The video above was shot by two-time Emmy Award winning documentary company, American Performance, who worked with Reggie Fountain and Fountain Powerboats from 2003-2007
In 2007, Reggie Fountain wanted to prove that Fountain Powerboats had the fastest and most fuel efficient center consoles on the market.
In order to prove this, Fountain decided to attempt a record run from Hatteras in North Carolina to New York City.
The Goal: have breakfast in North Carolina and lunch in New York. That would mean making the run in under seven hours. All of this would be done in a stock 38′ Fountain Center Console fishing boat.
Who else but Fountain would take something like this on?
The weather needed to be absolutely perfect to complete the run, a window was selected and on June 3, 2007 the crew set off for a never before attempted record run
“There wasn’t really luxury center console boats at the time,” says John Potts from American Performance Media, the company who documented the run.
“These boats were marketed to fishermen to get to the catch faster, have enough fuel to fish, and to get back to the weigh in,” says Potts.
The only modification that was made to the Fountain Center Console was the addition of extra fuel capacity. This was done in case the team on board the boat had to run wide-open throttle to deal with adverse weather. This, and stopping to re-fuel would only slow the run down.
To make the run possible, the boat needed some serious power behind it. Fitted with the first generation of triple Mercury Verado 300HP outboards, the boat had no problems hitting and maintaining the top speeds that were required to make their goal.
Potts and his two-time Emmy Award Wining company, American Performance Media, were present on the boat when it launched in N.C., on the plane that intercepted it (area) and on the helicopter that caught up to them at the Statue of Liberty, just over six hours after they left the harbor in North Carolina.
Potts himself boarded the boat just outside of New York Harbor. “It was a jubilant mood on the boat,” he says “Everyone seemed to be in good order, maybe a few wobbly legs after six hours on a boat.”
The boat performed flawlessly, completing the run in six hours and ten minutes, shattering the goal of seven hours, sometimes cruising at speeds upwards of 70MPH.
The record was never attempted before, and has never been attempted since.
