Story by DinaRella / Photos from Phantom, Richard Davis & Ryan Beckley
Part One: The Build
Hollywood has a Bad Boy Will Smith, but the boating industry has the talented namesake with a rep for tooling and turning out some of the most victorious professional racing and vicious pleasure edition Phantom Powerboats, since opening its Sarasota, Florida, doors circa 1986.
Our Will Smith shies away from the spotlight. Not because he spends hours hiding under hatches or wiring below dashes… he just prefers to let his V-bottoms do the talking. And talk they did, at the 2023 Key West World Championships. Actually, it felt like scream and shout — out of 75 race teams, more than ten in the Modified V and Bracket classes were Phantoms. Of those, was the P2 second place winner Justice League, Will’s latest and greatest 39-foot badge of honor. Far from flourishing, as those who lack an understanding of writing would dare to infer, this summer I was at the Phantom shop semi-spying stage one and Will deserves the praise – he built, rigged, wrapped (by Kinetic Animation) and made the V-bottom race-ready in less than 180 days!
Offshore fans under the impression that Justice League was a Cigarette, you are correct; the rehabbed 42’ Flatdeck 188 Revolution was one of the last three fabricated on Thunderboat Row and is the former raceboat of team owner/driver Don Urfur of Raven and Team Shamoo fame. Joining Don, the four-time world champion, are throttleman Richard Davis and navigator/substitute driver Cory Shantry. Richard is another Sarasota local who needs no intros following two decades racing in Team Extreme, Davis Motorsports and Tilted Kilt, not to mention alongside fellow longtime racer Cory in his SVL Extreme Liquid Assets.
Before Will discusses the progression of the build, for clarity, the team talked to RDP about the reason behind the resurrection from the Cigarette to the Phantom. Richard explains, “Our former 42’ Flatdeck was built to run long distances when offshore was offshore. It weighed 15,000 pounds and had a rocker built in for getting on plane with the small block Chevys. Today’s courses are shorter and the rocker was not a good fit to be competitive. We needed to get it out and having this done by a professional is a lost art. It was cheaper to build a new boat.”
“I knew Will had the hull and deck of the 39’ Phantom. Don took a look, liked what he saw, and made a deal. We literally swapped everything in the Cigarette from the wiring harness, communications, Innovation 1100s, the entire drive train, and the huge $10,000 tabs. Even the battery boxes say Cigarette. The way it came together in such a short time was outstanding. It’s one in a million, like a Caddy versus a Land Rover,” adds Richard.
Will: “The hull and deck parts were already laminated, but not assembled. First, we had to focus on the fuel tank layout. How much it needed to have? How many people Donny wanted to fit onboard? None of my enclosed cockpit raceboats can accommodate three, so the plan was to convert it to an open poker run edition capable of competing in P2 (capped at 90 mph) which is the fastest class an open boat can run in.”
“The second month, the boat was turned over for blueprinting to correct any irregularities and to straighten the bottom. This makes the boat faster and improves the handling. Cockpit seating also had to be determined. We ended up using the shock mechanisms from the Cigarette. I made custom mounts out of aluminum and put the reinforcements into the floor, to attach and mount the shock seats. What’s great is that, they are four inches above the floor and there are three and a half inches of travel in the absorbers, so it’s a nice set up if the boat takes a hard hit, the seats go down and come back up.”
The Middle
Will: “By the middle of the summer, we were fitting the deck and motors. Everything had to be roughed in because we didn’t know how much room the motors would take. I had already started on the motor mounts, so we were also doing the layout for those and the stringers, the last of the glass work for attaching the deck, putting in the extra little pieces and coordinating the rigging.”
The End
Will: “The focus in the fifth month was refining the cockpit and engine compartment. Rigging was going on simultaneously while finishing up fiberglass work. We cut the nose down for better visibility, and now that the deck was installed, there was a great field of view. One day I fit the windshields, and then we mocked the cockpit up to make sure it worked ergonomically. For example, with the center seat, I had to anticipate where the throttles would be, since that was the footrest of the navigator, and the front seats had to be positioned for working the throttles and steering wheel. Once I had an idea where everything went, I built the aluminum frame, welded it, made the seat mounts, and fabricated a handle for the throttle controls.”
“By October, with one month to go, we were even heavier into rigging of the monitors and monster Auto Meter gauges. I spent a week under the dash wiring and also custom designed a water ballasting system. Then it was time to make a special mold for the engine cover. This was difficult to forecast exactly how to build until the motors were in. We used all the rigging and hardware from the Cigarette which had really nice stuff. The hatch rams to hold it up were so powerful; they had to be craned off. "
"We put the motors in, fit the cover over the top and went back to rigging. The next time we had it on, it was touching the exhaust and more clearances had to be cut out. After six on and offs, we finally got everything it was hitting. People went crazy over this cover, saying they’d never seen one like that. It has a contoured hour glass look because I combined two covers."
On Wednesday just four days before Key West, the time had arrived for Don, Richard and Cory to fire up the Phantom. Feeling right at home on the water... from its first splashing, Justice League was eating up the ocean taking 90-mph U-turns. Part two "covers" the boat being wrapped and raced to a silver podium finish in Key West.
Part Two: The Wrap and the Race
Part One: The Build
Hollywood has a Bad Boy Will Smith, but the boating industry has the talented namesake with a rep for tooling and turning out some of the most victorious professional racing and vicious pleasure edition Phantom Powerboats, since opening its Sarasota, Florida, doors circa 1986.
Our Will Smith shies away from the spotlight. Not because he spends hours hiding under hatches or wiring below dashes… he just prefers to let his V-bottoms do the talking. And talk they did, at the 2023 Key West World Championships. Actually, it felt like scream and shout — out of 75 race teams, more than ten in the Modified V and Bracket classes were Phantoms. Of those, was the P2 second place winner Justice League, Will’s latest and greatest 39-foot badge of honor. Far from flourishing, as those who lack an understanding of writing would dare to infer, this summer I was at the Phantom shop semi-spying stage one and Will deserves the praise – he built, rigged, wrapped (by Kinetic Animation) and made the V-bottom race-ready in less than 180 days!
Offshore fans under the impression that Justice League was a Cigarette, you are correct; the rehabbed 42’ Flatdeck 188 Revolution was one of the last three fabricated on Thunderboat Row and is the former raceboat of team owner/driver Don Urfur of Raven and Team Shamoo fame. Joining Don, the four-time world champion, are throttleman Richard Davis and navigator/substitute driver Cory Shantry. Richard is another Sarasota local who needs no intros following two decades racing in Team Extreme, Davis Motorsports and Tilted Kilt, not to mention alongside fellow longtime racer Cory in his SVL Extreme Liquid Assets.
Before Will discusses the progression of the build, for clarity, the team talked to RDP about the reason behind the resurrection from the Cigarette to the Phantom. Richard explains, “Our former 42’ Flatdeck was built to run long distances when offshore was offshore. It weighed 15,000 pounds and had a rocker built in for getting on plane with the small block Chevys. Today’s courses are shorter and the rocker was not a good fit to be competitive. We needed to get it out and having this done by a professional is a lost art. It was cheaper to build a new boat.”
“I knew Will had the hull and deck of the 39’ Phantom. Don took a look, liked what he saw, and made a deal. We literally swapped everything in the Cigarette from the wiring harness, communications, Innovation 1100s, the entire drive train, and the huge $10,000 tabs. Even the battery boxes say Cigarette. The way it came together in such a short time was outstanding. It’s one in a million, like a Caddy versus a Land Rover,” adds Richard.
The Build
The BeginningWill: “The hull and deck parts were already laminated, but not assembled. First, we had to focus on the fuel tank layout. How much it needed to have? How many people Donny wanted to fit onboard? None of my enclosed cockpit raceboats can accommodate three, so the plan was to convert it to an open poker run edition capable of competing in P2 (capped at 90 mph) which is the fastest class an open boat can run in.”
“The second month, the boat was turned over for blueprinting to correct any irregularities and to straighten the bottom. This makes the boat faster and improves the handling. Cockpit seating also had to be determined. We ended up using the shock mechanisms from the Cigarette. I made custom mounts out of aluminum and put the reinforcements into the floor, to attach and mount the shock seats. What’s great is that, they are four inches above the floor and there are three and a half inches of travel in the absorbers, so it’s a nice set up if the boat takes a hard hit, the seats go down and come back up.”
The Middle
Will: “By the middle of the summer, we were fitting the deck and motors. Everything had to be roughed in because we didn’t know how much room the motors would take. I had already started on the motor mounts, so we were also doing the layout for those and the stringers, the last of the glass work for attaching the deck, putting in the extra little pieces and coordinating the rigging.”
The End
Will: “The focus in the fifth month was refining the cockpit and engine compartment. Rigging was going on simultaneously while finishing up fiberglass work. We cut the nose down for better visibility, and now that the deck was installed, there was a great field of view. One day I fit the windshields, and then we mocked the cockpit up to make sure it worked ergonomically. For example, with the center seat, I had to anticipate where the throttles would be, since that was the footrest of the navigator, and the front seats had to be positioned for working the throttles and steering wheel. Once I had an idea where everything went, I built the aluminum frame, welded it, made the seat mounts, and fabricated a handle for the throttle controls.”
“By October, with one month to go, we were even heavier into rigging of the monitors and monster Auto Meter gauges. I spent a week under the dash wiring and also custom designed a water ballasting system. Then it was time to make a special mold for the engine cover. This was difficult to forecast exactly how to build until the motors were in. We used all the rigging and hardware from the Cigarette which had really nice stuff. The hatch rams to hold it up were so powerful; they had to be craned off. "
"We put the motors in, fit the cover over the top and went back to rigging. The next time we had it on, it was touching the exhaust and more clearances had to be cut out. After six on and offs, we finally got everything it was hitting. People went crazy over this cover, saying they’d never seen one like that. It has a contoured hour glass look because I combined two covers."
Mic Drop Moment
On Wednesday just four days before Key West, the time had arrived for Don, Richard and Cory to fire up the Phantom. Feeling right at home on the water... from its first splashing, Justice League was eating up the ocean taking 90-mph U-turns. Part two "covers" the boat being wrapped and raced to a silver podium finish in Key West.
Part Two: The Wrap and the Race
