Front Runner Boats, From Refit Shop to Offshore Catamaran Builder

Two fishing buddies and a 38-foot Fountain

Mark Lacovara and Phillip Mahn got into the business sideways. In 2011 the two anglers bought a used 38-foot Fountain, fixed it up and sold it, then repeated the trick until nine sportfishers had passed through their hands. Working as Grand Slam Boats out of St. Augustine, they became known as the shop that corrected other builders' mistakes, and owners towed boats in from hundreds of miles away. A dealership came next. When the partners concluded that nothing on the production market was built the way they wanted, they started Front Runner to build it themselves.

Home base is northeast Florida. Marlin magazine located the plant at Green Cove Springs, while the company's own contact details point to Jacksonville.

From the 33 CC to the 43 Cat

Front Runner's first act was monohulls. Its stand at the Miami International Boat Show in 2023 showed nothing but deep-V center consoles, the 26 CC, 33 CC, 36 CC, 39 CC and 47 CC. The Front Runner 33 CC, which has its own page here, was a mid-size offshore console that lasted only a handful of seasons, roughly 2022 to 2025, before dropping off the lineup.

The second act is catamarans. The 37 Cat came first, and in 2025 the builder rolled out the Front Runner 43 Cat, a quad-outboard, twin-stepped fishing cat with a very large fuel capacity, followed that autumn by the 43 HTX, a version of the same hull with a head, shower and berth that premiered at the Fort Lauderdale show. For 2026 the catalog lists the 35 Cat, 37 Cat and 43 Cat plus the 43 HTX, with a 55 Cat under development. Dimensions, engine packages and test results for the 33 CC and the 43 Cat sit on their model pages.

Buying from a young, fast-moving builder

A builder this young has little resale history to judge. Used 43 Cats so far are first-year boats with few hours, usually still in Florida and often carrying the balance of their Mercury warranty, and our model page estimates them at about $850,000 to $1.2 million. A secondhand 33 CC is hard to find; the estimate there is about $280,000 to $440,000, and engine hours and warranty count for more than model year. Build specs vary from hull to hull, so phone the factory with the HIN and ask for the original build sheet.

On a cat with four outboards the engines dominate running costs, and Mercury's dealers are the main service route.

• Ask for each outboard's maintenance history and how its warranty transfers.
• Look over the transom and the engine bracket where the motors bolt on.
• Examine the hull steps and the underside of each sponson for impact marks.
• Test livewells, sea chests and fish box macerators.
• Confirm the fuel gauges read correctly and the fill lines do not leak.