Quick Take—On Board The Performance Powerboats P-280 With Myrick Coil
In 30-plus years of covering the high-performance powerboat world, I’ve taken all of two rides in single-engine-powered catamarans. And the experiences couldn’t haven’t been more different.
The first such ride came in the early 2000s when Bob Teague and I—then working for Powerboat magazine—ran a 25-foot Eliminator Daytona cat powered by a 1,400-plus-hp monster stern-drive engine to 144 mph on the Colorado River in Arizona. It was 30 seconds of sheer terror I will never repeat.
The first Performance Powerboats P-280 catamaran is a single-outboard blast.
The second one? That happened today with Performance Boat Center’s Myrick Coil in a Mercury Racing 300R outboard-engine-equipped Performance Powerboats P-280 cat at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. Coil piloted the 28-foot cat to 100 mph. which for the record has reached 108 mph. It was an experience I would be delighted to repeat later today or even tomorrow as I’m in town this weekend for the annual Spring Fun Run based out of the dealership’s Osage Beach, Mo., headquarters.
“It’s a little hot-rod,” Coil explained as we scooted along at 80 mph. “I think for the Lake of the Ozarks, which gets pretty rough, the P-280 would be a great second boat, something you would take for a blast during the week or in the early morning on a weekend.
“I think it would be a great Lake Havasu boat,” he added.
Part owner in the Performance Powerboats catamaran line, Coil believes the 28-footer will sell well in smooth-water locations.
The interior for the 28-footer is not complete—the first one will have four bucket seats—so I cannot comment on its finish or comfort. But from the very basics of performance, the P-280 rolled on plane with minimal throttle input and felt incredibly connected at low and high speed. Cruising happily at 50 mph, it got a little more than 3 miles per gallon.
The lake was pretty quiet when Coil I ran the cat, so the big cruiser wakes and confused water for which the Lake of the Ozarks is notorious were blissfully absent. We did manage to find a few lumps and chop and we certainly felt them, yet the jarring was nothing extraordinary for a small catamaran.
But the coolest aspect of the cat’s performance, at least from my still-unpadded bucket seat, was its handling. The P-280 tracks cleanly and turns exceptionally flat, a handling characteristic not often associated with single-engine cats.
From any angle, the P-280 is a great-looking boat.
It wasn’t always that way. In fact, when the boat’s 450R outboard was equipped with a standard lower unit it “constantly pulled to one side,” according to Coil.
“So I called (set-up expert) Michael Griffiths at Mercury Racing and he asked, ‘Are you using the lower unit with the cambered skeg? That’s what you need.’ We replaced the original lower with one of those. Now it’s perfect.”
The lower-unit swap likely won’t be necessary for the second P-280, which will be outfitted with twin Mercury Racing 300R outboards. That cat is going to a buyer who splits time on waterways in Arizona and Oklahoma. Soon enough, Lake Havasu performance-boat fans will get to see it in action on the Colorado River-fed lake.
“I think it’s going to attract a lot of interest out there,” said Coil.
So do I, but then I’ve only experienced two single-engine catamarans.
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