Yes, there are HydroStreams in Alaska as evident in this picture of Ron Pratt's gorgeous V-King with a snow-covered volcano in the background in southern Alaska. Ron bought his boat in April of '99 in Seattle, WA for $4500.00.  It had a 200 Mariner mounted directly to the transom and went around 78 mph with a 26" Michigan thru-hub stainless prop.  None of the gauges worked at that time either. After adding a Stainless Marine slip-on LWP, Jack plate, and 28" Chopper he got 82 mph.  Last winter Ron re-cored the pad, replaced the entire floor, and blueprinted the bottom. That got him up to 85 mph. He was happy with the set-up until he got to go for a ride in a much faster boat.  Within one month Ron found Bob Garone and his '92 EFI Bridgeport (240 hp) powerhead, and Sean Scully in Florida with an "Alien" cowl.  He had Bob G. add a HD steering arm, Off Shore exhaust divider, Bob's foot throttle, exhaust housing, nose cone, solid mounts, Merc 10,000 tach, 100 mph speedo, temp gauge w/ sender, Bosch fuel pump w/ solenoid, and final filter to the order and send the whole package including the cowl (which he had sent up from Florida) from Long Island to Alaska ($289.00 freight). Ron added upper tie bars to the transom to support the added HP.  He then pulled the exhaust liner and drilled out the back of the upper exhaust ports and drilled eight 1/2" holes in the lower part of the midsection (see photo).  He now runs a 30" Cleaver 105 mph @ 7300 rpm's.  The boat handles awesome!!  It's rock solid with no chine walking what-so-ever.  Ron is running the tip of the nosecone 3/4" above the pad with 5 1/2" setback.  As Ron says, he couldn't be happier!! Ron's newest project is to move the backseat forward a little, and add a combination sundeck/hatch behind the seat.

Over the past year, Ron has sent me a number of pictures of his boat, but recently I was able to view a video of his boat which included a good walk-a-round of the boat/motor as well as action video. I have to say that not only is this boat extremely impressive in its speed and stability, but Ron has done an absolutely outstanding job of making improvements on this boat since the time he acquired it. I have seen a lot of people cut corners and rig their boats improperly, but Ron obviously put a lot of thought and effort into setting up a fast and safe boat. Congratulations, Ron, on a very professional job!