Eight-Seat ‘Outta Pocket’ 388 A Welcome Change For Second-Time Skater Owner

For his first Skater catamaran, Kevin Birrell went almost as big as he could with a pre-owned 46-footer powered by 600-plus-cubic-inch, 1,200-hp engines. But despite the boat’s formidable dimensions, it lacked one significant element for the longtime Virginia resident and his family.

Seating. The cat had six seats, and that wasn’t enough for Birrell when his family and a couple of friends were on board.

Kevin Birrell ran his new eight-seat Skater 388 hard during the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

“The 46 is a really big boat,” he explained. “We like to bring a lot of people with us.”

Birrell reached out to Skater national sales manager Tony Cutsuries about converting the 46-footer’s cockpit to an eight-seat layout, but the news wasn’t good. Cutsuries steered him away from the notion as the conversion had been tried but didn’t work well. So working with Cutsuries and Ross Ramsey of RP Elite Motors and Marine—the brand’s exclusive dealer—he ordered a new Skater 388 with an eight-seat cockpit.

His timing couldn’t have been better. Beau Renfroe, the owner of the Dirty Money Racing team, had a 38-footer for pleasure use in production. More focused on his Super Cat-class offshore racing campaign, Renfroe was willing to part with his almost-paint-ready 388.

Birrell previously owned a 46-foot Skater catamaran.

Longtime Skater graphics-man Steve Schulte painted the cat, which Birrell dubbed Outta Pocket, in house at the Douglas,Mich., facility. Craig Ellis of Appearance products in nearby Grand Rapids handled the cat’s interior.

But for rigging on the boat’s twin Mercury Racing 1100 engines and No. 6 drives, Birrell turned to his friend Grant Bruggemann of Grant’s Signature Racing in Bradenton, Fla. The two had worked together before—Bruggemann and his crew had repowered Birell’s Cigarette 39 Top Fish center console a few years earlier—and the owner was pleased with the result.

“Grant, Kellie (Bruggemann) and the boys at Grant’s are awesome—I love them,” he said. “They did everything they said they were going to do on time. If I ever build another new boat, they are going to rig it.”

The completed 388 was ready in June this year. Birrell and Bruggemann ran the cat for the first time on Sarasota Bay, and then it was hauled back to Virginia for the summer.

Birrell wasted no time putting the eight-seater to good use.

“I ran on the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay, but my first poker run was Rockin’ The Harbor in Baltimore,” he said. “We ended up doing three runs on the Chesapeake Bay including the first Art Lilly Memorial Fun Run.

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A stunner from any angle, Birrell’s Skater 388 has already seen plenty of action.

From there the boat went back to Grant’s Signature Racing for the manufacturer-recommend 25-hour service of its turbocharged 1,100-hp engines. Then it was off to the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout.

“I had heard about LOTO and seen it in pictures, but I had no clue it would be that much fun,” he added. “I did the Skater photo-shoot run there, and it was about as close to heaven as guy who dreams about being an offshore racer can get.”

Following the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, Birrell delivered the cat to Mark Morris at Visual Imagination for some paint touch-up work, the by-product of a “cover malfunction.”

And then it was ready for the Florida Powerboat Club Key West Poker Run Week event earlier this month.

“The 388 is like a Porsche Carrera compared to the 46, which is more like a Cadillac Eldorado,” Birrell explained. “The throttle response with the 1100s? It’s like a sportscar.

“The 46 would a great rough-water boat,” he added, then chuckled. “But I never ran it rough water.”

Now the Outta Pocket Skater is back at Grant’s Signature Racing for the winter. Birrell plans to have it back in action in time for the Florida Powerboat Club Miami Boat Show event. He has a second home in Islamorada, so it is sure to get some additional running time in the Upper Florida Keys.

Kevin Birrell (center) “The 388 is like a Porsche Carrera compared to the 46, which is more like a Cadillac Eldorado

Birrell’s 2026 event plans also include the club’s Tampa Bay affair, the Tickfaw 200 Poker Run—he ran his 46-footer in the 2025 Louisiana event—as well as poker runs on his home-water, the Pirates of Lanier Charity Poker Run in Georgia, Rockin’ The Harbor and, of course, a return trip to the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout.

“Kevin uses his boats hard,” Bruggemann said, then laughed.

That remains Birrell’s over-arching goal for next year, because he couldn’t be happier with the finished product.

“It’s perfect with eight seats,” he said. “If Tony at Skater said, ‘We’re changing the 388, what would you like to see?’ I wouldn’t change a thing. My kids love it. We all love it.”