Now And Then—Revisiting The Mystic C4000 Catamaran – Speed on the Water
Once the hottest offering in the Mercury Racing outboard engine line, the six-cylinder 400R is extinct. Its V-10 replacement, which debuted in February, is already proving to be a superior replacement for its lower displacement predecessor. Plus, the stout V-10 platform hints at bigger things to come—at least if you can take a hint.
With a new deck, a carbon-fiber layup and Mercury Racing 500R outboard engines, the second generation C4000 catamaran from Mystic Powerboats is a head-turner that delivers and exhilarating ride.
But in 2018, a pair of the 400-hp supercharged V-6 outboard was the power package of choice for the blossoming sport cat market. And that gave my speedonthewater.com partner Jason Johnson and I an idea: Round up a half-dozen 400R-powered sport cats from builders across the country, bring in elite test drivers to run them head to head and publish the results in our digital magazine.
So we enlisted Grant Bruggemann of Grant’s Signature Racing, Shaun Torrente of Shaun Torrente Racing and Bob Teague of Teague Custom Marine and held the roundup at the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri that summer.
All but one of the sport catamarans, the C3800 from Mystic Powerboats of DeLand, Fla., was no longer than 36 feet. But the Mystic cat was every bit of 38 feet long and change.
On the plus side, the Mystic boasted the most plush, versatile and spacious interior of the lot. A six-person group could spend a full day on the boat and not feel crowded.
On the not-so-plus side, the cat lacked punch with the 400-hp outboards. Or in the more-positive words of one of our test team members, “All it needs to come alive is more power.”
Mystic’s Ryan Zivitski (above) and Greg Weber treated four lucky passengers to a sunset demo ride in the 40-footer.
The 40-footer received a swift kick in the transom, so to speak, when Mercury Racing released 450R outboard model a few years later. Twin 450Rs added spirit to the cat, since renamed the C4000, and it became fun to drive.
In June, Mercury Racing unveiled its V-8 500R outboard, and as good fortune had it Mystic released the second generation of the C4000 earlier in the year. The company went with an all-carbon-fiber lamination schedule and a new deck, which has a flatter and sleeker profile than the original.
Of course, Mystic had second-generation C4000 powered by a pair of 500R outboards at the Westin Cape Coral Resort docks for its annual Owners Rendezvous and Demo Day in Southwest Florida. So when a couple of participants asked Mystic general manager Ryan Zivitski and national sales manager Greg Weber to take them for a ride, high-performance marine insurance man Devin Wozencraft and I invited ourselves to join them.
Every seat in the open-cockpit boat provided exceptional wind protection.
We didn’t run for top speed as the Mystic team is still fine-tuning the boat-and-power combo, and neither Weber nor Zivitski wanted to go there. But from top to bottom, acceleration was wicked-good fun. While the first V-6-powered cat had come plane at a glacial pace, the updated V-8-powered version popped on plane— with zero bow-rise—when Zivitski blipped the throttles. The boat continued to pull hard throughout the operating range of the 500-hp engines.
When Zivitski cranked the steering wheel for a sweeping turn at 80 mph a bit later, the C4000 carved with an inward lean. It didn’t feel like a 40-foot catamaran. It felt like an aquatic go-kart making short work of one-foot chop.
Wind protection for passengers was as good as it gets in an open-cockpit sport cat. I sat in the starboard bucket aft of the copilot’s seat and was able leave my hat on the entire time. The same applied to Wozencraft—and he was sitting on the rear bench.
The Mystic C4000 has come a long way from hull No. 1. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
With daylight fading, we headed back to the docks. But I recalled the words of one of our test drivers almost six years earlier after he tested the first outboard engine-powered Mystic catamaran.
All it needs to come alive is more power.
Combined with the changes Mystic made to the C4000, it turns out there they were right.
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