Tuff Marine Completes First 32-Foot Cat With An Eye Toward Super Stock Competition
Based in Ontario, Canada, Tuff Marine produces a line of prized custom-built, outboard engine-powered V-bottom sportboats from 16 to 36 feet long. Tuff Marine V-bottoms are prized for their build-quality and performance. That the company builds an average of four boats per year makes them that much more coveted.
Snowbound for the moment, the new Tuff 32 catamaran will be back on the water this spring.
But until now, Tuff never built a catamaran. The first Tuff 32 cat is ready to roll, just as soon as the snow melts and the local waterways thaw.
That’s a curious data point given that 61-year-old company founder Mark Weigl, who operates the company with his 27-year-old son, Thomas, competed in offshore racing’s outboard catamaran classes from 1989 through 1993. And yet until they completed the first 32-footer, Tuff Marine had no catamarans to offer.
Like all Tuff products, the 32-footer boasts a clean helm-station layout.
“We started this project about 2-1/2 years ago,” Weigl recalled. “Mark had been pushing me to build a boat for Super Stock-class racing, but I had to get caught up and up to speed on what the successful builders in the class are doing. From the start, we wanted our 32 to be rough-water machine—that had to be first, then we would try to be clever and design features to get the speed we needed.”
The Weigls consulted with former Super Stock racer and inventor Scott Porta of Porta Products, as well as the tunnel-boat racer/designer Jim Russell, on the design of the deep-tunnel catamaran. When Mark Weigl last raced offshore, the outboard-powered catamarans were of the two-stroke kind. So he and his son also spent time learning more about contemporary four-stroke outboards in catamaran applications.
“The way you throttle a four-stroke is different than the way you throttle a two-stroke,” he said.
So far, the father-and-son team has logged less than two hours in the catamaran, and won’t climb back inside its sexy cockpit until spring. But with a pair of Mercury Racing 300R outboards providing the punch, the cat reached 116 mph in its first test session.
The first Tuff Marine catamaran, this 32-footer was more than two years in the making.
“The darn thing worked really, really good,” said Mark Weigl.
The 32-footer has a 10-foot beam and boasts a dry weight of 5,200 pounds with the twin 300Rs. The pleasure version, which they will continue fine-tuning through the spring and summer, will debut at the 2025 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. Their goal is to have a canopied version of the cat ready in time for the 2026 Super Stock season.
Thomas Weigl will throttle. His father will be his crew chief. A driver has not been selected.
Enjoy more images of the new Tuff 32 catamaran.
“We will be looking for a driver,” Mark Weigl said. “There’s a circle of young guys around here.
“But we’re going to spend this year sorting out our pleasure version,” he added. “I still need to get up to speed on all the closed-cockpit developments and technology for the following racing season.”
Look for the first Tuff 32 catamaran at the 2025 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout.
Related stories
Tuff Marine Eyeing Single-Engine V-Bottom Record At Lake Of The Ozarks Shootout
The Tuff 24 and Mercury Racing 300R: Prepare for Takeoff
Coverage Of The 2024 Lake Of The Ozarks Shootout
The post Tuff Marine Completes First 32-Foot Cat With An Eye Toward Super Stock Competition appeared first on Speed on the Water.
