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According to John Walker, the vice president and chief operating officer of Liberty Associates—owner of Baja, Donzi and Fountain—Baja will focus on its 20- to 26-foot-long Islander and Outlaw models when it resumes production in 2011.

“Baja was at its best as a value product in the performance market,” said Walker, who will be president of Baja. “That’s the direction we’re taking with the re-launch.”

“Our research with our dealers and loyal customers has shown us that this is our core market of Baja buyers,” he said.

Walker said work is underway on redesigning some of the Baja models, as well as establishing new option and pricing lists, and that the company also has significant interest from prospective new dealers. He added that Baja may bring back larger Outlaw sport boat models from 30 to 35 feet if demand for them develops after the initial re-launch.

Production is scheduled to begin in February for spring delivery to dealers.

Caught up with Reggie Fountain, the founder, chief executive officer and president of Fountain Powerboats in Washington, N.C. Amid unconfirmed reports of his parting ways with the Fountain Powerboats, which is owned by Liberty Associates, Fountain said he is still employed by the company.

“There is no question about that—I am still employed and being paid by Fountain,” said Fountain. “There is an issue, and it’s that they’re asking me to sign a contract not to compete. I am evaluating that. That’s the only discussion about anything. Right now, it’s business as usual.

“Right now, the deal is I’m officially employed by Fountain,” he continued. “Now, we both know that nothing is certain in life but death and taxes and I’ll be sure to call you up and let you know if anything changes, but that would be highly premature at this point. Right now, there really is nothing to report.”

Updates out of the Phenomenon camp have few and far between since July, but I do have a couple thanks to Al Copeland, Jr., the owner of the quad-turbine-engine catamaran reportedly designed to break the propeller-driven water-speed record of 220-plus-mph. Most notably, the Phenomenon team will take another shot at the record in late 2011, “most likely during the summer months,” Copeland said in a written response to one of several questions I submitted to the public relations firm representing the Phenomenon project.

Second, according to Copeland, the 56-foot catamaran built in Metairie, La., did not sink earlier this year, contrary to an unconfirmed report. “It did not sink,” Copeland said in his response. “It took on water due to a drive shaft problem.”

Like many high-performance powerboat industry observers and enthusiasts, I’ve wondered who designed the boat since its inception. According to the Phenomenon website, the boat “was created by engineers from Boeing, former U.S. Naval architects and world class professional powerboat builders.”  That seemed a little vague to me, so I asked for more detail on the design team.

Copeland confirmed that noted designer Doug Wright was involved, “but his work was primarily on the bottom of the boat.”

As for the names of the Boeing engineers of U.S. Naval architects involved, which was one of the questions I submitted, Copeland responded that, “These names are not available for distribution.”

I’ll keep the updates coming as I receive information from the Phenomenon team. Like most of you, I’m looking forward to their next shot a breaking the record.

Did you know can buy the popular 260 Roadster as either a Spectre or a Sonic? That’s something I learned in an interview of John Cunningham of Frisini Motorsports—the parent company of Spectre and Sonic—for a feature I’m writing for Boats.com

The company has tooling for the 26-foot-long center console, one of its best-selling models, at the Spectre plant in Pinellas Park, Fla., and the Sonic plant in Fort Pierce, Fla.

“The big thing in this industry is that customers are very brand-loyal,” said Cunningham. “There are Sonic customers who are truly Sonic customers and Spectre customers who are truly Spectre customers. So you can get the 260 Roadster as either a Spectre or a Sonic.”

The 260 Roadster is an affordably priced platform for fishing, diving or just crusing around with friends. Having helped test the versatile little boat with Powerboat magazine, I’d gladly take one—with either badge.

During the 2003 Super Boat International Key West Offshore World Championships, I spent a lot of time hanging out with a cool guy named Ed Mossmiller. I’d gotten to know Mossmiller, whose home water was Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, when Bob Teague and I tested his turbine-powered 40-foot Skater catamaran during the 2003 Powerboat Performance Trials. That was my first 160-mph boat ride and a fairly docile one for that particular cat, which reportedly had reached speeds of more than 180 mph.

An immediately likeable, entertaining and generous man, Mossmiller died a few months later when his catamaran flipped at high speed on his beloved Chesapeake Bay. Brett Becker, my editor at Powerboat at the time, and I were devastated by the news.

Mossmiller was the only person I’ve known personally to die in a high-performance pleasure boating accident. Given that the performance-boat community is small and I’ve spent 16 years covering it, I consider myself lucky not to have known a few more.  But that doesn’t mean yesterday’s accident on Biscayne Bay, which claimed the lives of two more performance-boat lovers, didn’t affect me.

To borrow from Bill Bartus, a friend and long-time performance-boat owner and lover, “Love our sport, but hate it when this happens.”

Like most of you, I’ve been trying to find a way to deal with yesterday’s lethal performance boat crash. It’s too early—at least for me as a journalist and a commentator—to speculate on the how and why, much less draw any conclusions on the what. Still, I’m struggling to find perspective.

Or at least I was until I read Steve David’s blog on Powerboatmag.com. I linked to entire blog with his name, but here’s one thing David, an Unlimited hydroplane racing champion, wrote that struck me as profound and worthy of serious consideration:

“I am more safe at 200 mph in my Unlimited than the majority of drivers and passengers in high-speed pleasure boats. In fact, we have lost more boaters in high-speed pleasure boat accidents in the past five years than all forms of powerboat racing combined.”

David was neither pointing fingers nor being insensitive. He is one of the kindest and most empathetic people you’ll ever meet. He was simply saying what needed to be said—and saying it before the impact of this most recent tragedy is lost.

This just in via a press release from Liberty Associates, the owner of Baja Marine, Donzi Marine, Fountain Powerboats and Pro-Line Boats, all of which are now under one roof in Washington, N.C.: Liberty plans to relaunch Baja a “stand-alone” brand.

“We have given Baja a very thorough evaluation, ” said John Walker, the vice presdient of and chief operating officer of Liberty Associates who also will take on the role of Baja Marine president.

“The brand has some of the most loyal customers in all of high- performance boating, and many of them, along with several very successful past Baja dealers, have given us some tremendous feedback.

“We will reintroduce Baja with a very new and fresh model lineup, while retaining the key attributes and features that made this company so popular and successful for so many years,” Walker added.

I am not exactly sure what this means in terms of timelines for restarting Baja production and a new look for the line, but I do view the announcement with guarded optimism. Baja's performance boats have long served as affordable entry-level models for first-time buyers who might be able to afford more-expensive custom boats but are not ready for that kind of financial commitment. They've also proven to be a good long-term choice for buyers who don't have the means for more-expensive offerings.

Getting Baja back on its feet, so to speak, indicates that the decision-makers at Liberty Associates believe the economy is rebounding (or will rebound in the near future) enough to suppport it.

I dearly hope they're right.