Ready For A Desert Debut Do-Over: Restored Tommy Bahama MTI

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Ready for a desert debut do-over, the anticipated comeback of the famous MTI Tommy Bahama catamaran is ready to hit the water again! After being converted for recreational use, the 44 footer has been repurposed for racing again and was delayed it’s come back due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more below to see how the famous race boat has made its way back in the spotlight!

Tom Mischke, the Gilbert, Ariz.-based owner of an MTI catamaran that began its life as the former Tommy Bahama race boat and later was converted for recreational use, planned to unveil the meticulously restored 44-footer during the 2020 Desert Storm Poker Run in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. That didn’t happen with the event’s COVID-19-fueled cancellation, but if current plans hold he’ll have it at Super Cat Fest West, April 15-18, as well as the Desert Storm Poker Run, the following week.

Though Mischke was disappointed after putting hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars into the famed, twin 800-hp powered MTI catamaran, last year’s Desert Storm cancellation that didn’t dull his enthusiasm for the project. With the boat’s restoration complete, he set his sights on building a “toy barn” to store it in Parker, Ariz., a quiet town on the shores of the Colorado River about 40 miles down the road from Lake Havasu City. “This is going to sound crazy, but we haven’t splashed the boat since we got it back from (former Tommy Bahama crew chief) Douglas Hahn’s place in Virginia Beach (Va.) in last year,” he said. “We ran it there but haven’t run it since in Arizona.

“We just finished up our toy barn for it in Parker,” he continued. “It will house Tommy Bahama, my jet boat and a couple of choppers. My wife, Julie, is putting a bar in. She’s making it into my man-cave.” Mischke said he’s hoping to have Mark Nemschoff, Tommy Bahama’s original owner, run the cat with MTI principal Randy Scism, during one or both of the upcoming Lake Havasu events. If that happens, he’ll deck them out in new Tommy Bahama shirts created by Tyler Kaddatz of TK Kustoms.

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Original article published on speedonthewater.com.