Mike and Sarah Howe run one of the most-watched boating channels on YouTube. Howe2Live has 1.47 million subscribers, with their most popular video pulling 4.4 million views. The content is long-form and story-driven, built around high-speed adventures, world record attempts and original music. No shortcuts, no AI visuals: the channel is explicit about that.
Mike Howe came to powerboating via an unusual route. He and his twin brother were the engineers of their peer group growing up, eventually building life-saving robots for firefighters, first responders and the military, with contracts worth millions of dollars and entries in the Guinness World Records. In 2018 their firm was acquired by Textron. With that chapter closed, Mike and Sarah turned to the water, exploring the Bahamas and southern Florida at high speed and covering tens of thousands of miles above 100 mph. They set two offshore world records: Portland, Maine to Key West, and New York City to Miami, with a New York to Hatteras record along the way.
The Solent 80
UK readers who follow UKOPRA will know the name already. Mike made his racing debut at the Solent 80 in 2024, crewing Rob Locker’s Mercury-powered Outerlimits 52V, Good Boy Vodka, alongside Tim Linden and Scott Younger. They won the race overall.
I presented trophies at Haslar Marina that afternoon. The champagne came rather close.
Mike returned to racing at the 2025 Offshore World Championships in Key West, this time in Locker’s 40ft Outerlimits in the Super VC class. They made the podium once. But it was a different boat that redirected everything. Offered a drive in the X Insurance turbine catamaran on the final day of racing, he turned hard at 140 mph. One corner was all it took. From that point he knew he had to be racing a cat.
The Skater 388
Mid-November 2025, the Howes bought CR’s old Jimmy John’s Skater 388, an inboard catamaran with a top speed record of 205 mph and more class podiums than any comparable hull. They had two to three months to prepare it for the 2026 IHRA Offshore season. At the same time, construction of the DSK Super Kraken K2 was continuing at their boatyard in Charleston, a 40,000 lb support vessel and brand showcase for the DSK race team. Two boats, two locations, simultaneously.
Cade Wilson, owner of Sterling Engines, came on board as driver and sponsor after the pair met at the Key West World Championships. Crew chief Eric Draper, a full-time firefighter, completed the core team. After preparation at Performance Boat Center and a custom trailer from CTS, the Skater shipped south to Fort Myers for open-water testing.
The fire
Testing had gone well. Trim characteristics worked through, the boat running at over 100 mph, turns practised at controlled speeds. On the run back to Santael boat launch, with Draper at the helm, fire broke out. Three-foot flames poured from the intake vents.
The crew emptied both fire extinguishers in ten seconds. No effect. They called across the water to passing boaters. Fire extinguishers came back, thrown from multiple angles, some caught, some bouncing off the deck. Still nothing. Draper, drawing on his firefighting experience, put the time to explosion at under a minute. Mike stuck one last extinguisher through the second vent and let it go. The internal suppression system had already fired inside the engine bay. Between the two, the flames came low enough to open the hatch and finish the job.
The motors were black. Everything was melted. The stainless fuel lines were steaming but intact. A $2 water pump bearing had failed, the engine lost coolant, and the exhaust ran hot enough to ignite the boat. Three of the hardest weeks of their lives, and the race at St. Pete was days away.
The team decided before they left the launch that they were going to St. Pete regardless. Sterling rebuilt the engine and shipped it back. They made it with three days to spare.
The 2026 season
The latest episode opens with the Howe2Live boat running at over 130 mph through the corners of the 2026 New Orleans Offshore Grand Prix, racing in IHRA Offshore. How the team got from the burning boat launch in Fort Myers to the start line in Louisiana is the subject of a 27-minute video that covers the world record background, the racing history, the Skater build and the fire in full. St. Pete and New Orleans are held over for the next episode.
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John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
