Nor-Tech At 35—How Salty Wife Inspired The 500 Sport Center Console

Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats co-founder and designer Nils Johnsen doesn’t need outside inspiration to create striking new models for the Cape Coral, Fla., company. The guy is endlessly creative, as models from the 80 Roadster and Coupe sport yachts to the Monte Carlo and Flyer series of elegant day-boats, plus a slew of high-performance catamarans and V-bottoms, have proven during the past 35 years.

During the Fort Myers Offshore lunch run to Three Fisherman restaurant earlier this month, the Neumanns hosted a group of employees. Photo by Eily Perez copyright EP Pro Media.

But Stephanie and Jesse Neumann, know what they want, and they wanted to step up to something larger than their 450 Sport center console dubbed Salty Wife named for Stephanie’s overall mood during a Bahamas trip on a 390 Sport. The current 56-footer in Nor-Tech’s existing center console line was more than they needed, so they tasked the builder—via Johnsen’s vision of course—to create a 50-footer.

So just in time for the 2021 Florida Powerboat Club Miami Boat Show Poker Run, the first 500 Sport powered by five Mercury Racing 450R outboard engines—named DIRTy Money for the couple’s excavation business in Minnesota—was born. Stephen Miles of Stephen Miles Design in Owensboro, Ky., handled the 50-footer’s beautiful paintjob.

The Neumanns took the first Nor-Tech 500 Sport to the Bahamas.

By 2023, the Neumanns were ready for another 500 Sport center console. Their timing was perfect—at least for Jesse, who enjoys big power—as Mercury Racing had released its 500R outboard that June. And one June later, they took possession the 2025 model-year DIRTy Money 50-footer equipped with quint 500s. This time around, Mark Morris of Visual Imagination in Peculiar, Mo., handled the paintwork.

Developing the 50-footer paid off, and not just for the couple that drove its release. Next month, Nor-Tech will deliver 500 Sport center console No. 14.

Proof positive that sometimes a little outside inspiration leads to great things.