LATE FEE$ X3 Skater Repower A Collaborative Effort
The Tickfaw 200 outside of New Orleans never lacks for high-quality catamaran hardware, and set for May 2-4 this year’s poker run on the Louisiana Bayou will be no exception. No less than two Pure Platinum Series Skater Powerboats 388 cats powered by Mercury Racing 1100 engines—one owned by Ross Ramsey of Texas-based RP Elite Motors and Marine—and another owned by Mike and Angela Goldbaugh of Alabama will be in the Tickfaw mix.
Performance Boat Center outfitted LATE FEE$ X3—the Skater 388 catamaran owned by Mike and Angela Goldbaugh—with new Mercury Racing 1100 engines supplied by RP Elite Motors and Marine.
But the connection doesn’t end there. Ramsey recently sold Goldbaugh a pair of new turbocharged 1,100-hp quad-cam four-valve mills from the Fond du Lac, Wis., high-performance marine engine and accessory company. Goldbaugh then tasked Performance Boat Center—a certified Mercury Racing/Mercury Marine dealer in Osage Beach, Mo.—to replace the 38-footer’s original 1100s, which had been having mechanical issues.
“We wanted something that was going to be 100-percent reliable for poker runs this season,” said Goldbaugh, who is headed to the MTI Owners Run to the Florida Keys with his friend, Mark Godsey, in his 390X catamaran later this week. “We decided to get a hold of something brand new, and now we have fresh power with two-year warranties.”
Goldbaugh and his wife, Angela, bought a Ford F-450 truck from RP Elite Motors and Marine a little more than a year ago and got to know Ramsey in the process.
“We were more than happy to help in getting new 1100 engines into their beautiful Skater,” Ramsey said. “Justice Trokey at Performance Boat Center helped me arrange shipping the engines and did the installation and rigging. As always, he was a pleasure to work with.”
Said Mike Goldbaugh, “Now we have fresh power with two-year warranties.”
The Performance Boat Center team was delighted to tackle the project, according Brett Manire, the multi-brand full-service dealership’s co-owner.
“Mike and Angela have been customers—loyal customers at that—forever,” Manire explained. “We had a set of engines on order for them but they found some in stock. We were happy to help them get on the water sooner.
“Spring is here and I’ll bet they end up with a place of their own at the Lake of the Ozarks soon,” he added, then chuckled.
Following the Tickfaw 200 Poker Run, Goldbaugh plans to run the repowered catamaran in the Kuttawa Cannonball Run, May 31-June, in Kentucky.
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