28 Skater - Twin 15" 300X's - Offshore Race Boat

**Point Five** · 03-26-2016, 12:42 AM

Hey everyone,

I'm relatively new around here but thought I would share the other boat that I have been devoting a lot of my time toward this year. She's a 1996 28ft Skater with twin 15" 300X's that I am fortunate enough to drive for the 2016 New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Championship. Would be cool to see some other 28 Skaters

Cheers, Alex

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**mikesufka** · 03-26-2016, 06:27 AM

Sweeeeeet !!!!

Here's mine .... That I haven't driven ...

http://www.screamandfly.com/showthre...-new-28-Skater

MDS

**Scream And Fly** · 03-26-2016, 06:44 AM

Welcome to Scream And Fly Alex!
Your Skater is stunning, and congratulations on being able to pilot for the New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Championship! We love Skaters here on S&F and there is certainly no shortage of them to check out here so I really think you will like it here a lot

.

And Mike, your Skater is just as awesome - I hope I'll get to see it in person!

Greg

**JPEROG** · 03-26-2016, 02:34 PM

Good luck with anyone else keeping up this thing if the waters calm. 28 with X motors is a potent combination.

Joe

**Rayzor** · 03-26-2016, 06:43 PM

Here are the three that I've owned........ Currently still have the grey one with 15" 300XSs. You should get 120++ out of your rig if you've kept it light. I hope you have a ballast tank up front for racing it offshore with those big 3.0 liters hanging off the back. Two of the three 28s started life with 2.5s, then I converted to 3.0s or 3.2s after blowing the 2.5s. It's a much better balanced boat in big water with the 2.5s. Problem is, no matter what I do, I can't keep 2.5s alive for more than 15-20 hours on the back of a 28! Love your canopied 28 btw! I've got some pictures of Secret Agent and X-Plosive - two canopied 28s from the mid '90s that raced C Class (twin 2.5s) back in the day here in California. I'll have to find them and post them up. Secret Agent was Paul Whittier's boat and held the C Class kilo record at 118.

**Rayzor** · 03-26-2016, 06:57 PM

My buddy Rick Bowling's factory quarter-canopied 28 with me in the back of it in August of 2001. I bought my first 28 a week later!

**Onetime** · 03-26-2016, 07:59 PM

Dale, a little clarification.

X-Plosive set the C class kilo record in October of 1996 at Pittsburg, Ca at 114.211 with Bryan Darling and John Pace. The record still holds as C class no longer exists.
X-Plosive was Paul's old Secret Agent boat that he sold to Bryan and John.

The year prior Paul went for the C class record with the same boat and engines at the same Pittsburg location. The first pass was around 122 and we knew the record would be broken. When Paul was turning around to make the return run one of the lower units blew. Tried to do anything we could to get another lower set up but they were 15", which was not so common at the time. Would have grabbed one of the lowers of my 24 but I had 20" and no lower unit tools with me to swap a drive shaft out. So Paul didn't get the record that year.

It took a lot to talk Bryan and John to go for it but I knew we could set the record.

The engines were my Z port design 2.5's.

**AZMIDLYF** · 03-26-2016, 08:41 PM

https://www.facebook.com/ABM-Racing-...70250/timeline

**Onetime** · 03-26-2016, 08:46 PM

Checked that link. Some of those shots that's some snotty water you're running in!

**Rayzor** · 03-26-2016, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by Onetime

Dale, a little clarification.

X-Plosive set the C class kilo record in October of 1996 at Pittsburg, Ca at 114.211 with Bryan Darling and John Pace. The record still holds as C class no longer exists.
X-Plosive was Paul's old Secret Agent boat that he sold to Bryan and John.

The year prior Paul went for the C class record with the same boat and engines at the same Pittsburg location. The first pass was around 122 and we knew the record would be broken. When Paul was turning around to make the return run one of the lower units blew. Tried to do anything we could to get another lower set up but they were 15", which was not so common at the time. Would have grabbed one of the lowers of my 24 but I had 20" and no lower unit tools with me to swap a drive shaft out. So Paul didn't get the record that year.

It took a lot to talk Bryan and John to go for it but I knew we could set the record.

The engines were my Z port design 2.5's.

Sorry I was off on that stat Richard! I don't know why it's stuck in my head from 20 years ago that Paul got the record at 118. I've got some old pics of Secret Agent at one of the Pittsburg races, and X-Plosive at the Ventura race (it was a National that year, 1996 I believe). Anyway, those were good times for OS racing on the West Coast. Hell, The C-class outboards were about as fast back then as the Stock Class and X-Cats are today! Wouldn't get over the bigger water anywhere near like the current bigger outboard cats, but they were right there for pure mph!

**Rayzor** · 03-26-2016, 08:56 PM

Holy ****!!! I bet you guys had to clean your shorts after this race!

Very cool to see you guys racing your 28 out in those conditions.

**JPEROG** · 03-27-2016, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by Rayzor

Holy ****!!! I bet you guys had to clean your shorts after this race!

Very cool to see you guys racing your 28 out in those conditions.

This is not the boat to be running in those conditions-talk about a beating....

Joe

**mikesufka** · 03-27-2016, 01:49 PM

So you big 28 Skater guys, what's it like to drive one? I'll have mine out for the first time in 6-8 weeks - tell me about them.

MDS

**Onetime** · 03-27-2016, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by Rayzor

Sorry I was off on that stat Richard! I don't know why it's stuck in my head from 20 years ago that Paul got the record at 118. I've got some old pics of Secret Agent at one of the Pittsburg races, and X-Plosive at the Ventura race (it was a National that year, 1996 I believe). Anyway, those were good times for OS racing on the West Coast. Hell, The C-class outboards were about as fast back then as the Stock Class and X-Cats are today! Wouldn't get over the bigger water anywhere near like the current bigger outboard cats, but they were right there for pure mph!

No worries Dale!
To bad that gear case blew when Paul was going for it in 1995. The record would have been well over 120!!! Not bad for 1995!! Paul is a much better cat driver then Bryan and John were at that time. All of Bryan and John's prior boating was V bottoms and this record run was not long after they acquired the boat from Paul. I was coaching them on the radio as they were running the kilo!
It was a lot of good times then. One time we have to sit down and share a BT story about that day.

Paul might very well have set his own record after this in another class. As I said offshore C class ended after we set this one.

**Point Five** · 03-27-2016, 03:00 PM

Great to hear there are some 28 owners around!! This one isn't a light one but is probably a good thing for the water we predominately run in. She's a pretty nice rig to drive and yip definitely run a ballast tank (we have two) and pretty much always race with the front one full. Took a while for us to get the balance right so she flies level(ish) on lift off.

Speaking of fast 28's, my father used to own a pretty special 28 (the ex Citreshine boat raced by Paul Whittier). My old fella set a class kilo record (standard 300X engines) of 122mph (see official certificate below). That was a special boat!