Outerlimits Powerboats of Bristol, RI, reports to Speedboat that the company has been active and staying busy with a variety of projects during the COVID-19 pandemic: “We’ve been lucky enough to remain safe,” says Sales Manager Dan Kleitz. “All our employees are doing well.” The company has been staying busy with service work, including “a lot of boats from all different manufacturers,” he says. And then they’ve been keeping hard at work on three major tooling projects:

• The 36 outboard Sports Catamaran.
• The SR (Sport RIB) 36.
• The SX 39 Center Console.

The race-bred Center Console was derived from Outerlimits’ five-step SV and SL hull design and features a pad bottom; it’s poised to target the go-fast sportfishing market. “Reggie Fountain at Fountain Powerboats did it very well for years with their 38 Center Console,” Kleitz says. “We are planning on doing a luxury version and a sport-fish version as well.”

The SX 39 will actually feature an overall length of 41 feet, as well as a 10.5-foot beam and a fuel capacity of 504 gallons.

The luxury version, he adds, will still be a terrific boat to fish from, but he points out that a lot of the center-console manufacturers are already squarely aimed at the luxury segment. “I think the fishing segment will be a much larger and broader market to go into,” he says. “So that’s who we’ll be be targeting—a guy who wants a very fast boat, but not necessarily all-out top speed. It’ll be a much more efficient boat than those offered by our competitors, and have much better fuel economy. That’s what these fishing guys really care about is the fuel efficiency. They need to be able to go hundreds of miles offshore on one tank of fuel, and then be able to come home. You don’t want to run out of gas in the middle of the ocean.”

If you think the SX 39 will be Outerlimits’ first center console, you’re wrong. Back in the mid to late 1990s, the company actually built a handful of center consoles in both I/O and outboard configurations. In that respect, Mike Fiore—the late president/CEO of Outerlimits—was way ahead of the times. Kleitz says that another Outerlimits center console was started in more recent times for offshore powerboat racer Bob Russell, but ultimately finished for Stephen Miles of Stephen Miles Designs (Owensboro, KY), who currently owns the boat.

Like virtually all of today’s center consoles, the Outerlimits SX 39 will feature outboard engines—no I/Os on this bad boy. “Mercury Racing has done such a amazing job with the outboard technology’s horsepower and reliability,” Kleitz says. “They’re hard to beat, especially on a center console.”

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