MTI Celebrating Silver Anniversary All Year
In 2004, Powerboat magazine assigned me a profile story of an up-and-coming boat builder. His name was Randy Scism, his Missouri-based company was called Marine Technology, Inc., and it offered one boat, a 42-foot catamaran with sexy hips. A lifelong lover of speed on the water, Scism learned his craft as the general manager and throttleman for the Class 1, Dubai-based Victory team during the mid 1980s through the late 1990s.
Earlier this week, MTI founder Randy Scism (right) sat down with Rick Pierce of Bass Cat Boats for a new Mercury Racing-backed, Speed On The Water-produced video series that will begin airing in March. Photo by Brad DiMaggio copyright Scrapyard Media.
Though I had written profiles of industry notables including Formula Boats founder/patriarch Vic Porter, Skater Powerboats genius Peter Hledin and the endlessly creative Michael McLeod of McLeod Design Group, I’d never met—much less interviewed for three days during an offshore race weekend in Orange Beach, Ala.—anyone like Scism. He was humble though confident, soft-spoken but direct, smart yet not intimidating. To say I knew he would succeed long-term while creating a groundbreaking line of high-performance sterndrive- and outboard-powered catamarans and outboard-equipped center consoles, would be an exaggeration.
But I had a hunch.
Known now to most performance boat fans simply as MTI, the Wentzville-headquartered company is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Scism reminded me of this fact earlier this week during a shoot for all-new, exclusively Mercury Racing videos in Fond du Lac, Wis., the first episode of which will air in March.
“We’ve enjoyed a great partnership with Mercury Racing for all 25 years we’ve been in business,” he said. “And here’s to another 25 more.”
So where’s the party? All over the place, really, from the Lake of the Ozarks to the Florida Keys.
“We will be celebrating throughout 2023 with customers, the MTI team and our vendors at various events around the country,” said Taylor Scism, the company’s customer relations and marketing manager.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of MTI, speedonthewater.com is launching a weekly article series chronicling many of the company’s best-known creations. Look for the first story to appear on February 1. The series will run throughout 2023.
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