AppSysCons

After 30 years of high performance boating, and 15 years of offshore racing, I have
come to a rather difficult decision. I have now officially retired from both,
primarily due to increasing problems with my back. I signed an agreement with
Bruce Bullock to represent my Skater on Jan 14 and within 2-3 hours the boat was
sold pending inspection and demo ride. By early afternoon Fri Jan 18, we had been
paid, and the boat was in possession of the new owners agent.


Best wishes to the new owner.

Thank you Bruce Bullock (Bullock Marine, TX).
Thank you Offshore Performance, Ft Myers, FL.

To my friends at FMO (Ft. Myers, Offshore), it has been both a privilege and a
pleasure to be a part of this organization, these past few years. Thank you all.


Frank Fasulo by Frank Fasulo (appsyscons), on Flickr


sk-30-ffv-scan by Frank Fasulo (appsyscons), on Flickr


sk-30-jay2001 by Frank Fasulo (appsyscons), on Flickr

ROCKETMAN

Frank,

The last few runs I had not seen your boat and noticed that you were not doing the participant list or posting the great pictures like in the past. On this upcoming run I was going to make a point to ask Bob if everything was alright, now I know. Appreciate all that you did and good luck with your back, we will be thinking of you.

Steve

Bobthebuilder

Hello Frank. I’m sure it was a difficult decision for you to make as I know how much you have loved the sport. I and many others have appreciated your contribution to FMO over the years and the little chats we would have from time to time either on the phone or at an event. It is dedicated and responsible people like you that have made FMO the great little club that is is. As I mentioned on the phone the other day, I hope you will always feel free to drop in at any one of our lunch stops from time to time and visit your many friends at FMO. Boat or no boat, our friendship will live on. Also remember there will always be an open seat on Team PREDATOR for you and I hope you take me up on that.

Please continue as well to post and share pictures of your visits to Cayo Costa / Boca Grande and other points of interest in SW Florida on the forums as you have time. I know many of us enjoy your informative threads.

All the best to you and your family until we see you again,

Bob Barnhart

Maritime_Eng

Frank-

It has been a real pleasure running along side of you on all the runs. If you ever get the itch to drive a cat again just give me a call and we can go for a run in my boat.

Talk with you soon.
Don

bill63

Frank

If you want to give a center console a try I always have a spot on my Nor Tech for you.

speicher lane

Congrat's on such a quick sale when so many are sitting in the classifieds for a long time.

From an information P.O.V., your threads on that Skater regarding the actual performance/ fuel vs. distance and all over the last few years were second to none.

Sorry to hear that you are getting out of the offshores.....it's a beautiful Skater - hope the new owners are just as proud of it!

jayboat

iTrader: (1)

Frankie- all the best to you and congrats on the quick sale.
I, too, always enjoyed your detailed tech analyses of the performance aspects of your boat, especially when you were setting it up.
You saved a lot of people a lot of time!

Speaking as a person with back issues also- I much rather prefer the ride in a helo, but don't get any ideas!

Don't be a stranger, pal- you'll always be a part of the group.

AppSysCons

Thank you all so much for the kind words, and generous offers. It speaks volumes to the
character of the people, who make up our FMO family.

In reference to the quick sale, I dealt with the best in the business Bruce Bullock; and we
intentionally priced it where we did, for a quick sale. We all know when you sell high
quality, at or below the price the market will tolerate, it goes fast.

Jay, kind of funny you mention the helo thing; I am getting back to my roots of
aerospace and aviation. I have recently made a connection to an aerospace engineering
firm, and my 16 year old son, is attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the
mornings and doing high school in the afternoons. Many of his ERAU professors are
licensed flight instructors, I think you can see where this is heading.....up

As I said above "Best wishes to the new owner".

You can always visit my flickr photo site here http://www.flickr.com/photos/43835830@N06/collections/

PremierPOWER

Frank,

As hard as I am taking this news ... witch, of course, seems selfish of me … I can’t even image what you had to go thru in making the decision to sell the Skater. I am going to sorely miss meeting you in the harbor those early mornings to make our pre-run to the bridge and post run back to the harbor. It has been a pleasure performance boating with you and having you as a lunch companion … and a safety companion as well. Since you and I both boat “the other way” you know “non-performance” boating I sure would like to still get together on lunch runs and maybe even an occasional Cayo Costa beach run. In the meantime, I will let you know anytime we have a seat or two available for you to jump in with us. I certainly can relate to your back problems, I have had two back surgeries myself. I hope maybe there is a deep “V” in your future that might offer a little smoother ride.

On the scary or maybe comical side, I not sure that I can find my way to the Sanibel Bridge on my own?

Andy

AppSysCons

Andy,

Thank you for the kind words. I also appreciated your company and presence
as a safety companion, especially on those longer runs, like the 170 mile round
trip for Naples. As I recall that was the first time you wife was in the 43, and
it was blowing on the way back.

Yes I am keeping the 23 bow rider is easy to get in and out of, both from the dock,
and from the water at the beach, and requires virtually no attention. No real crawling
around, in or under tight spaces, so it does not bother my back. Driving the Skater
was not a problem for my back, it is to stable and smooth riding in most seas. It was
all of the climbing/crawling on, over, under and through, plus getting in and out,
especially from the beach, and keeping up with all of the service and maintenance, was
just causing way to much back pain.

NO V-bottom performance boat in the future. I had owned and raced quite a few Vs
in the past, and after the cats, there is no way I would go back to a V performance boat.
I know it sound crazy, but in almost all sea conditions, except big rollers and swells,
my cats we more stable, and smother than the best Vs out there, of similar size. The 36
Skater was better riding especially in chop, than my 37 OuterLimits (which was a excellent
boat), and my 30 Skater was amazing for its size out in the Gulf on many FMO runs.

I am sure you and your boys are more than capable navigators, and there is always
a plethora of modern technology to help.