Inside Electronics Unlimited: Ron Muller Has Go-Fast Boating Wired

Since buying Electronics Unlimited in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with a partner in 2010, Skater Powerboats 308 catamaran owner Ron Muller has been the go-to guy when it comes specifying, installing and servicing electronics in the high-performance powerboat industry. He works with the likes of Randy Scism at MTI, Peter Hledin at Skater Powerboats, Trond Schou and his team at Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats, the current ownership and management and group at Cigarette Racing Team, Grant Bruggemann at Grant’s Signature Racing and noteworthy members of the industry.

The owner of Electronics Unlimited, Ron Muller, treated his son, Ethan, Skater Powerboats founder Peter Hledlin, offshore racing great Bob Loffler and the author to a ride in his 30-footer in March during the Outboard Skater Fun Run in Sarasota, Fla. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

“Ron is one of the good guys in Florida,” Scism said. “He’s always done everything he can to help us out.”

Straight out of trade/technical school, Muller, who is 61 years old, began working for Electronics Unlimited in 1982, some 28 years before he bought the now-50-year-old company with his late business partner. His longtime friend Bruggemann describes Muller as “a wealth of knowledge.”

“Ron is our main supplier of electronics, from Garmin GPS units to JL Audio/Fusion sounds systems,” Bruggemann said. “He’s always quick to send us whatever we need or help in any way he can. I’m very excited to work with him on upcoming projects.”

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A look inside Electronics Unlimited.

Yet the high-performance market represents a fraction of Muller’s overall business, which has 28 employees and a second location in Stuart, Fla. Electronics Unlimited carries every major brand of marine electronics.

“We work on a vast range of boats from 13 to 300 feet,” Muller explained. “We have installed electronics systems on yachts all over the world. I would say that 66 percent of the boats we handle are more than 60 feet long.

“I have great relationships with builders of high-performance boats,” he added. “But that came out of my own passion for high-performance.”

Muller grew up enjoying speed on the water. Eventually, he got to know offshore racer Bob Loffler, who became a multi-time champion and kilometer record-holder. Muller rigged a 24-foot Skater pleasure cat for Loffler and later rigged three raceboats for him.

Ron Muller and his son, Ethan, enjoy time on the water together.

Muller bought his first Skater catamaran—a still-new 2006 model-year 28-footer in storage—from Loffler in 2010.

“I bought that boat brand-new and rigged it myself,” he said. “I installed an all-digital dash. It was the first Skater 28 to have a digital dash.”

Muller also bought his current 2010 model-year Skater 308 cat from the former offshore racer in 2017. Less than two months ago, he swapped out its six-cylinder Mercury Racing 400R outboards for Mercury Racing 450Rs outboards, which are based on V-8 architecture.

A pair of Mercury Racing 450R outboards currently power Muller’s ride. Photo courtesy Ron Muller.

Asked what’s in the electronics world for go-fast catamarans and V-bottom sportboats, Muller said he rarely gets requests for anything more exotic beyond GPS units, C-Zone switching and stereo systems.

“It’s pretty basic stuff in that segment,” he said.

But with larger performance-oriented center consoles becoming more common and being used for island hopping in far-flung places such as the Bahamas where Internet access is sketchy, the Starlink system for remote Internet access has become a hot ticket.

“With Starlink, your whole boat basically becomes a hotspot,” Muller explained. “It’s become a very popular option on bigger boats. I think I’ve done seven or eight Cigarette center consoles with it.”

Four years ago during the week leading up to the Joey Gratton Memorial New Year’s Day Fun Run in Sarasota, Fla., Muller was chatting with his friend, Chris LaMorte of New Jersey, who owned a 28-foot outboard-powered Skater at the time. Like Muller. LeMorte was in town for the Gratton event. The topic turned to their mutual love of outboard-powered Skaters and the invitational Skater Outboard Fun Run was born.

The annual event is limited to 10 to 12 outboard-powered Skater cats. For the first time, Skater Powerboats owner/founder Peter Hledin and national sales manager Tony Cutsuries joined the group earlier this year.

The invitational Outboard Skater Fun group is close-knit.

“We want to keep it small,” Muller said. “It’s such a great group of people. All the guys I’ve met through the high-performance and the marine industry are my good friends.”

In a few years, Muller and his fellow outboard-powered Skater owners will have to find a new headquarters for the event. Its current Sarasota Hyatt Hotel venue reportedly will be demolished and replaced with condominiums in the near future.

This weekend, Muller will travel to Skater headquarters in Douglas, Mich. For the moment at least, he’s keeping the specific reason for his visit to himself. But he did say that his 308 may soon find itself on the market.

“There could be another Skater project in our future,” he said, then chuckled. “For me, it’s all about the journey.”