Skater At 50—The Shootout Legend Dial 911 Is Up For Grabs

When discussing the fastest Skater Powerboats catamarans to ever run down a top-speed shootout course, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with one that’s had more success or logged more time on the country’s one-mile—now three-quarter-mile—courses than the 2010 Skater 388 that was built for Southern California speed freak Chip Romer.

The radical Dial 911 Skater 388 is for sale at Maxed Out Marine. Photo by Tom Leigh/Tommy Gun Images.

The 38-footer, which was later owned by performance boat enthusiast Don London and more recently owned and campaigned with success at recent Desert Storm Poker Run Shootouts by husband and wife Tim and Miranda Jones, is now for sale. Yep, the famous Dial 911 catamaran that took home both the King of the Desert and Queen of the Desert awards at this year’s well-known poker run and shootout on Lake Havasu is currently offered at Maxed Out Marine in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., for a cool $599,995.

Featuring the twin turbo motors connected to Velvet drive 72-LHP transmissions and Mercury Racing M6 drives, the 38-footer is equipped with a dual-helm steering, Livorsi Marine gauges, Latham Marine throttles, In-control foot throttle, heads-up trim indicators, a Garmin 5212 display and a six-person head set system. It also comes with a cockpit cover and its Douglas Marine-constructed tilt trailer.

When it comes to speed on the water, there is a time and place for everything. But we can always slow down. Photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples Image.

Starting from the first year Romer entered the Skater 388 in the 2010 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri and reached a blazing-fast 186 mph on the then-one-mile course in the 38-footer powered by twin turbocharged engines from Brummett Engines in Pasadena, Calif., the boat was a threat to challenge all comers in top-speed competition. In fact, in its very first event, Romer and TNT Custom Marine’s John Tomlinson ran the Skater to the second-fastest top speed—157 mph—at the 2010 Desert Storm shootout behind the 175-mph speed Jeff Stevenson recorded in his turbine-powered 50-foot JBS Mystic Powerboats catamaran, which was redone as Low Altitude a few years later.

While the boat has made a couple of appearances at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout—Summer Richardson, Don London’s daughter who won the 2018 Queen of the Desert award the same day her father won King of the Desert, ran 153 mph down the three-quarter-mile course in 2016—most of its accolades have been collected at the Desert Storm event.

London won the 2013 title in Lake Havasu City with a 180-mph pass (above) on the then-one-mile course and took home the honors in 2018 with a 185-mph top speed on the three-quarter-mile course before selling the Skater to the Jones family, who has proceeded to compete in the event every year since 2021.

In her first year running the 38-foot cat powered by twin 2,000-plus-hp turbocharged motors built by engine wizard Carson Brummett, Miranda Jones, who went 128 mph at the 2019 event in her former 40-foot Skater, won the 2021 Queen of the Desert honors with a 174.5-mph pass. The following year she did the same, winning with a 183.4-mph top speed, while fellow Skater owner Gary Smith won King of the Desert with a 184.8-mph in his 40-footer also powered by Brummett Marine engines.

Tim and Miranda Jones have kept the shootout tradition by running the 38-foot Skater and collecting several Desert Storm Poker Run top-speed titles. Photo by Jeff Helmkamp/Helmkamp Photos.

In 2023, Smith and his soon-to-be-wife, Patty Rich, ran Smith’s Predator III Skater to the King and Queen titles. The same event saw the return of Romer, who reached 195.4 mph in his new Cervesa Skater.

And earlier this year, after the radar guns were deemed to be incorrectly calibrated, Tim Jones collected the top honors with a GPS-verified 190.5-mph pass in Dial 911 and the couple’s daughter, Amanda Jones, earned the 2024 Queen of the Desert title with a GPS-verified 178-mph top speed.

“It was (Amada’s) first run ever in the Shootout, and her first Queen of the Desert win,” a proud Miranda Jones said after the event.

While Amanda Jones isn’t likely to win another Queen of the Desert title—assuming the boat sells before the 2025 event—the Jones family (like the other owners before them) is sure to support whoever owns Dial 911 next.