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Super Cat Fest—an annual gathering of catamarans that serves as a complement to the LOTO Shootout each August, according to organizer Alvin Heathman—is getting a West Coast spinoff. Beginning this year, Super Cat Fest-West will continue the tradition of uniting the fastest, most exotic offshore marine hardware in the world when it heads to Lake Havasu City, AZ, April 15-18, with headquarters at the London Bridge Resort. It promises to be a casual, fun-filled safe and socially distanced weekend with top-level entertainment, cool vibes and heavy horsepower.
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Details of the event are still being put together, but apparently the action won’t be limited to Havasu: On Saturday, April 17, the multi-platinum recording artist LIT ("My Own Worst Enemy," "Miserable," Zip-Lock") will headline a concert on a floating stage at Pirate Cove Resort & Marina in Needles, CA, as part of the overall event. Many more activities are also in the works, to be announced soon via the Speedboat Magazine social media pages.
Debuting in the summer of 2010, Super Cat Fest was created to fill a void to replace the O.S.S. Offshore Racing Series when that organization folded. From the inaugural event, hosted at the Camden on the Lake Resort (the premier hotel at LOTO), it was an undisputed and overwhelming success. And it has continued to expand.
Heathman is already at work on expanding the LOTO segment of Super Cat Fest, billed as the lake’s biggest boating party, and tells Speedboat that he hopes to organize even more activities in the area. “I’m hoping to launch a couple of pre-owned boat shows at LOTO,” he says. “Everybody does a new boat show, but I’m working on maybe a spring and fall a pre-owned in-water boat show.” For more information on Super Cat Fest—West, please navigate to the event's Facebook page.
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The season will officially kick off April 30 to May 2 as racers gather in Ocean City, MD, for the Ocean City Grand Prix. Eleven additional races follow, taking competitors to to familiar venues like Cocoa Beach, FL, Lake Ozark, MO, St. Clair, MI, and Michigan City, IN, as well as a return to Solomons Island, MD (last raced in 2014), as well as an all-new site, Elk Rapids, MI. The season will end with the OPA World Championships race in Englewood Beach, FL.
Here's the complete schedule:
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April 30 to May 2:
May 20-23:
June 3-5:
June 11-13:
June 25-27:
July 30 to Aug. 1:
Aug. 5-8:
Aug. 20-22:
Aug. 27-29:
Sept. 10-12:
Oct. 7-9:
Nov. 18-21:
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Ocean City, MD
Cocoa Beach, FL
Lake Ozark, MO
Point Pleasant Beach, NJ
Sarasota, FL
St Clair, MI
Michigan City, IN
Elk Rapids, MI
Solomons Island, MD
Morehead City, NC
Fort Myers Beach, FL
Englewood, FL
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Slug Hefner—the speedboat enthusiast who has owned multiple Mystics, MTIs and Skaters—has taken delivery of a Mystic C4000 catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing 450R outboards. Hefner, of Poplar Bluff, MO, has owned a variety of Mystics, including an M4200 center console, the first C3800 cat out of the mold (as well as another C3800), and a 50′ Mystic that he still owns and operates. His boats all bear the name Dirty Duck. Naturally, he does most of his boating on the Lake of the Ozarks.
Although he hasn’t water-tested his new C4000 yet, he says, “The ride was phenomenal in the other two Mystic cats that I had. They’re such a good rough-water boat and have a lot of space inside. It’s very, very user-friendly boat—it’s easy to tie off and put your fenders out. You can stand up at the front and walk all the way to the back of the boat and get in the water without climbing over anything. The older and fatter I get, the more I need that,” he laughs.
Hefner met Mystic President John Cosker several years ago, when Cosker was helping Don Onken build the famous American Ethanol Mystic. “Earl Moorman, a guy who used to crew with me and run offshore with me, introduced me to John. I liked his products, including his 50-footer, and I wound up buying one from him. We ordered this C4000 back in September, but with the Covid pandemic, we weren’t really in a hurry to get it done. What I like about Mystic and John is that so far, they’ve done everything they said they were going to do. My experience with the company has been very good.”
The new C4000 is an all carbon-fiber boat weighing in at 6,960 pounds; Hefner says it was clocked at 120 mph during its on-water test in Florida. Mystic’s catamarans can be customized to feature an “open arrangement” cockpit similar to how his C3800 was designed; his C4000 sports this same arrangement. The boat also features power jackplates, lots of storage space, underwater lights and cockpit lights, custom adjustable sliding seats and sits atop a tricked-out MYCO Trailer. Like Hefner’s previous Dirty Duck boats, it’s white with duck-centric decals.
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Marine industry veteran Tim Gallagher, well known for having headed up sales for muscleboat builders MTI, Cigarette Racing and Deep Impact, began a new phase of his career when he officially started work at the South Florida location of Performance Boat Center on Jan. 11. Hollywood, FL-based Gallagher spent much of 2020 away from the boating business, working for Gino Gargiulo at his mobile fleet service Oil Can Man. “But the boat thing just wouldn’t let me go,” Gallagher chuckles. “The truth is that once the boats are in your blood, it’s in there for good."
While on his “boat hiatus,” PBC co-owner Brett Manire gave Gallagher a call and asked if he was happy in his current job. “That obviously got my attention,” Gallagher says. “He and Mark Waddington have a lot going on here in Florida, and really want to build their brand here. They’ve got some new ideas that I plan to make a reality, and help continue to turn PBC into a force to be reckoned with. My goal is not just to build the brands we sell, but to build the Performance Boat Center brand itself.”
Gallagher tells Speedboat that teaming up with Performance Boat Center will allow him to offer more to his customers. “Everything that I’ve done in the past has been for a manufacturer,” he explains. “So if my customer wanted something other than what I had, that was the end of it. Now, because PBC offers multiple lines and has pre-owned boats—and I also happen to be a licensed Florida boat broker—I can help people with more than just a single brand.”
Although his title will be Florida sales manager, Gallagher’s role at the company will not be limited to sales. “A lot of what they need from me is helping them beef up the business, really get it moving up to speed and expand it. Mindi Doller will be focused exclusively on the sales end of it, where I’ll be handling the sales and business side of things.”
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Complete with awesome photography and a comprehensive list of all the the major boating events throughout the year, this is a MUST-HAVE item for your wall. Only $9.95 each or FREE with you paid subscription or renewal! Available on Speedboat.com.
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Event organizers! Are you planning a poker run, regatta, shootout, show-and-shine or some other special happening for 2021? Let Speedboat help you promote and publicize your event! We can be there to cover the entirety of it, with a multi-page feature to appear in a subsequent issue, live reports from your venue and on-the-spot videos to help our readers/followers experience your event.
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