Thanks to Innovation...
 

The Corsa is no longer for sale! Picked it up on Friday with the new Vortec 8100, optional port side throttleman station, switches, etc. The rigging was perfect. Ran it for a few minutes this morning. Full fuel load, dead flat water, and she went right to 82 in a very short straight. Had to pull out of it almost as soon as I nailed it because we ran out of room. Once propped right and the conditions are better it should run 83.5 - 84. Thanks to Dennis, Dave, and the rest of the guys at Innovation. Still the best!:drink:

They are a class act with a great facility. But what makes them a great business is that they are easy to talk with, and show a genuine concern for their customers (or to with my mother and I).

I would not hesitate for a second in using them again. They do a nice work.

Yep, and they had a ton of boats in the shop. Very busy. Good for them!

I have to agree with you , they do great work . I had people talking about my interior at the poker run at cumberland this weekend , X/T Innovations did my interior also . great to work with , very fair pricing . they will get all my business . Tim

Tim,

We are talking about Innovation Marine in Sarasota!:eek:

Sorry my bad ..

They are a great bunch of people who really know their stuff......funny thing is, they are the same people that I remember dealing with, way back when most of them worked directly for Merc Racing.

Highly recommended....you can't go wrong.

Funny you said that about Merc racing. It was the end of day, and Dennis and guys were talking to me about the old days and the Mercury Racing days when I was there in May. I learned quite a bit.

That reminded me of the time when I went to the Miami boat show (early 1990's), and one of the boat show days I went over to Bobby Moore's on 188th St... he spent some time with me talking about the old days (I was kid in the old days Bobby was talking about, ie. the 36' Cigarette Blonde days).

I always like hearing from the guys who have been there, done that, and have first hand knowledge. The guys at Innovation Marine, have that first knowledge, experience, and expertise. That has value to me.

Love my Innovation 600's to death. Awesome.

Speaking of Bobby and the boat Blonde in the same breath.....the other Bobby..Saccenti.

That was his first offshore duty riding on Roger Hanks Blonde at Key West....they won that day, beating Magoon, no small feat.

I remember Dr. Bob (reading about him) in Powerboat Magazine as a kid.

Roger Hanks...Bobby Moore was telling me that Roger Hanks (owner of Blonde) was a Texan, who apparently had more money than God. Bobby Moore said he was throttling Blonde one race. Roger Hanks had come to the boat on day of the race with $100 dollar bills stuffed into his pockets, and said there was thousands upon thousands of dollars in Roger Hanks pockets.

The race starts and they are out there doing their thing and the engines began to sputter then to completely fail. Bobby stops the boat to what what the problem is with the engines, and guess what? Bobby Moore opens the hatches and see's that the $100 dollar bills have clogged the injectors, and that the $100 dollar bills are strewn through-out the bilge. Blonde had broken down in the middle of an offshore powerboat race because the owner, Hank Rogers, had money flowing out of his pockets into his Mercury 482 or 468 cu.in fuel injected motors causing the motors to fail. Only in the 1970's offshore scene would ever a story have been as believable.

Never mind Blonde's steering failure and a checkpoint boat, post that photo, that is a classic indeed.

Eccentric, rich, and wild times in offshore racing through the years. That is a history lesson from Bobby Moore I have never forgotten.

Mike,
Glad to hear you are happy with your work from Innovation. I'm am always happy to hear when someone has a good experience with a boat/engine shop. Unfortunately, it seems to happen very seldomly these days. Congrats and good luck with it.
Eddie

Sports Illustrated interviewed him after the race and Roger had a great quote that they used........"I don't mind losing the money, but I am pretty sure it was my American Express Card that cut the timing belt and that ended our day."

He carried a revolver with him in case he had to shoot any sharks if the boat broke down.

As I recall from my childhood, Roger also had a reputation for crashing...alot. I remember the first time I saw the famous Powerboat photo of Blonde impaled in the turn boat. Well, I remember going down to the docks after checking into the hotel for our very first Marina Del Ray race (1975 or 1976) and seeing the ambulance waiting at the entry gate of one of the piers. Coming down the dock was Roger, on a stretcher, after apparently crashing during a practice run. I think he was ok but do not remember seeing him at a race for the next few years.

It is good to hear that Dennis and Dave are still doing well at Innovation. I know those guys personally. They have a great many stories. Dennis has some good stories from up at OshKosh and his time at, a place from yesteryear, KS&W. I still remember going to Innovation for the first time in 1996 and seeing boats from the government that "didn't exist". Also, Rick Sr., what a great guy he was. He was always thinking of ways to improve on what he had. It is no wonder that the guys at Mercury were stopping in there to see what new ideas he was developing.

83 mph on the rev-limiter! Need more prop!

Innovation always went beyond the call for us. I specifically remember we had a ground problem and the engine wouldn't turn up rpm's. The went to the water with us and eventually found the ground problem. My F1 boat went immediately to 81.6 mph. Class act!