Skater At 50—The Turner Up 46

Always up for an adventure, Rob and Kerri Turner of Sandusky, Ohio, didn’t just enjoy the 2024 Boyne Thunder Poker Run with their Cigarette Racing Team 42 Auroris center console. They drove the 39-footer powered by four 500-hp Mercury Racing outboard engines 450 miles from their home to Boyne City, stayed for a week and ran back. They faced some rough water and bad weather, but made it home safely.

Turner Up, a 46-foot Skater, was built to tackle rough water. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

The center console is a big switch from their last boat, which wouldn’t have been the most economical choice for a 900-mile roundtrip trek as it was powered by Mercury Racing 1550/1350 engines. But Turner Up, the couple’s 46-foot Skater Powerboats catamaran completed in 2020, was an absolute bruiser. And it was the first flat-deck 46-footer to be equipped with a cabin.

To date, the company has built 59 of its 46-foot-long cats.

The Turners took delivery of the full-cabin 46-footer powered by dual-calibration Mercury Racing 1550/1350 engines in 2020.

“When I visited the Skater factory to decide what I wanted to order, I told (company principal) Peter Hledin what I was looking for and what I needed,” said Turner, whose prior ride was a 46-foot Cigarette Racing Team V-bottom, shortly after taking delivery of the 46-foot cat. “Peter told me his 46 cat was his best rough-water boat.

“Lake Erie, where we do most of our boating, is rough,” he continued. “And even though this is the first cat I’ve owned, I have a lot of seat time in them.”

Though Rob nor Kerri Turner ever used the cabin, they appreciated having it when needed.

“It’s nice to have it when women are on board need to change or use the bathroom,” he said. “And it’s a great place to store life jackets and everything else.”

Rob and Kerri Turner traveled to the 2024 Boyne Thunder Poker Run and returned home by boat.

The Turners sold the eight-seat cat a few years ago to Joe Jackson and bought the Cigarette from their longtime friend Ron Szolack. But they didn’t run the center console in the 2024 Boyne Thunder main event. In an odd turn of events, they ended up back in their 46-footer for the poker run.

“Joe wanted to run his Cigarette 50 Marauder so he asked me to run the cat,” Turner said, then chuckled. “You know, once it gets going it runs pretty well.”

Need for speed satisfied, the couple began the trip back to Sandusky the next morning in their 42 Auroris and arrived home at 9:30 p.m. aid. “By the time we got home, we were ready to get out of the boat,” said Turner.