• Skater Visits and Tests at Mercury Racing, Fond du Lac

    This past week Skater Powerboats took one of their latest creations for testing and review by the experts at Mercury Racing. As unlikely as it may seem, for the first time in his 42 years of building performance boats, Peter Hledin went on this particular trip and actually visited Mercury Racing in Wisconsin.


    Mike Griffith and Peter Hledin Testing

    It was hard for any of us to believe, Peter had been to Lake X, but never to the Fond du Lac facilities. So, with his latest creation ready for some testing with the pros at Mercury, Peter was convinced it was time to make the visit.



    The test part of the trip didn't go exactly as planned (weather sucked, stay tuned for more on the boat), but Peter, Tony, and myself got to visit the guys at Mercury Racing and receive a tour of the facilities, (All except a couple of top secret areas they would not let us in). Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside the facility.

    Rick Mackie, Mike Griffith, Steve Miller, Scott Reichow, and so many others were very informative during the tour and it was extremely interesting to see the products supplied by Mercury Racing being made and assembled.

    One of the very interesting parts of the tour, the reception area, has several of the older products Mercury has made in much earlier years. One of the coolest was a side by side lower for an outboard. I would have loved to get a pic of it, and have been unable to find a pic on the internet.




    At the start of the above video you will see the Walk of Success. That walkway has numerous tiles from the older facilities, including Lake X, signed by key personnel throughout the years. I saw some as early as 1954. It was also interesting to chat about how, in the old days, Carl would have an annual team building exercise where they would burn hang a competitors outboard over a fire and burn it!

    As said, stay tuned for an overview of the boat testing. It is quite the boat.