A Guided Tour And Doug Wright Ride With St. Clair’s Finest

When the text reads, “I’m home and going out in the boat soon. Then I’ll be all over between the crane and downtown. There will be lots of boats at my house this afternoon so come over anytime,” you push the pedal of your rental SUV a little harder while driving through the beautiful Michigan countryside between Ira Township and Marine City. You don’t want to miss a ride with Dave Burgess in his new Doug Wright Powerboats 42 Carbon Waves and Wheels Edition catamaran powered by twin Mercury Racing 500R engines. At least I didn’t, that’s for sure.

The author caught a ride with Dave Burgess in the new Doug Wright 42 Carbon Waves and Wheels Edition catamaran on the St. Clair River. Photo by Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

I covered Burgess’ new cat not long after the St. Clair, Mich., boater commissioned it with the team at Waves and Wheels in Osage Beach, Mo., and of course all the way through the delivery that was captured in an incredible video produced by Scrapyard Media and Speedonthewater.com in the spring. But I’d yet to see the boat, which I’d gained so much insight about between interviews, meetings, crafting stories and more, so no way I’m passing up the chance to check out its craftsmanship in person and maybe even feel its performance.

I told my longtime friend, who was along for the ride that we might get a chance to go out in the boat, but no guarantees. As he has since we played Pony baseball together as kids, he shrugged and said, “All good.” Little did I know he and I would have the best time possible on a Saturday afternoon between Friday and Saturday night games at Comerica Park in Detroit—in our quest to see every baseball stadium we can—thanks to Burgess and his wife, Susie.

The timing was great because it was the same weekend as the  St. Clair River Classic and Burgess, who donates crane support for the race through his business, Raymond Excavating/Raymond Cranes, has the boat on a lift behind his amazing home that’s right off the river and around the corner from St. Clair’s famous Palmer Park and Boardwalk along Riverside Avenue.

From a ride in his 42-foot Doug Wright and a walk around his hometown, Michigan native Dave Burgess was the ultimate tour guide last Saturday. Photos by Jason Johnson/Speedonthewater.com

We got there just in time. Burgess was out front in his scooter—he was paralyzed in an accident many years ago—and his neighbor, American Custom Marine owner Mike Knoblock, was about to head to the race pits to test the Fountain Powerboats V-bottom he raced with Matt Soper for the first time last weekend. Knoblock said I could park in his driveway, so the first thing we did was check out the boats parked at his docks—a beautiful quad-engine 39-foot Nor-Tech Sport center console, two Mercury Racing 500R-powered MTI sport catamarans and a 38-foot Top Gun from Cigarette Racing Team.

My buddy got a crash course in Powerboat 101 with the variety of boats at Knoblock’s place and then we walked over to Burgess’ docks to check out his custom Doug Wright, which I explained to my friend has a one-of-a-kind windshield system that allows it to raise up and down from its receiver surrounding the cockpit so that Burgess can enter his boat directly from his scooter. It’s pretty cool—hence the “Project: Adaptation” title we gave the documentary you can watch on our YouTube channel.

With Burgess’ direction I climbed into the boat to turn on the battery switches so he could raise the windshield and the portside driver’s seat that lifts slowly at the same time. While that was happening I admired the workmanship that went into the boat beyond the ingenuity of the motorized wraparound windshield. The upholstery was gorgeous, the paintjob was stunning and the installation of the twin Mercury Racing 500Rs, the Garmin and VesselView displays, the throttles and shifters, and the fully loaded Bluave Marine Audio system was flawless.

Featuring twin Mercury Racing 500R engines and an innovative motorized windshield, Dave and Susie Burgess’ Waves and Wheels Edition Doug Wright is quite a showpiece.

After he got into the boat and lowered its lift down, Burgess drove the boat off the lift and headed toward the river where many boats entered in the Offshore Powerboat Association-sanctioned race were testing. As we waved to the passing boaters and the onlookers sitting at the popular restaurant, Pepper Joe’s, it was clear the 42 Carbon was a work of art that gained attention easily—even from the racers inside their canopied boats idling out to the course.

Heading north on the river, Burgess drove the cat to almost 100 mph before the engines went into guardian mode to protect them from a potential issue. Burgess, who warned us that he encountered this problem the last couple of times he took the boat out, said he believed an electrical issue was causing the error and that he’d get it checked out after the weekend.

Burgess slowed and said, “Well it looks like we’ll just have to cruise around 70 to 80 mph today boys,” and proceeded to take us around Stag Island, a private Canadian island located between Corunna, Ontario and Marysville, Mich. Although we didn’t get to experience the “planted” feeling Burgess described when the boat eclipses 100 mph and starts to settle into its paces over bumpy water at 110 to 120-plus mph, we enjoyed our ride tremendously.

On the return leg, Burgess did a half-lap toward the south end of the course so we could get a racer’s perspective of the river and then we headed back along Palmer Park, idled into the center of the course for a few minutes to watch some raceboats run by and then returned to his house.

Riding shotgun in a Doug Wright catamaran on the St. Clair River was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Once the boat was back in his lift and Burgess was off the boat, we grabbed a cold one and headed toward the cranes to see his contributions to the longstanding races in his community. That part was especially cool for my friend, who had never seen a raceboat being craned in and out the water before. From there, we headed to the dry pits—the completely closed Riverside Ave. where offshore racing fans and the general public could see the boats up close.

Walking around there wasn’t easy as Burgess knows practically everyone in the town so it took longer than it normally would. He also knows almost everything about the town, which was clear since he could tell us about almost all of the boats or business we walked by because he either personally knew the owners or knows someone who did. A couple of hours later, including a pit stop for lunch at Ted’s Coney Island, we made it back to Burgess’ house.

After saying goodbye to Burgess—minutes after his son, Brandon, and grandkids, arrived at his home in their Skater Powerboats 368 cat with twin Mercury Racing 450R engines (with Brandon’s friend, Hunter Coe, and his kids in tow)—we hopped in our rented Ford Expedition fleet vehicle, waved goodbye to Chesi Soper, Matt’s too-good-to-be-true wife, and headed to Detroit so we could change and head to the Tigers game with the one-and-only Pete Boden, who grew up in the area and proceeded to give us an incredible four-hour-plus South Michigan history lesson capped off with pizza at Buddy’s, the birthplace of Detroit-style pizza.

For those keeping score, the Tigers beat the Twins handedly, 7-2, making the post-game pizza rush that much busier—and that much more enjoyable.

Related stories
Now Live! Project: Adaption—Doug Wright 42 Carbon Waves And Wheels Edition Video
Sneak Peak: Waves And Wheels Delivers Doug Wright 42 Carbon—Exclusive Video Drops Tomorrow
Commentary: A Boat Ride For A Fan
First Two Doug Wright 39 Carbon Waves And Wheels Edition Cats Nearing Completion
Doug Wright 42 Carbon Waves And Wheels Edition Out Of Paint, New 39 Carbon On Deck
Waves And Wheels ‘Ahead’ With Doug Wright Production Plans
Burgess Family Looking Forward To Doug Wright 42 Carbon Waves And Wheels Edition
Image Of The Week: A Head-Turning Sunsation Debuts On Lake St. Clair