Four Highlights From Fort Lauderdale

You won’t find the largest displays of go-fast powerboats at traditional boat shows such as the one that kicked off today in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. If you’re looking overall volume and brand diversity, a street party display held during a boating event—the Shootout On The Strip Affair at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootouts—is a far better bet.

So I wasn’t surprised to find very little that blew my hair up—albeit that I don’t have much hair to blow up—during the opening day of the Fort Lauderdale. Still, there were standouts such as the new Deep Impact 449 center console that made braving the early-to-mid-afternoon rain worth the time.

The Dark Knight Mystic

Commissioned by first-year Mystic Powerboats dealer Angle or Attack Marine in South Florida, the newest M5200 center console is a radical departure from all of the previous 52-footers built by the DeLand, Fla. Very much for sale, the Angle of Attack creation is the least conservative—and downright rad—M5200 Mystic ever has created.

A Cigarette White Party

For the past few years, Cigarette Racing Team displays at the Fort Lauderdale and Miami shows have been explosions of bold-color center consoles and sportboats. But sometimes, a plain white boat proves that less really can be more, and it was tough to walk by the iconic go-fast boat builder’s display without staring into it.

One Hot Cat

There are three hot outboard-engine-powered catamarans on display at the Fort Lauderdale show, an MTI 440X, a Nor-Tech 4000 Roadster and a Performance Powerboats P420. They all looked good, even under the gray skies that prevailed throughout the day. But only the P420, with its slinky lines and bold red-and-while hues, looked downright hot.

Second-Gen MTI Badness

Introduced at Performance Boat Center early in the week during the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, the MTI-V 422 is an elevated, second-generation version of the original 42-footer that launched the Wentzville, Mo., company as an extraordinary high-performance center-console builder. According to company representative Tom Stuart, who is on hand in Fort Lauderdale this week, the 422 borrows a few features from the MTI V-50. Now the general public in South Florida gets to bask in its badness for the next several days.

Four Highlights From Fort Lauderdale

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