then chuckled. “We’re also planning on taking it to the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. And we’ll probably run it in the Skaterfest event Ross is planning to have on Lake Texoma in October.”