Skater At 50—Plan 32B
For their entire go-fast-boating lives, Tim and Cyndee Hill of Southwest Florida have owned V-bottoms. Their last three boats have been Sunsation 32 CCX center consoles, and they enjoyed every one of them.
South Florida boaters Tim and Cyndee Hill have their first catamaran—and it’s a 24-year-old beauty from Skater Powerboats in Douglas, Mich. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix
But like all fans of speed on the water, the Hills wanted to go faster. So last spring, they bought a model-year 2000 Skater 32B catamaran powered by a pair of six-cylinder Mercury Racing 400R outboard engines through Tim Gallagher at Performance Boat Center of Fort Lauderdale in South Florida.
“We have been running V-bottoms for the last 15 years and we were getting kind of tired at being at the back of the pack,” said Tim Hill, who is the president of Fort Myers Offshore. “We just wanted something fast and, most importantly, safe. As prices have skyrocketed on catamarans, we thought one would probably be out of our range. But we found the 32B at Performance at the right price and I told Tim Gallagher, ‘If I see triple digits, we’re sold.’ And we did that on the first rip.
“We also go to lunch on our own and the Skater, being faster, expands our options,” he added. “We can be in Key West, for example, in an hour-and-half where in our other boats it took three hours.”
The dashboard update was as significant as it was necessary.
Cyndee Hill, a board member of the nonprofit Fort Myers Offshore group, was along for the ride.
“I wanted to go for another rip after that,” she said, then laughed. “I gave Tim the green light, but not because of that. This is our first cat and I knew it was safe. This is the only cat I’ve ever felt completely safe in.”
In just one ride, the couple was sold on the 32-footer.
Originally built for offshore racer Russ Wilkens, the 32-footer eventually ended up with well-known performance boat enthusiast and devoted Skater-man Bill Munyan, also of Southwest Florida. Munyan, in turn, put the boat on consignment with Performance Boat Center and Hill purchased it.
The Hills have spent the last six months restoring the catamaran, which had been repowered with the 400-hp outboards mounted on hydraulic jack-plates for Porta Products before they bought it. Updates under their ownership have included new MarineMat flooring in the cockpit and on the cat’s transom, reconfiguring the carbon fiber dash to accept a 12-inch Garmin GPS unit and two Mercury VesselView monitors and adding a stereo with Fusion and JL Audio components.
Viewed from any angle, the 32B Skater is a classic beauty.
But the most significant upgrade the Hills made to the cat was adding a full-wraparound windshield custom-fabricated by Performance Acrylics of Ohio.
“The windshield was a game-changer,” said Hill. “Before we added it, we would have to wear headsets to communicate and goggles to see because the wind was so bad. Now, we don’t need any of that. Plus, like the MarineMat, adding the wrap-around windshield updated the look of the boat. It’s 24 years old and nobody can believe it.
“Cyndee and I could not have done this transformation without the help of many Skater-owning Fort Myers offshore members,” he continued. “Don Gardner helped with the template and installation of the windshield. Eric Breckenfelder lent us shop space to store and work on the boat, as did Dan Johnson. Bill Forenski’s crew at WMF Watercraft and Marine helped us with some electrical gremlins and set-up as well.”
The Hills debuted the 32-footer during the invitational Outboard Skater Fun Run earlier this month in Sarasota, Fla. As previously reported, Skater founder Peter Hledin and national sales manager Tony Cutsuries participated in the event. On the return leg of the lunch run to the Sarasota Hyatt host venue, Hledin took the wheel of the Hill’s 32B with Erik Breckenfelder handing the throttles.
The Hills debuted their updated 32-footer at the invitational Outboard Skater Fun Run organized by Ron Muller of Electronics Unlimited.
“The boat performed absolutely flawlessly,” said Tim Hill. “And having Peter drive it back was one of the highlights of our day.”
Next up for the Hills and their Skater is the Fort Myers Offshore Tiki Run to the Riviera Bar and Grill presented by Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats. For the summer, the couple will haul the boat to lake house they recently purchased in Indiana.
“We may do a couple of poker runs in the Northeast this summer,” said Tim Hill. “When we come back down south, we’re also planning to the Pirates of Lanier Poker Run in Georgia with the Gardners, who are bringing their 36-footer Skater.”
Skater’s Peter Hledin took a break from piloting Tim and Cyndee Hill’s 32B catamaran to let photographer Pete Boden know he’s No. 1.
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