Words Jason Johnson l photos Tom Leigh and Teague Custom Marine

A couple of months after breaking in their brand new 26 Savage from Adrenaline Custom Boats in Phelan, Calif., owners Josh and Cherilyn Noack of Teague Custom Marine in Valencia, Calif., took the opportunity to show off the boat at a couple of substantial events in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.—the Lake Havasu Boat Show in early April and the Desert Storm Poker Run at the end of the month.

The first 26-footer from Adrenaline to hit the water (the second out of the molds), the boat got a lot of attention, and not just because of its gorgeous red, gray and white gelcoat graphics and twin red and black Mercury Racing 300R outboard engines that matched the color scheme perfectly. The attention to detail and fit and finish—much of which was accomplished by Josh Noack and the team at TCM after taking delivery of the ready-to-be-rigged, half-capped hull and deck—were off the charts and the boat’s performance, according to Noack, was impressive for a 26-foot cat.

Impressive enough to have already put 30 hours on the new 300-hp 4.6-liter V-8 outboard engines because he’s enjoying the boat—dubbed Sweat Equity—so much.

“Our family is really enjoying the boat—the kids love it,” Josh Noack said, referring to his sons, Cru and Nixon. (By the way, Noack’s father-in-law, legendary powerboat test driver and offshore racer Bob Teague, also has high praise for the boat.) “When I took it to the Lake Havasu Boat Show, I was thinking I’d probably sell it, but that kind of defeats the purpose of building a boat for the family. I’d want to build a new one and that would just take up my evenings and weekends again so I’d rather get out there and use this one and spend that time with my family.

“Now would I say that if the boat didn’t run so great, who knows?” he continued. “I’ve had it up to 115 mph—that was with some loaner 36”-pitch cleavers and it might have been faster if I had more space to run. But I don’t need all-out top speed, especially when my family is with me. We like to cruise, and this boat loves to cruise at 70, 80, 90 mph. The best part is that we can get more than two miles per gallon the whole time.”

Noack originally ordered and installed the 300-hp outboards with a 1.75:1 gear ratio in their lower units. Since then, Mercury Racing has added a 1.60:1 gear ratio option for the engine, which will be available in August, and Noack has already ordered a set. He’s hoping the new lower-unit gear ratio will provide a more affordable alternative to gain speed.

While Noack also plans to try some other props in the near future, said he’s pretty happy with the 15 1/4” x 34”-pitch MAX5 propellers he’s using for weekend boating in and around Discovery Bay, the town in which he grew up. His parents, Mark and Shirl Noack, who have owned several performance boats including the DCB F29 Pegged that was recently repowered with twin 1,200-hp supercharged TCM engines, still live there; as does his brother, Nick.

After getting to ride with the couple and their oldest son, Cru, the first weekend they took the sport cat out in Discovery Bay, I can attest to the boat’s performance. While the California Delta was far from bumpy or busy on the cool—per California standards—February day, we managed to come across a couple of cruiser wakes and some wind chop to get a good feel for the boat. It was solid, that’s for sure, and super stable. The windshield did its job, and we could hold a conversation without raising our voices.

The 26-footer turned crisply and cruised smoothly in the 70- to 90-mph range. It also got on plane with ease and, for the fun of it, we did a couple of acceleration drills, and the boat felt lively. It blasted from 40 to 60 mph in 6.1 seconds and took just 11.5 seconds from 40 to 80 mph.

Not only could I tell the boat was well built in all aspects, what stood out to me was how stylish, comfortable and kid-friendly the reliable sport cat was all around. Needless to say, the Noacks are stoked.

In a roundabout way they ended up getting in touch with Dean Brown, a longtime TCM customer most recently with a TCM-powered Howard Custom Boats Sport Deck, because Brown, who in 2016 founded Adrenaline (not to be confused with Adrenaline Powerboats in Georgia), had recently purchased the F26 molds from DCB Performance Boats in El Cajon, Calif.

“We’ve known Dean for many years, in fact two of the 28 Savage cats he’s built have been powered by TCM engines,” Cherilyn Noack said. “Still, we didn’t know that he had purchased the DCB F26 molds until Josh and I started looking into getting an outboard-powered cat that we thought would be fun with the kids as well as a great opportunity to showcase the outboard side of Teague Custom Marine’s business. We’re a diverse company—we can work on anything.”

The collaboration began almost immediately and before the Noacks knew it, the boat and its a new custom trailer from Extreme Trailers was in Valencia late last summer awaiting its power plants and the color-matched interior was coming together via Adrenaline’s upholstery supplier.

The new 300R engines—one of the first sets to ship from the Fond du Lac, Wis., factory—didn’t arrive until December but Josh Noack was ready to go once they did. He had already selected gauges, controls and an LED trim indicator from Livorsi Marine as well as the Mercury VesselView and Simrad displays and JL Audio stereo system used in the roomy, five-seat cockpit.

He also ordered a set of STR X-ACT adjustable mounting brackets and went to work with the team at IMCO Marine to help them develop a new steering kit for the 300Rs.

“We do a lot with IMCO Marine and we sell a ton of the company’s steering systems, so we worked together and sent parts back and forth to create a complete steering system for these engines,” Josh Noack said. “Even though an outboard boat is a little simpler to rig, this boat still took a lot of man hours. We tried to hide everything as much as possible—the battery switches and circuit breakers are hidden—and we used a lot of custom components from the battery boxes and fittings to the mounting brackets and bezels. As usual, we got a little carried away. There’s a lot of LED lighting, and everything that can be polished is polished.”

The Noacks were more than pleased with the work done by the team at Adrenaline and how accommodating Brown and company were with some of their requests, including a windshield that’s four inches taller than the standard offering and lower front seats.

“I think the boat turned out great; it’s a perfect example of what sets us apart—we give our customers what they want,” said Brown, who also owns a custom home-building company in Southern California. “I’ve ordered and built several boats over the years and no one wants to do anything really custom because it takes too long.

That’s not a knock on the custom boat builders out there, it’s just a fact that they only offer so many options and are not going to create a new mold because you want the window a little taller.”

Yet that’s exactly what Brown and company did when Noack requested a different windshield than what was originally designed for the boat. And that’s exactly what they’ll do for the next 26 Savage customer or the person who orders one of the company’s new 35-foot catamaran currently being tooled.

Brown did admit that he wouldn’t normally give his customers a bare hull like he did for the Noacks—it’s only because he knew that TCM was more than capable of churning out quality rigging and finish work. It also had something to do with getting the attention that comes from having a boat in the “Teague” lineage.

“Along with the new 35, we’ve got a couple of new 26s coming—one with a removable open bow that blows away anything you’ve seen done before,” Brown said. “The technology behind what we’re doing is incredible. Our construction process is super clean and the layup is so consistent. There’s no wood in our boats; it’s all Penske and Coosa Bluewater composites with a vacuum-bagged infusion process.

“I’ll build whatever you want as long as I think we can do it—and we’ve got a talented crew that I believe can do anything,” he added with a chuckle.

Thanks to a newfound appreciation for Sweat Equity (in more ways than one), the Noack family would likely have the Adrenaline crew build them another boat, which says a lot considering the pedigree.

As published online from Speed On The Water.
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Former Powerboat editor Jason Johnson was an integral part of the magazine staff from 2005 through 2011, utilizing journalistic integrity and experience in and around performance boats to report on all aspects of the go-fast lifestyle. The award-winning writer resides in Southern California and is the executive editor and co-publisher of speedonthewater.com.

Teague Custom Marine is one of the few CARB (California Air Resources Board) certified high performance engine builders in California at 600-hp and above. For more information about TCM, visit teaguecustommarine.com or give them a call at (661) 295-7000.

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