Quick Take—Digging The Waves And Wheels Edition Doug Wright 39 Carbon Cat

Between the yellow pollen in the air and the gusty winds transporting it everywhere at no charge, yesterday was not ideal for a go-fast powerboat ride on the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri. My eyes are still itchy and swollen, though the three-peat sneezing fits are gone.

Justin Wagner of Waves And Wheels treated the author to an afternoon on the water is his impeccable 39-footer.

But if Justin Wagner of Waves And Wheels pulled up to the docks in front of Ron Szolack’s stunning waterfront home (for sale, go figure) right now and asked me to take another blast in his Waves And Wheels Edition Doug Wright 39 Carbon catamaran, I’d do it. A couple of blasts of Visine and a Claritin tablet and I’d be gone.

Because that’s how fun the 39-footer powered by twin Mercury Racing 500R outboard engines is, even when conditions are too blustery to run past 100 mph. Of course, the cat is capable of running a good 30 mph faster, but Wagner is a conservative operator with nothing to prove.

And I don’t ride with powerboat drivers who have anything to prove.

Captured here in Key West, Fla., the Waves And Wheels Edition Doug Wright 39 Carbon catamaran runs remarkably level. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

Though we scratched 100 mph a couple of times, we ran mostly at 75 to 85 mph. With neutral trim, the cat started and stayed on plane—it had no bow-rise. A blip of the throttle was all it took to accelerate from 60 mph to 80 mph.

Worth keeping in mind? The last boat I rode in was Szolack’s 48-foot MTI catamaran six days ago. The cat’s twin 1,350-hp turbocharged stern-drive engines delivered instant wallop all the way up to 150 mph.

Point being, it wasn’t going to be easy for the acceleration of an outboard-powered cat to get my attention. But the 39-foot Doug Wright cat did.

Yet what I appreciated most was how flat the 39-footer ran in straight lines and sweeping turns. The catamaran didn’t have a “porpoise speed” like so many of the cats of old. it started level and it stayed level. That quality, combined with the boat’s flat deck translated to excellent forward visibility.

“It’s happy at every speed,” Wagner said, then grinned. “And it eats up rough water.”

Details details.

He wasn’t wrong.

Wagner and the Waves And Wheels crew have been rigging, painting and installing interiors in-house for Doug Wright cats at his Osage Beach, Mo., shop for a few years now, and they have it wired. The 39-footer that carried us to lunch at Franky and Louie’s was, minus the yellow pollen, immaculate. Every locker in the cockpit, for example, was finished with Seadek.

The helm station was set up with a large Garmin GPS unit, complete with super-easy-to-read, customized Eye Candy interface that put everything an operator needs to know at a glance in the center of the dash. Two smaller Garmin screens flanked the larger one, and Mercury Marine Vessel View monitor was mounted in the podium ahead of the throttles and shifters.

My favorite detail of the catamaran’s eight-seat interior was a small one, but something other folks with long, wide feet will appreciate. The molded, Seadek-surfaced step between the four rear bucket seats was extra wide and plenty long. So entering the cockpit from the transom won’t be a sketchy tight-rope act for people with big tootsies.

A man in motion with a slew of cool things ahead of him, Wagner had to get back to work after lunch. A few more blasts on the lake later he dropped me back at the docks behind Szolack’s swanky pad, which has been my home since last Thursday. I’ll roll out for St. Louis today for the wedding of Kendall Helmkamp, the daughter of speedonthewater.com contributing photographer Jeff Helmkamp, on Saturday. Then it’s back to Southwest Florida for a week or so.

I’ve had a remarkable eight-day stay at the Lake of the Ozarks, maybe best one since I started coming here a few decades ago. But today’s lunch run with a cherished friend in his 39-foot demo cat?

What a way to finiish.