It’s said that not every idea is a good idea. Well, in honor of that little truism, behold the Power-Ski. This little standup power catamaran looks fun, but like most human-driven machines of her day, was also likely Unsafe at Any Speed. In the cover photo from Jack Drury’s book Fort Lauderdale: Playground of the Stars, we see Drury following California sea goddess, surfer, diver, and Sea Hunt stuntwoman Wende Wagner just off Lauderdale’s Jolly Roger Motel.
The origins of Wagner’s standup steed are murky. Our sister publication Soundings, credits the invention to Lauderdale marina owner Fred Guiliano in 1960. But a Power-Ski graces a 1959 Mechanix Illustrated magazine cover. And the 1958 teen romance Summer Love shows Jill St. John and John Saxon blasting around atop a pair of these water mowers on California’s Lake Arrowhead. That race scene is fascinating because it shows both function and danger. Unsinkable foam-filled sponsons were linked by hinged aluminum bars and an aluminum transom. Standing astride those sponsons, the rider gripped a pivoting throttle bar. Forward, five gallons of explosive pre-mix. Rearward, 16-to-20-horsepower Scott-Atwater or Evinrude-driven death blades spun you to 30-plus knots. To turn, you simply leaned her over—and in Summer Love, they really threw them around.
Your Power & Motoryacht editors got a good laugh over safety issues these little aquatic buzzsaws presented; bury a pontoon in a wave and catapult forward with the whole contraption landing on your head—exposed prop blades and all. Lean too hard and fly off in a somersault of spray. Roll her over to create your own oil spill. “Maybe it didn’t take off because this woman cut her head off,” Dan Harding joked. But was the Power-Ski really a bloodbath waiting to happen? If you involuntarily dismounted, hydraulics in the throttle automatically shifted the motor to neutral—a decade before the first “kill switches” appeared. The pontoons are actually pretty far apart, and watching Summer Love, the kids seem to have no trouble with stability. Life jackets? Hell, only one percent of car drivers even wore seatbelts in 1960. We have no record of a Power-Ski killing anyone, but then again, we don’t have much record of these little thrill machines at all. Should anyone have a lead on one that we could take for a spin, well, we’d like to determine for ourselves whether she was really a bad idea. And should we go ass over elbows, we promise not to sue. And to our faithful audience, we’ll do you one better and film it, of course.
This article originally appeared in the November 2025 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
