Dennis Vitolo's new STV - the best one yet!

[Scream And Fly]

Two years ago I was on the phone with Marty Signorelli (Diamond Marine) and we were talking about some photos I shot of Dennis Vitolo's STV a few years ago. I mentioned that I would like to shoot more and Marty told me Dennis is having a new STV made, and it's going to be a boat with everything Diamond Marine could do to it to make it as perfect an STV as possible.

Fast forward to now, and the boat is complete. I drove over to Diamond Marine in Fort Lauderdale and spent a day with Dennis and Joe to check out this incredible machine, and just when I thought I've seen it all, I had to hit the reset button on that notion. I think many of you here know those mad scientists at Diamond Marine and the work they do, and this boat is just nuts. It's like a Diamond Marine "greatest hits" STV! Jack Barsh at Full Throttle Powerboats did an incredible job on the boat, and I especially like the colors.

A lot of the work cannot really be seen, such as aluminum transom bolt hole liners that are machined to allow the hex head of the bolt to be held in place, with measured squish on torquing to secure the motor, but not to compress the transom too much. Machined rails for the jackplate that slide inside another inner rail with measuring marks, which prevent the bolts themselves from handling the sheer forces and possibly denting the inside of the bolt slots. The cable steering has these really cool tension-adjustment blocks on both sides inside the boat with cable guides, and the large fuel tank is fully baffled. As is always the case with all of Diamond’s work, the machined parts are exquisite in both design and workmanship. I can go on and on with details, but that part is forthcoming in the full feature on this boat, which will have build-up photos, and also photos and video of the boat running. This is going to be epic.

On its first shakedown run, it reached 131 MPH almost too easily on Dennis' pump-gas powerhead (in the photos) with a SportMaster modified by Joe Signorelli. Look closely at the nosecone and water inlet - it looks a lot different than anything I've seen. Also check out the adapter plate they made so the SportMaster could easily mount to the 12-inch midsection. Details are everywhere, so this will be a big feature. We're going to add GoPro cameras under the jackplate and elsewhere to try to capture some unique angles of it while running. This is going to be a huge feature, but for now I thought you would all like to see some photos. I'm really excited about this one, and we haven’t even begun yet!

Click images for larger size

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