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Howard 255 VTX

MeCasa16

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We went to the LA boat show earlier this year and talked to Mike and Gene for hours. A little while after that we went up to Santa Clarita to check out the factory. We decided on a 255 because most of what we do is watersports. Usually either a wake board or a foil. The 255 VTX is the first boat truly designed for water sports, but still maintaining the looks of a cat, and a west coast custom. The design process is pretty cool. We like most people who seem to build Howards, love blue, white, and silver. We wanted to be a little different so we considered just Black and silver at first. We went back and forth on a few design ideas and then Mike did his magic to come up with the final design. This was my wife's first finger painting to give Mike an idea.
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After Mike and Gene got done laughing, we decided on this.
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It will have a Gray bottom and the back will be Gray as well.
 

MeCasa16

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We popped in to see it and check out whats going on. THey hadn't started wet sanding it yet, so it was essentially in the same spot, but It was nice to see it and touch it.
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I'm excited to see it after it gets wet sanded.
 

HCP3

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Love the colors and design. Nice job Mrs. MeCasa16 🙂.
 

Mikemo_SDS

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Did you happen to see my boat? I haven’t been there in about a month?
 

FROGMAN524

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What does VTX stand for if anything?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

MeCasa16

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Does this hull work on the same theory as a CP?

I'm no expert at boats, so I'm not sure what you mean by CP? I'm probably not going to answer your question at all.

The idea behind this design though, is to have the looks and utility of a cat, with the functionality of a V hull for maneuvering and watersports. We love the looks of a cat, and the room and comfort of a deck boat. Most of the boating we do is pulling the wake board or a foil, so a cat just doesn't work. They look good and go fast, but are bad for towing. We don't want to commit to a wake boat. We still like to go fast, and this boat should do over 80 with a 565. This boat is as close as you can get to doing a little bit of everything and still maintaining the look and style we love. Most people think of the Advantage X-flight when they are looking for something to compare this hull to, but that would be inaccurate. THe 255 is in a category of its own. It's hard to see this isn't a cat when it is on the water or the trailer, unless you are looking at it from head on.

The hull was designed by Mike Willen (Gene's son). He built the plug by hand combining the V bottom of the bullet and the sponsons of the 288 Sort Deck. I was told the running surface is about 70% V hull, and 30% cat. When he mocked up the plug, they actually threw a motor in it and lake tested it before committing to the final design. They still had the original running plug behind their factory the last time I was there.
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Here is the bottom of the mold.
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Here you can see a few more views of the bottom on my boat.
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You can see how the V is substantially deeper. This is what gives it the 70% of the handling characteristics, without putting the sponsons up in the air like the X flight.
 

Goodtime$

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This is CP style bottom. Way simple compared to the VTX which is way more advanced. Congrats colors are rad
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v6toy4x

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Nice, I bet you cant wait to see that 565! did you get the "stock" blue or did you get an optional motor color?
thanks for the "taste", I sent a list of questions/requests last week waiting to hear back
is the orange one a 255?
So hard to commit to the gel scheme and colors,
every time I think I have decided I see something I like better.
 

MeCasa16

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Nice, I bet you cant wait to see that 565! did you get the "stock" blue or did you get an optional motor color?
thanks for the "taste", I sent a list of questions/requests last week waiting to hear back
is the orange one a 255?
So hard to commit to the gel scheme and colors,
every time I think I have decided I see something I like better.
ya, we just went with the stock blue. I think the part that sticks out the most is the carbon fiber anyway. The Orange one in the back is also a 255. Picking gel is a lot harder than I thought. That’s why I just stayed out of it. Just choose something you will love no matter what anyone else feels. I’m sure lots of people won’t care for the black and great on ours, but we love it. We were going for a certain look while it sits in the water, rather than on the trailer. Enjoy the whole experience though. It’s hard not to get impatient, but we have been keeping with the, “We would rather have it right, than have it right now” mantra. Right now we are targeting the end of March for delivery.
 

Mikemo_SDS

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I saw your boat when I was there on Thursday. They had some holes drilled getting ready for cleats and lights and such.
 

MeCasa16

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@v6toy4x, We were just finalizing the interior design. I believe the motor arrived late last week and I hope to get some pics of it soon. We are also having our trailer built at Adrenaline instead of the competitive.
 

v6toy4x

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Are you able to do most of the finalizing over the phone, email or are you making rergular trips to the shop?

Why adrenaline out of curiosity, if you don't mind?
Do, or can, you deal with the trailer manufacturer direct?
I have a set of wheels I would really like to run however their offset would require a 2" wider axle width.
Sure would be nice to not have to pony up additional $ after the fact to get it done.

I had a nice long convo with Gene last week, he answered a lot of the questions, looks like my turn to get a gel and color decision on the books.
As they say BOAT bust out another thousand, oh well my kids don't need an inheritance anyway.

Thanks, keep the pics coming
Duane
 

AFTERSHOCK RACING+

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Are you able to do most of the finalizing over the phone, email or are you making rergular trips to the shop?

Why adrenaline out of curiosity, if you don't mind?
Do, or can, you deal with the trailer manufacturer direct?
I have a set of wheels I would really like to run however their offset would require a 2" wider axle width.
Sure would be nice to not have to pony up additional $ after the fact to get it done.

I had a nice long convo with Gene last week, he answered a lot of the questions, looks like my turn to get a gel and color decision on the books.
As they say BOAT bust out another thousand, oh well my kids don't need an inheritance anyway.

Thanks, keep the pics coming
Duane
so what Color are you going With
 

MeCasa16

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Are you able to do most of the finalizing over the phone, email or are you making rergular trips to the shop?

Why adrenaline out of curiosity, if you don't mind?
Do, or can, you deal with the trailer manufacturer direct?
I have a set of wheels I would really like to run however their offset would require a 2" wider axle width.
Sure would be nice to not have to pony up additional $ after the fact to get it done.

I had a nice long convo with Gene last week, he answered a lot of the questions, looks like my turn to get a gel and color decision on the books.
As they say BOAT bust out another thousand, oh well my kids don't need an inheritance anyway.

Thanks, keep the pics coming
Duane
You can do pretty much everything over email and the phone. We have only made 3 trips there.
We chose adrenaline because of the convenience of being in Havasu. Competitive has pretty much closed to the public during Covid. I’m sure you can do anything you want to the trailer, but of course every box you check comes at a price. I have no doubt they could accommodate your rims though. At the end of the day, it’s easier to spend a little more up front and have the boat made the way you want it. Upgrading later always comes with its own set of challenges. We are really excited to see it all coming together now that it is in rigging.
 
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