Ultra Custom

It took Sipes approximately four days to build the system. The total cost of the boat? A cool $95,000. That includes the custom-painted engine cover and the trailer with its 18" Alba 680 Flex wheels with Yokohama tires.

NavigatorWhile Sipes worked on the boat, Ewing was busy with the install on West's Navigator. It's a good example of a clean install with a little flair that adds multimedia functionality without taking away cargo space. Not exactly what we might call a soccer-mom system--but as West's wife also uses the Lincoln, it wouldn't be inappropriate to label it as such.

Speak to MeIn the factory locations, Arc Audio components were used in the SUV as well. The Kar Series 652's are in front and back--nothing out of the ordinary here. Ewing, however, did have to get creative for the subwoofer and amp placement. He made a sub enclosure/amprack combo out of fiberglass with MDF baffles and had it covered with exterior-matching vinyl. The sub is angled on one side, while an Arc 5-channel, the 5150-XXK, running at 4 ohms on the four main channels and 2 ohms for the 12D4, rests under an acrylic cover. With no other processors used, the amplifier was used to set crossovers. The entire combo box flips up so that the driver can access a small storage area underneath.

Up front in the dash, resides the new Pioneer AVIC-D1 double-DIN unit.

Directed Electronics 7-inch headrest monitors with factory-matching headrests provide video entertainment for the rear passengers. A Directed video switcher is located in the rear of the center console.

Speaker SetupThe speaker array is made up of Arc Audio's Kar line. A pair of 5 1/4" Kar 5022's rests in the front end of the bow section. They were mounted in a custom-built interior produced by Ultra's in-house upholstery shop. In the rear section of the bow area are two sets of the Kar 6 1/2" component set. Custom-built pods were made of MDF and fiberglass and then wrapped in matching vinyl. Near the middle of the boat you see the 5 1/4" coaxials in front of the driver and passenger seats. In the rear there are two more sets of the 6 1/2" speakers in MDF and fiberglass pods that were gel-coated to match the outside of the boat. The pods were mounted into the side panels of the interior. The speaker placement was done for the rear facing seats behind the driver and passenger seat areas. Another set of Kar components in the pod faces the most rear part of the boat.

As with the Shadow, Tsunami wiring was utilized for the Navigator. Also, Tsunami blocks, located under the hood, have a digital voltmeter display and a simple four-into-one standard D-block in the back of the vehicle under the rear enclosure. And protecting West's investment is the new Clifford Matrix 3.5 alarm system.

The Navigator has 22" Alba wheels to match those on the boat's trailer. BF Goodrich G-Force tires provide the traction. Considering that both the boat and truck were completed in four days, the work that Sipes, Ewing (with both helping each other out at different points in the install) and the rest of the Ultra team of painters and upholsterers pulled off is fairly remarkable. We would expect that with the level of clients soon to be coming through their doors and onto the TV show, their boats and cars will become as showy as the lights, camera and action.

Interview with John West

How did Ultra Boats start?

Splashes of water, or beer, never get beyond the case of the CMD4. Sipes simply cut a hole in the co-pilot's dash and custom-mounted the Clarion there. And carrying the signal, Tsunami wiring makes the connection between all the aforementioned audio products.

I had purchased an Ultra boat when it was a small company back in the early '90s. I liked the boat so much I went ahead and opened up a dealership. Within a couple of months I decided I didn't like the way the company was being run so I bought the company out, moved it to San Diego and re-trained all the workers.

How did you wind up partnering with Fear Factor?

I did a show on MTV called Senseless Acts on Video. We jumped a boat over a jetty over a wall of fire. I wound up setting a record for highest boat jump. The stunt coordinator on it fell in love with our boats; he said for all stunts pertaining to boats in the future he would make sure to call us. So a year later, a new show was coming out, Fear Factor, and he called me up, asked if I wanted to be a part of it. We've been involved with the show since it's inception and we actually have a Fear Factor boat that gets used all the time.

You manufacture the boats from top to bottom?

We manufacture every single aspect of the boat in our factory. We've built a boat in as little as a week and a half. Typically, it takes us about six to eight weeks, from start to finish. We're backlogged pretty good; normally it's about three to five months for someone to get a boat out of us.

Why did you decide to open up a custom audio shop?

I saw there was a need in this industry to start to raise the bar on the marine audio installs. A lot of our clients have already asked us to do their cars and trucks. Obviously, everybody that owns one of our boats owns some pretty nice vehicles that they want to get done.

Tell me about the show?

It's another build show. I've done a few episodes of Monster Garage, been doing some work with Jesse [James] now for quite a few years. I got approached by a production company about doing a build show. We went ahead and shot a pilot and it wound up getting bought. It'll be on OLN; we got a Sunday, 9 o'clock time slot. We're going to do a lot of different, interesting projects. We're doing some celebrity builds, charity builds, just try to show the different capabilities that Ultra Boats has.

Are you going to focus on the craftsmanship or is there going to be a lot of drama?

There's not going to be any phony drama. If they happen to catch some drama--every day there's some sort of drama going on. But it's going to be about the craftsmanship and the people who work there.

You're friends with Jesse James so you'll be in competition with him for ratings.

I'm on Sunday nights, he's on Monday nights. Jesse and I will be on competing networks; that's not anything I'm real happy about.

He won't be making any guest appearances on your show or helping you out with some builds.

That's one of the problems that we have. I can't have a lot of my friends that have their own shows appear on our show. I built a real nice boat for Jesse last year and we can't have anything to do with that boat on our series.

Installer Profiles

Cabe Sipes formerly worked at the only Best Buy in the nation to offer custom installation. A top 12 Mobile Electronics installer, he made the final cut but lost out to eventual winner, Chris Yato. Jason Ewing is a SQ competitor and judge who competes in the Expert Street class.

ShopUltra Custom SoundsEl Cajon, CA