Want to add a little or a lot of performance to your boat? Or do you just want to make it look better? Here are 14 upgrades from $80 that are worth a second glance.
By Jason Johnson, Heidi Slomkowski & Matt Trulio
There's a big difference between happiness and satisfaction. Happiness is a day on the water—just about any day on the water—with friends in your performance boat. Satisfaction is loving that boat as is, not caring whether or not it can go any faster, handle any better or look any sharper.
It's safe to say that when it comes to your boat, most of you are never satisfied. Happy? Yes. But satisfied? No way. How else do you explain engine upgrades, not to mention the entire high-performance aftermarket product industry? Heck, for that matter, how else do you explain that repeat customers account for most new-boat sales?
What follow are 14 upgrades, from $80 to $165,000, that you might want to consider. This fairly random—OK, very random—list was generated by reader suggestions, manufacturer recommendations and the editors of this magazine. It is by no means all-inclusive, just an all-over-the-map roundup of products.
Maybe none of them will appeal to you. But all of them will get you thinking. For happy you are. But satisfied you are not.
Click on the images to enlarge.
Battery Bling (starting at $80)
If you're going for the color-matched look throughout your engine compartment, add stylish battery boxes to the list. They are a must if you've got matching billet tanks on your transom—plus they're a fairly inexpensive and easy upgrade. Look no further than Hardin Marine. Located in Florida, the company offers a variety of billet battery boxes constructed with the latest CNC machinery. From side-post to I-beam supports, the boxes, which start at $80, come in a handful of designs with either a polished or powder-coated finish. Hardin even offers boxes with step plates, giving them a bit of a practical use. 877-900-7278, www.hardin-marine.com
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Wheel Deal ($130 to $1,000)
Dollar for dollar, propeller tuning makes as much—and often more—sense as any performance upgrade. Sure, you can tune for top speed, but you also can tune for midrange acceleration and holeshot. That's where Throttle Up Propellers of Pompano Beach, Fla., comes in. Throttle Up owner Matt Croce personally gathers information from clients about their boats and performance wants, and establishes objectives before a client sends him the propeller. Superior customer service and high-tech imaging enables the company to deliver high-quality results. Throttle Up will work on most manufacturers' propellers with prices varying from $130 for three-blade props to $1,000 for six-blade wheels. 727-531-2255, www.throttle-up.com
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What's Hot to Wear ($315)
Think of a safety vest the same way you think of gasoline when it comes to your go-fast boat—if you don't have it, you don't go anywhere. Lifeline offers a variety of jackets, the most popular of which is the High Performance Pleasure model priced at $315. Designed and tailored specifically for offshore driving, the vest can be custom-contoured to the buyer as well as color-coordinated to the boat. A heavy-duty, locking-slide front zipper holds together the jacket's 1000 Denier Cordura Nylon. Like all of Lifeline's life jackets, the High Performance Pleasure vests have left and right D-rings for easy kill switch attachment. Nylon webbing is used for the center belt, leg straps and the adjustable side strap. 928-669-9241, www.lifelinejackets.com
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Stay Planted ($435 to $1,900)
When you're screaming along at more than 100 mph, or any speed for that matter, feeling secure in your seat is essential. Eddie Marine's latest electric-dropout-bottom pedestals provide that sense of security. Machined from 6061 T-6 aluminum, the electric-dropout stands offer the best of both worlds—style and function. They retail between $1,800 and $1,900 and come in an assortment of Eddie Marine's top-shelf
powder-coated colors. For those looking to save a few bucks, the company also offers manual-dropout-bottom bolsters from $693 to $748, and fixed-bottom-cushion bolsters from $435 to $700. 909-945-2830, www.eddiemarine.com
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Keeping Quiet ($665)
If you boat in an area where sound laws are often enforced, you can attest the value of high-performance marine mufflers. Better yet is when those mufflers reduce decibel ranges without compromising power. Developed for large-displacement motors, Gibson Performance's Bullet silencers have been tested up to 1,200 horsepower resulting in minimal or no power loss, all the while meeting the strict 88dB limit required by the California SAE J2005 sound law. Manufactured using high-polished T-304 stainless steel, the mufflers feature Gibson's patented clamp-less system for hassle-free installation. The tips, which cost $665, are also available with OEM-style through-transom mounts. 800-528-3044, www.gibsonmarine.com
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Trim It Up ($1,025 to $5,800)
It's definitely an advantage to be able to control the comfort of your boat's ride with trim tabs. With a wide selection of tabs, 18 to be exact, Dana Marine Products has one for your V-bottom or catamaran. Trust us, many boats we test flaunt the company's billet tabs and we've appreciated the benefits. They've helped keep our test boats stable while blazing along the Colorado River at high speeds. And the tabs, whether single or dual ram, are always well constructed. Fairly simple to install, Dana manufactures vacuum installation tools for a faster and easier trim-tab setup. Prices range from $1,025 to $5,800. 951-279-5005, www.danamarineproducts.com
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| Tune It Yourself ($1,295)
Even the toughest old-school, carburetor-idle-screw-turning mechanics cower at the thought of tuning and upgrading today's computer-controlled fuel-injected engines. But Arizona Speed & Marine, the industry's ECM mapping go-to outfit, has put that capability in the hands of mechanically savvy do-it-yourselfers and professional engine builders with its InGenius Marine software kit. Go online, fill out a calibration order form and plunk down $1,295 on your credit card. The company will send you a MEFI4-B controller mapped to your basic parameters, a CD with software that—loaded with the program—will allow you to finely calibrate the engine, a cable to link your laptop to the engine and a USB key. It's not for the technically challenged, but for those in the know, it's a breakthrough package. 480-753-0208, www.azspeed.com
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Stepping Up (starting at $1,900)
It's amazing what a custom swim platform can do for a boat. From appearance to offering additional space and safety, it's a pretty easy upgrade compared to most things on this list. Many
performance boaters are turning to West Coast Offshore Unlimited in Fremont, Calif., for their powder-coated platforms made from T-6 or billet aluminum. With more than 100 colors to choose from, the shop custom designs platforms to suit your needs, whether you're looking for a certain shape, a ladder to port or to incorporate graphic elements from your boat. The lightweight
platforms start at $1,900, a reasonable price considering the levels of customization West Coast Offshore Unlimited offers. 510-445-1047, www.westcoastoffshoreunlimited.com
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Sweet Steering (starting at $2,400)
Ask Powerboat Test Team drivers Bob Teague and John Tomlinson if hydraulic steering is essential for a high-performance boat, and you'll either get an are-you-kidding look or a resounding "yes." Both will point to Latham Marine as the leader in that department. There are great steering systems out there, but Latham is the originator—and has perfected the components. From the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company's stainless-steel hydraulic
cylinders to its external tiebar assemblies and clevis joints, you're all but assured trouble-free operation. Hydraulic steering is not cheap—Latham's prices start at $2,400—but when you feel the handling, especially offshore, you'll understand why. 800-422-7267, www.lathammarine.com
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Getting Stand-offish (starting at $2,800)
For better handling and overall performance, moving back your stern drives can make a fairly significant difference. That's what stand-off boxes are designed for, and Stellings Marine Products makes a model for Bravo drives. The 12-inch-long box can be installed simply on a boat's transom using the existing Bravo bolt patterns, meaning no extra holes need to be drilled—that's always good news. By design, the box automatically raises the drive height 1 inch but can be adjusted up or down by 1 inch. Translation: With the box installed, you can maintain your current drive height or raise it 1 to 2 inches. With prices starting at $2,800, that kind of tweakabilty—a new technical word you'll only see in the pages of Powerboat—is a steal.
559-485-9394, www.stellingsmarineproducts.com
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Exhaust the Possibility (starting at $5,000)
From athletes to engines, better breathing means better performance. That means getting rid of the "bad stuff" by exhaling. And whether you're a sprinter or speedboat, if your exhaust system isn't efficient, you're not maximizing power. Enter the header and exhaust kit for the MerCruiser 496 Mag and 496 Mag HO engines from Custom Marine Inc. The kit includes a relocation plate that enables you to reposition items such as the shifter cable and electronic control unit, that way you can toss the stock cast-iron headers and install CMI's stainless-steel water-jacketed headers and Sport Tube tailpipes. The kit is reportedly good for an extra 50 horsepower, not bad for $5,000. Add CMI's Internal Sound Choice muffler system and you're looking at $6,600.
920-720-4225, www.custommarine.com
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Drive Hardened ($16,000)
Beef up your power and you'll probably need to upgrade your drive. Plenty of aftermarket product companies and engine shops claim to build tougher versions of the Bravo One XR. But according to the guys at Max Machine Worx in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., they're the only outfit that builds the entire drive housing out of 6061 T-6 case-hardened billet aluminum. A continuous steel "tower" supports the upper and lower units. All shafts and bearings are billet aluminum. The only "stock" Mercury parts in the Max Machine Worx drive are the cone clutch and the gears—and the company currently is developing its own upper and lower gears. The drive, which retails for $16,000, is not "rated" to handle a maximum amount of horsepower. However, a spokesman for the company said the average applications range from 700 to 1,100 hp. 928-505-7860, www.maxmachineworx.com
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When Cost is No Object ($165,000)
If we had a big offshore boat in need of repowering and about $330,000 burning a hole in our pockets, we'd go for a pair of Mercury Racing HP1200SCi engines with No. 6 dry-sump drives. And why not? The 1,200-hp power plants are based on the same 557-cubic-inch, twin screw-type supercharger platform as the Mercury Racing HP1075SCi, an engine that has raised the bar for high-performance marine engines when it comes to reliability, idle quality and low-speed management around the docks. The HP1200SCi is essentially a HP1075SCi with different fuel mapping, valvetrain modifications and induction-system changes. The HP1200SCi still retains all the SmartCraft benefits and will fit in the same space as the 1075. Sure, it's expensive, but it's a choice. 920-921-5330, www.mercuryracing.com
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