[Fr. Frank]

Originally Posted by jorgeinmiami

When I grew up I had a 17 Checkmate with a huge HP engine that ran in the mid to high 70'. I have many great memories on that boat and since I lived on a lake used it almost everyday.

I must need help

I understand the desire. It IS a sickness.

When I managed a marina in Ocean City, MD back in the mid 1980's, I drove a prototype 1984/85 Checkmate Starflight 21' back and forth to work on Assawoman Bay daily for over two months.

It was rigged with a 3.4L hp big-block Mercury V6 pushing about 280hp, with through-mid-housing exhaust, jack plate and nose cone, turning a 34"P over-hub chopper prop. I don't remember the gear ratio. It would easily top 100 mph at 6300 rpm, and once with the right temp, the right wind, and the right water reached 114 mph, radar verified.

Let me be clear that I did not drive it when it reached those speeds, but rather Hurley Stepp, who went on to fame as a throttleman in offshore power boating. He was paid by Checkmate to take it up that fast.

I think I personally got it up into the high 80's a few times, but it was a handful as you passed through the high 70's into the low 80's. I got to drive it AFTER the speed runs by Stepp were completed. Alas, we had to sent the boat back to Ohio after only a few more weeks.

Unlike the production hulls, this prototype hull had a pad at the stern and weighed only 797 lbs, with all balsa coring including the 3" thick transom. (later production models had no pad and a mix of plywood and balsa coring and weighed about 350-400 lbs more)

This was the same boat that my 24 year-old invulnerable and immortal self intended to use to set a new world speed record on a single water ski. Yeah, one good fall at about 80 mph changed my mind about that. But that's a different story...