Repower Move—MTI 340X Owner Goes Bigger With STR-Rigged 450R Outboards – Speed on the Water

You probably know a few diehard performance-boat enthusiasts who never miss a chance to get out on the water—their only occasional impediment to that goal is a pest called work. You may even be one of them.

But talk to Cliff Anderson, a 2019 MTI 340X catamaran owner with homes in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., and Coral Gables, Fla., for a few minutes and you’ll be rethinking your definition of “diehard.”

Cliff Anderson took delivery of his repowered MTI 340X catamaran during the first Fort Myers Offshore 2023/2024 season fun run in Southwest Florida. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

In just three seasons, Anderson has logged 458 operating hours in his 34-footer, which was originally powered by twin in-line six-cylinder Mercury Racing 400R outboard engines. Since owning the boat, he reckons he has missed just three Florida Powerboat Club poker runs. And when he doesn’t feel like hauling the MTI across the country to his Arizona home, he tackles the Parker Strip—Lake Moovalya in proper Colorado River parlance—in his 19-foot Eliminator Boats Daytona catamaran powered by a 1,200-hp engine.

“That’s a fun ride,” said Anderson, who currently is in Wentzville, Mo., the home of MTI, visiting his girlfriend.

After running his 340X at the Florida Powerboat Club Emerald Coast Poker Run in September, Anderson delivered the cat to Shaun Torrente Racing in Fort Myers, Fla., to be repowered with Mercury Racing 450R engines. The 2023 model-year engines previously owned by Michael Howe of Howe2Live YouTube channel fame came with 63 operating hours and are still under warranty.

Choosing Torrente’s outfit to handle the engine swap, plus several interior and exterior upgrades, was an easy call for Anderson. Torrente also falls under the heading of diehard performance-boat enthusiasts, and the two got acquainted during the 2022 MTI New Year’s Eve Fun to the Hawks Cay Resort in the Florida Keys.

“We hit it off right away,” Anderson recalled. “We ran all the way to Key West in his MTI 390X. Shaun even let me wheel his boat all over the Keys.”

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Enjoy more images of the repowered 34-footer.

STR’s Nick Imprescia described the repower work as “straightforward” as he and his fellow STR teammate Ian Morgan are certified Mercury Racing technicians. (Torrente’s company became an authorized Mercury Racing Dealer and Service Center in June.) In addition to replacing and re-rigging the engines, Imprescia and Morgan replaced all of the cat’s hinges and latches with anodized billet aluminum hardware from STR. They also touched up the boat’s paint where needed, and replaced the cockpit’s original SeaDek flooring with new orange-and-black SeaDek supplied by MTI.

“We delivered the boat to Cliff at the Fort Myers Offshore Boca Grande Fun Run in October and showed him Southwest Florida boating,” Imprescia said. “He hadn’t done any boating over here and he had a great time.”

Less than a month later, Anderson departed in the cat from Grove Harbour Marina with the Tuesday wave of the Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run. So far, he’s been thrilled his repower move.

“The boat ran pretty good with the 400R engines—I had the scoops on them and had the lower units blueprinted by Wilson Custom Marine,” he said. “But the 450s are a different ballgame with acceleration. I still had to ‘spool up’ with the 400s. Not with the 450s. And I picked up 13 mph on the top-end with the same 34-inch-pitch props.”

Of course, there are still about two weeks left in the 2023 boating season. And Anderson has one more event to tackle.

“I’m going to do the MTI New Year’s Eve Fun Run to the Florida Keys,” he said. “I can’t wait.”

Spoken like a true diehard.

With the Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run in the books, Anderson has one more event—the MTI New Year’s Eve Florida Keys Owners Run—this season. Photo by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos