Skater At 50—An Elite 368

Walking the docks at Antelope Point Marina in Page, Ariz., early last Friday morning at the 13th annual Lake Powell Challenge, I spied a familiar Skater Powerboats catamaran. And yet, for a brief before-coffee moment, I couldn’t quite place it. Then the nickel dropped.

Though he didn’t capture it in action, Lake Powell event-photographer Tom Leigh grabbed a fine image of the RP Elite Series Skater 368 catamaran at the Antelope Point Marina docks. Photo copyright Tommy Gun Images

It was the first RP Elite Series Skater 368 cat powered by 1,100-hp Mercury Racing engines. Skater dealer Ross Ramsey thought he was building the 36-footer as a demo, but then a buyer made him an offer too good to refuse and he sold it. Selling boats is—after all—the point of building demo models. That the cat sold before Ramsey, the owner of RP Elite Motors & Marine in Springtown, Texas, ever had a chance to put a minute on its turbocharged engines was good news.

But then, as the coffee began to work its magic, another nickel dropped. The RP Elite Series 368 is the property of longtime Skater-man Jim Mellor of Utah. Lake Powell is his home-water, so of course he was running the cat in the Lake Powell Challenge.

Even in images taken by a truly amateur photographer, the 36-footer looked impressive. Photos by Matt Trulio

I saw the boat in action just once during the weekend when it roared by me on the lake as I rode in a DCB M37R Widebody catamaran. By the time I lifted my phone to take a picture, the 36-footer was gone.

That’s OK, I’llI see it running it again soon at the upcoming Skaterfest event Ramsey and his team are producing at Lake Texoma and I won’t even bother to lift my phone. A real photograher, speedonthewater.com chief shooter Pete Boden, a Skater fan in his own right, will be handling those images.