Clyde Van Vuren is a performance boat enthusiast that is no stranger to Hydrostream boats.  Having owned a vintage model himself, he jumped at the opportunity to own Hydrostream's newest performance runabout - the Venom.

When Hydrostream began development of the Venom, the ingredients for its success would be clear: It had to be an all-new design that would reestablish Hydrostream as a name to be reckoned with on the local lakes and rivers, yet it had to retain classic Hydrostream accents that separate it - even at a distance - from other boats in its performance class.  It had to be a Hydrostream. 

When the first photos of the Venom surfaced on our forums, it generated a lot of excitement and anticipation.   Clyde knew immediately that the Venom would be his next boat, and as soon as he could he placed his order.  He ended up with Venom number two - essentially the first consumer-sold Venom to hit the water.

As soon as Clyde's boat was complete, it went to Bruce Nagel at Boatec for its custom ghost-flamed deep red pearl paint work.  The flame patterns are striking, yet not overstated.  Four coats of clear add incredible depth, while providing the added protection required by the marine environment.  The deep red metallic tones match the unique silver interior perfectly.

Powering Clyde's Venom is a Mercury Racing 2.5 EFI 280 horsepower V6.  This engine is ideally matched to the boat's performance potential, and speeds of nearly 110 MPH have already been achieved with room for more.  Grand Prix International performed light modifications to the powerhead to extract a little more performance from the new engine, and lower unit modifications complete the tweaking to the engine.  Remember that this is an entirely new boat - top to bottom - so setting it up requires more lake time than usual.

This boat was meant to perform, and Clyde was not satisfied with just lake running.  His solution?  Compete in some local drag races to try his luck against seasoned racers. 

To date, Clyde has won first place in the Lake Racer class twice at the races sanctioned by the Upper Midwest Drag Boat Association.  Not bad for a new boat that is set up for recreational use.

What's in store for the future of Clyde's red hot Venom?  Clyde indicates that he's hooked on outboard drag racing, and with his initial success, that's no surprise.  It seems that this boat performs on the race course as impressively as it does on the lake -and it looks threatening just sitting still, for that matter.