Skater 388 Catamaran Review, Specs and Buying Guide

Boat Skater DNA in a 38-foot package

When people search for boat Skater or Skater boat, they are usually looking at catamarans like this one. Skater Powerboats was founded by Peter Hledin in 1974 and still builds in Douglas, Michigan, in a 95,000-square-foot plant. The company calls itself the world's leading builder of high-performance catamarans, and the 388 is the model that best backs up the claim.

Skater's own description is blunt: the 388 is the current offshore racing national and world championship winning model, it has won several shootouts at speeds above 190 mph, and it is the best seller in the catamaran lineup. The company sums it up as the Skater to own if you want to keep it under 40 feet.

Skater has not published a launch year for the 388, and we could not verify one. It was clearly established by 2010, when Mike Romer's 388 ran 186 mph at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, and it has been in continuous production since.

Epoxy, S2-glass and a hull built to order

Every 388 is custom. Skater offers it only as a flat-deck boat with a wraparound windshield, built at standard width or widened by up to 10 inches, with seating from five up to seven in the widened version. The published specification lists 38 feet of length, an 11-foot beam, a 19-degree sponson deadrise and an inboard weight of 4,400 pounds, which reads like a hull and deck figure rather than a running weight.

The basic inboard boat is built entirely with epoxy and vacuum-bagging techniques using S2-glass, carbon fiber and balsa core sandwich. The heavy-duty transom is braced by four knees and six structural bulkheads, the hull and deck are bonded around the entire perimeter, and every fitting is through-bolted with stainless fasteners and nylon locknuts. Skater says it was the first in the performance industry to perfect vacuum bagging, S-glass, Kevlar, carbon and epoxy construction.

Fuel capacity is listed at 360 gallons, while the standard equipment list mentions twin 130-gallon tanks with ethanol-resistant liners. Treat 260 gallons as the base and confirm what any given boat carries.

Shootout records and the Super Cat class

No production boat has a more crowded trophy shelf. At the 2014 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, throttleman John Tomlinson ran 197 mph in an open-cockpit 388 owned by Jon Roth, a record that still stands for Skater catamarans at that event. Gary Smith's twin-turbo Predator III, a 388SS, set a 204 mph shootout record at the Desert Storm event in Lake Havasu, and Don London's Dial 911 has run 185 mph at the Shootout and 199.5 mph to win the 2024 Desert Storm title.

On the racecourse, the 388 is the default choice in offshore racing's Super Cat class. In 2024 and 2026 the fastest Super Cat boats were 388s, including M CON/Monster Energy, Dirty Money, C.J. Grant/Graydel and CR Racing, and Speed On The Water described the model as dominant in that class in 2026.

Those numbers come from boats with 1,600 to 2,000-plus horsepower per side and professional crews. A pleasure 388 on Mercury Racing 1100 or 1350 engines is a very different, far more usable boat, but it shares the hull that wins.

Choosing power for a pleasure 388

Most pleasure 388s run twin turbocharged Mercury Racing inboards with No. 6 or No. 8 drives. Listings we reviewed show Mercury Racing 1100s, 1350s and dual-calibration 1350/1100 setups, plus supercharged Sterling engines that can be tuned from 1,100 to 1,500 horsepower depending on fuel and boost. Bill Pyburn's famous Pure Platinum 388s used Chief engines rated at 1,600 hp and later 1,800-plus-hp Goodwin Competition engines.

In 2022 Steve Bareman of Michigan took delivery of the first 388 powered by outboards, a pair of Mercury Racing 450Rs, and reported a 115 mph top speed. Outboard power trades the headline speed of big inboards for far lower maintenance and simpler service, which makes sense for owners who mostly run poker runs and lakes.

Skater says the 388 runs speeds similar to its smaller, lighter 368 sibling, and that the extra 2 feet of length gives it a clear ride advantage when the water gets rough. That is the real reason to choose a 388 over a 368.

What a fast catamaran really costs to keep

Owning a 388 is closer to running a race car than a center console. Big-block and turbocharged inboards need periodic rebuilds, and listings routinely quote hours since the last rebuild rather than total hours. Drives, propellers and the triple-axle trailer every 388 lives on add more. A realistic annual budget is $50,000 to $150,000 including fuel, engine and drive service, insurance and storage, before any rebuild.

Insurance and crewing matter. Underwriters will want to see catamaran experience, and many owners attend a driving school or run with a seasoned throttleman before taking a 388 near its limits.

Reading a Skater boat for sale listing

Used 388s rarely sell cheap. Recent asks we saw run from $699,950 for a 2012 boat with Mercury Racing 1350s and M8 drives to $975,000 for a 2019 on Mercury Racing 1100s with a Visual Imagination paint job, and $950,000 for a 2021. Even a 2014 hull was offered at $824,995 in 2026 with 60 hours on its engines.

Because hulls age slowly and engines are rebuilt or replaced, the year matters less than the powertrain. Ask for dyno sheets, rebuild invoices and drive service records, and expect race-pedigree boats to come with extra scrutiny from surveyors and insurers.

A note on the Player 388 search

Some searches pair Skater 388 with unrelated questions such as whether Player 388 is a Marine. That phrase refers to a fictional contestant in a streaming TV drama, not a boat, and has no connection to Skater Powerboats. If you are here for the catamaran, the details above are what matter.