Chris Uzzolina's ongoing restoration of a 23-foot 1986 Chaparral Villain sportboat has moved to the drive installation and rigging stage. A BMW mechanic and longtime powerboat owner who lives in Charlotte, N.C., Uzzolina started the project in March 2013 (read the story) and had hoped to finish it in two months. Despite a number of delays and setbacks beyond his control—to stay on the water he had to buy a "play" boat for the 2013 boating season—the recently engaged Uzzolina continues to chip away at the project and is looking forward to its completion.

Uzzolna used an empty upper and lower unit to set the height for real drive on his sportboat project.

With help from Skater Powerboats, TNT Custom Marine and more, Gary Ballough turned a 2006 canopied raceboat into a sporty 32-foot pleasure catamaran. Photo by Pete Boden/Shoot-2-Thrill-Pix

You might wonder how Gary Ballough, an accomplished offshore racing throttleman both in national and international stock outboard class competition, has managed to not give in to the temptation of owning a pleasure boat for so many years. Obviously he can—and does—take any of the raceboats he's owned out for joy rides, but that's not the same as owning a boat for pure recreation.

Maybe it's because Ballough hasn't had a lot of time between racing in the XCAT World Series overseas and the Super Boat International circuit stateside. Or maybe it's because the thought of hopping into a boat after weeks or months of trying to get one race ready through setup and testing doesn't sound too fun. Or the most likely explanation is that the timing hasn't been right for the Boca Raton, Fla., resident.

Last summer Dre Trudell of Overland Park, Kan., purchased a 2007 Donzi Marine 43 ZR offshore V-bottom with a pair of Teague Custom Marine 975-hp engines coupled with No. 6 drives from Mercury Racing to use on Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and at various poker runs across the country.

Waves and Wheels recently customized the underside of this Donzi 43 ZR owned by Dre Trudell of Kansas.

Trudell, who has owned a Donzi 28 ZX sportboat since 2006 and is on the water nearly every weekend of the boating season with his girlfriend, Callie, had his eyes on the stepped 43-footer for some time. With less than 60 hours and still in the original owner's possession, the boat was a perfect fit for Trudell, who was looking for more hull for Lake of the Ozarks and wanted to stay in the Donzi family.

The restoration of Broken Arrow, a 47-foot Apache V-bottom, has reached its next phase with the boat's arrival yesterday at Marine Performance, the Port Orange, Fla., shop of famed go-fast race and pleasure boat rigger John Pompi. The project is in the parts inventory and assessment stage, according to Marc Jacob, a Delray Beach, Fla., high-performance powerboat broker who is managing the project for the 47-footer's owner in the Middle East.

When Colorado performance boater Jon Wright purchased the 2004 Eliminator Boats 38 Eagle last year, he knew the boat needed a little TLC. Since that is Wright's forte—he owns Diamond Marine, a private shop in the Denver area that specializes in buying used boats, restoring them and finding new homes for each one—he wasn't too worried.

Thanks to Aero-Marine and GT Performance in Upland, Calif., Jon Wright’s 2004 Eliminator 38 Eagle looks like a whole new boat.

What Wright didn't know was how much work the V-bottom would really need, including gelcoat restoration, fiberglass repair, an interior overhaul and a new power package. He also found out upon purchasing the 38-footer that its 10-year-old quarter canopies were practically worthless as they were cracked, chipped and faded.

Because canopies and windscreens don't fall into his areas of expertise, Wright knew he had to find someone to help him out. After searching online, he came across Carmen Bélanger-Martin, owner of Aero-Marine in Fontana, Calif.

In this OffshoreOnly world we're immersed in, the chances of a boat story gone bad resulting in a happy ending is slim. So it's always fun to share the ones that do work out. Take Brian Shelton's first catamaran, which he's planning to take to several events this summer, including next week's Lake Cumberland Thunder Run, the Tennessee Powerboat Club's Old Hickory Fun Run and the Florida Powerboat Club's Emerald Coast Poker Run.

Denny Kirkland at Custom Performance in Kentucky got his hands on Brian Shelton's 40 MTI and installed infinity mirrors in the engine compartment.

Shelton, who has owned several Fountain Powerboats V-bottoms since the mid-90s, picked up a well-documented 2008 40-foot Marine Technology Inc. (MTI) catamaran and added more custom touches to the boat that had been repaired, repainted and reupholstered after falling off its trailer in December 2012. If you didn't see it, check out the OSO thread following the boat as Pier 57 and a talented surrounding cast made the boat like new for the owner prior to Shelton.

Although Chris Uzzolina, a longtime powerboat owner and BMW technician in Charlotte, N.C., admits with a chuckle that he may have been "a little off" in his estimated completion date of May 2013 for the restoration of his 23-foot 1986 Chaparral Villain III sportboat—he expected the project to take three months and his boat to be ready for the summer—the project is still moving forward. And while he long ago abandoned his initial plan for the boat to actually reach 100 mph (the early name for the project raised enough eyebrows to stick), he's still excited about the project.

Started more than a year ago, the restoration of Broken Arrow, a vintage 47-foot Apache V-bottom built in 1991, has reached another milestone. Engine compartment rigging for its triple 1,200-hp turbocharged powerplants from Chief Performance of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is nearly finished at Marine Performance in Port Orange, Fla.

Broken Arrow's transom assemblies are complete and its No. 6 drives have been rebuilt. All photos courtesy Marc Jacob

High-performance powerboat and yacht broker Marc Jacob, who purchased the boat on behalf of a client in the Middle East and is overseeing its renovation visited the rigging shop last week. He said he expects renowned rigger John Pompi of Marine Performance to install the engines next week.

"The No. 6 drives were completely rebuilt and they look brand new, and the transom assemblies are finished," Jacob said. "The batteries are installed, there are new trim tabs with new pumps and the fuel system is complete.

"John pretty much replaced everything," Jacob added. "It's pretty much a brand new boat. It has all-new deck hardware with custom pieces including flush-mount fuel fills."

After the engines are installed, the 47-footer will be transported to Fineline Marine Interiors in Hallandale, Fla., where it will be outfitted with its new custom-made cockpit that includes a conversion of the original bolsters from manual to power and creating new heavy-duty seat bases, and cabin interior. Jacob estimated that Broken Arrow will be in the Fineline shop for a month before it goes back to Marine Performance for final testing.

If all goes to plan, triple turbocharged 1,200-hp Chief engines should be installed in the refurbished and rerigged engine compartment next week.

"Hopefully, John will run it and give it his blessing," Jacob said. "And we'll be done."

Jacob said the while his client is patient and that there is "no hurry" to finish the project, he expects it to be complete this year.

"I would like to unveil Broken Arrow in the (Florida Powerboat Club's) Poker Run Village in Key West (Fla.) during the Super Boat International Offshore World Championships in November," he said.

This power plant is one of three 1,200-hp engines that will power the 47-footer once it's finished.

Related stories

Broken Arrow Apache Update: At Marine Performance for Rigging
Broken Arrow Apache Update: Graphics Finished
Broken Arrow Apache Update: Graphics Near Completion
Project Update: Broken Arrow Apache Graphics Chosen, Interior Gutted
Project: Broken Arrow Apache Getting a Makeover

For Jeremy Strup of Joplin, Mo., the upcoming restoration of a 20-foot-long 1987 Liberator picklefork-hull boat he recently purchased is more than just updating a classic river and lake hot rod. The boat was formerly owned by Brad Smith, the noted Missouri-based high-performance marine engine builder who died last September in a boating accident on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky. A longtime, close friend of Smith's for more than 15 years, Strup is refreshing the 27-year-old tunnel boat powered by a 200-hp Mercury outboard engine to honor Smith. The process will begin in September.

Formerly owned by Brad Smith, a rising star in the high-performance marine engine game before he died last year, this 20-footer will undergo a restoration led by two of Smith's closest friends.

Longtime fans of offshore racing will remember High Risk, a 32-foot Skater catamaran that won multiple national and world titles from 1988—the year it was built—to 2005. Then owned and campaigned by Rick Felsen of noted racing event and race team insurer Hawk Marine Consultants, Ltd., in Westbury, N.Y., the outboard-powered 32-footer was a perennial threat in what was called the Pro Stock class.

Chris Uzzolina, a 27-year-old from Morris County, N.J., is no stranger to speed on the water. His father owned a 24-foot Switzer Craft that topped 80 mph on Lake Hopatcong, the Uzzolina family’s favorite local waterway when Chris was a kid. So it’s fair to say that Uzzolina, who now lives in Charlotte, N.C., and works as a BMW technician, was born to own a sportboat. And he does in the form of a 1988 Chaparral Villain III.

For those of you willing to do the math, that means Uzzolina’s current ride was built when he was two years old.

A top speed of 100 mph is just one of the owner's goal for this soon-to-be-renovated 23-foot Chaparral sportboat.

Several years ago, he bought the 23-foot sportboat for a whopping $3,500. With its stock 260-hp small-block engine modified with Trick Flow heads,  a new cam, an aluminum intake and Eddie Marine aluminum exhaust manifolds with stainless steel pipes, the boat reportedly ran 67 mph. But that wasn’t enough for Uzzolina, so he upgraded his power package with a Weiand 144 blower and the boat topped 72 mph. That was the good news.

“The engine didn’t hold up for more than one season before she gave up, “ Uzzolina recalls. “With no budget, I had to settle for a used engine from a friend’s old car. To this day, I still have no clue what parts were in it but it got me back on the water.”

At least it did until, predictably, the car engine failed. For the next two seasons, the boat sat in Uzzolina’s mother’s driveway in New Jersey. But when he moved to Charlotte last year and found himself within a short drive of any number of lakes, the go-fast boat bug bit him again and he brought the boat down south.

Well-known in go-fast powerboat circles, marine industry veteran Sean Stinson is renovating and reassembling a 1978 Taylor SJ jetboat. Based in New Jersey, Stinson said he purchased the completely disassembled 18-footer with its 460-cubic-inch engine and Berkeley jet pump for about $3,000. The engine, which currently is being rebuilt at J & E Automotive Performance in Blackwood, N.J., is a naturally aspirated, single-carburetor model that Stinson estimated makes roughly 400 hp.

“I am hoping to get it done in the next 30 to 60 days,” said Stinson. “I have all new gauges for it, and the bucket seats and bench seat are in my garage. These old jetboats usually came with some kind of indoor/outdoor carpet. I don’t want to go with that, so I’m thinking about the kind of rubber flooring I used in one of the Apache boats I worked on.”

Stinson said he plans to sell the boat in the $10,000 range once it is finished. With the profits he hopes to make from the sale, he plans to tackle a larger go-fast boat renovation project.

“This was something I could do to keep my appetite going for the high-performance boat world,” said Stinson. “I plan on selling it and buying something bigger to restore, then selling that and getting something bigger to restore until I get back into an offshore boat.”

Editor’s Note: Speedonthewater.com will provide an update on this project with additional photos when it is complete.

Testing of a fully restored 47-foot Apache V-bottom, the former INXS offshore race boat, could begin as early as tomorrow morning if all goes to plan. That’s the word from Gary Stray of AMF Offshore Rigging in West Palm Beach, Fla. Stray handled all the rigging for the twin Lycoming T-53 gas-turbine engines—each making approximately 1,500 hp—with Arneson ASD-8 drives, as well as the restoration and refitting for the entire boat.

Arneson ASD-8 drives will handle the power from the 1,500-hp turbine engines. All photos courtesy Gary Stray/AMF Offshore Rigging. (For a full view of the drives, click the the image.)

“I imagine it will run 115 to 120 mph,” said Stray, who will test the boat with Scott Begovich, the throttleman for the Miss GEICO offshore racing catamaran. “We’re hoping to go out tomorrow, but if not the day after tomorrow.”

In the AMF Offshore Rigging shop for about a year, the 47-footer is owned by a private party who prefers to keep his name out of the media. But even for a client who Stray describes as owning “a lot of boats,” the turbine-powered vintage V-bottom with a pair of five-blade forged propellers from Hering Propellers is an extraordinary project.

With one member of the AMF Offshore Rigging shop team on board, Scott Begovich, the throttleman for the Miss GEICO racing team, put a 47-foot Apache V-bottom the outfit recently restored and repowered with twin 1,500-hp turbine engines through its first test session this morning. Renowned rigger Gary Stay and his crew at the West Palm Beach, Fla., shop have been working on the classic boat for more than a year.

Begovich tested the boat on the calm waters of Lake Worth Lagoon in Riviera Beach. As today’s run was the boat’s first time on the water since AMF completed the rigging and restoration work, he said he took a conservative approach and only ran the 47-footer to 90 mph.

“There were no issues whatsoever,” said Begovich who handled the throttling and driving duties, during a telephone interview this afternoon. “I didn’t run it all the way out, just accelerated to 90 mph. The acceleration was smooth, sort of like a subway train that just keeps on pulling. We brought it back in and checked every nut and bolt. We planned to run it again this afternoon, but the weather came in.”

While weather forced Scott Begovich and the crew from AMF Offshore Rigging to cut short last Thursday’s first on-water test—and scrub Friday’s test session—of the turbine-powered 47’ Apache the West Palm Beach, Fla., shop has been working on for more than a year, mechanical gremlins struck today. Thanks to water-contaminated fuel, the run/stop switches for the twin 1,500-hp turbine engines were sticking and forced the crew to cancel testing.

“The first batch of fuel had water in it, and that might have caused some corrosion that had the run/stops freezing up,” Begovich explained. “You don’t shut off turbine engines with ignition. You shut them off by cutting off their fuel, and that’s part of what the run/stops do. They work in two stages, start-up and throttle fuel. In the worst case, if the run-stops stuck open we wouldn’t be able to shut off the motors, even if we disconnected the batteries.”

The first dynamometer tests on a 427-cubic-inch engine that will power a soon-to be-restored 1986 Chaparral Villain III sportboat saw the powerplant produce more than 600 hp. That’s the word from Chris Uzzolina, the owner of the boat, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., and previously stated that one of his goals in the restoration project is for the 23-footer to reach 100 mph. (Read the story.)

Dyno testing started yesterday at White Performance & Machine, the automotive and marine engine shop in Kingsport, Tenn., that is handling the build-up of the Dart-block-based engine with components that included aluminum exhaust manifolds from Eddie Marine.

Uzzolina said he expected the naturally aspirated engine to produce between 600 and 700 hp.

After a few postponements, the turbine-powered 47-foot INXS Apache that’s been getting a complete makeover at AMF Offshore Rigging for more than a year hit the water today for its final test run before the owner arrives to take possession of the boat tomorrow. With Scott Begovich of the West Palm Beach, Fla., rigging, restoration and racing shop at the controls, the twin 1,500-hp turbine V-bottom reached 100 mph—and had still had more in it, according to Begovich.

“It was like a subway train on rails at 100 mph,” said Begovich in a telephone interview this morning. “We went over wakes from a 30-foot cruiser at that speed and we didn’t even feel them.”

Begovich had previously estimated that the 47-footer would be able to reach 120 mph. While he said he’s still confident that the conventional V-hull can hit that speed, he opted not to push it past the 100-mph mark this morning.

While the 427-cubic-inch naturally aspirated engine that will be power Chris Uzzolina’s soon-to-be-restored 1986 Chaparral Villain III sportboat is getting prepped by White Performance & Machine for its second round of dynamometer testing, Lake Effects Marine of Moorsesville, N.C., has begun tearing into hull and deck of the 23-footer. That’s the word from Uzzolina, who has said that running 100 mph is one of this goals when the project is finished. (Read the story.)

Major renovation work is underway on the Chris Uzzollina's 23-foot Chaparral Villain.

“At this point we are in the major tear down stage,” said Uzzolina, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., but is originally from New Jersey. “Floors are being cut out, as well as the removal of the rotten stringers. Next will be the transom and then sanding of the hull to be refinished.  The top cap is removed and is being prepped for stripping and sanding.”

While Uzzolina said he had hoped to have the project complete by June, he realizes it may take a few weeks longer than that. But he’d rather see the job completed competently and thoroughly than rush. The work to be done is far beyond cosmetic.

Proving there are hidden complications and delays in even small powerboat renovation projects, well-known offshoronly.com member Sean Stinson reported that when he removed the hull from the deck of the 18-foot jetboat he is restoring to sell (Read the story), he found “a soft floor.” That means when Stinson gets home from his relatively new job of brokerage and sales manager at Campisano Marine in Brick, N.J., later today, he’ll be replacing the sole of the 18-footer.

“I’m cutting out the floor and replacing it today,” said Stinson. “I’m also putting in new bulkheads and replacing all the foam. I should have it done by the end of the week.”

When he separated the 18-footer's hull and deck, Stinson found damanage to the boat's sole.

Stinson originally separated the boat’s hull and deck so the hull could be painted black, which will happen after the new bulkheads and foam are installed—the deck will remain red. Refreshment of the boat’s 460-cubic-inch, single-carburetor Ford engine, also has taken more time than Stinson expected because of additional cylinder head work that was needed.

After looking at more than 20 renderings by artist Chris Dilling of Grafik EFX, the new owner of the classic 47’ Apache Broken Arrow V-bottom selected a final version with elements from each drawing. That’s the word from Marc Jacob, the Delray Beach, Fla.-based go-fast boat and yacht broker who is managing the restoration of the 47-footer (Read the story) for his Middle East-based client.

Chris Dilling of Grafik EFX created the new look for Broken Arrow.

“My client doesn’t want the ‘latest and greatest’ in paint technique like pearl and flake, he wants something really traditional,” said Jacob. “He wants it to be attractive, but he doesn’t want it to be flashy. Don Rossi (the painter for the project) will have his hands full, but he’s more than up to the job.”

According to Jacob,  Jason Ventura of Brand X Hi-Performance Marine  has gutted almost all of the boat’s interior. That includes the cockpit and the dash, as well as the primary cabin—the forward-most section of the cabin has not yet been stripped.