Mattinglys Get Two-For-One With Center Console/Catamaran Trade
The go-fast boating world is full of folks who don’t hang onto anything all that long, but Chris Mattingly and his wife, Shelby, the national sales and marketing manager for speedonthewater.com, may have set a new record last week. The Mattinglys, who live in Kentucky but have a second home in Southwest Florida, had a new Midnight Express 43 Solstice center console with five Mercury Racing 500R outboard engines ready to pick up in Miami.
The Mattinglys are now the proud owners of two Skater-built cats, including this 46-footer.
But they never did. Instead, they are now the proud owners of 46- and 40-foot catamarans built by Skater Powerboats of Douglas, Mich.
The story boils down to available time on the water. The Mattinglys planned to keep the center console at their Florida residence. But about a year ago, they purchased a drag strip near their home in Elizabethtown, Ky., and running that business has cut into their boating time.
“I reached out to Midnight and told Harris (Glaser) I was going to sell it right away,” Chris Mattingly explained. “I didn’t just want it sitting there in Florida not getting used. He told me a guy who wanted a 43 Midnight had just come in and had two boats to trade as part of the deal.”
Now the Mattinglys have a 2004 Skater 46 pleasure catamaran powered by 1,200-hp Sterling Performance engines, as well as a canopied 40-foot raceboat, which Skater built for then-client Platinum Boats in 2002 and powered by Mercury Racing 1200s, at the disposal.
Built by Skater for Platinum, this 40-footer originally was a raceboat.
“I was very upset at first—you know how I love my Midnights,” Shelby Mattingly said, then laughed. “But we are going to be at the track a lot more this year as we have a new manager and we need to show him how we like things to run.
“We’ll probably get something new next year,” she added, then sighed.
Chris and Shelby Mattingly didn’t envision using their new Midnight Express much this season so they let the new 43-footer go.
Shelby Mattingly is not, for the record, much of a catamaran fan. But her husband has hopes she will become one by the time the Kuttawa Cannonball Run, set for May 31-June 2, rolls around.
“Maybe she’ll like riding in the canopied cat a little more,” he mused. “I’m thinking of taking that one to Kuttawa.”
But that will only happen if they don’t sell one or both of them first.
“I’m not opposed to that,” Chris Mattingly said, then chuckled.
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