Looking for info about my chris cat

[Jorekore]

I've got this info from chris craft "The boat was originally contracted by Jim Ross of RAM Marine Associates of Thornwood, NY but the buyers name was changed to
Phillip E. Melillo."

Does anyone got some history about this 3 seater race cat?
Any pics?
Wins?

Thanks

Jocke
Team name?
Etc

[T2x]

Your boat was raced, mostly in the Northeast racing circuit, by Phil Melillo along with the legendary Billy Don Pruitt (in a couple of races). I believe it was called "Airborne". The Chris Cat replaced Phil Melillo's black inboard Triton hull of the same name. That Chris Cat was fast and very competitive. It was also a later model and benefited from Pruitt's personal involvement as production manager.

T2x

[Jorekore]

Thanks for the info!
What benefits? And what where the different with this later model compared to the others?
Bring me all info you can!

[T2x]

Thanks for the info!
What benefits? And what where the different with this later model compared to the others?
Bring me all info you can!

Early CHris Cats were built on the assembly line and had very inconsistent laminating. Later Dick Genth put Pruitt in charge of the Cat layup area. Billy Don and George Linder teamed up to fix that problem and the later hulls were much sturdier without any added weight.

Phil Melillo is still around and has had a string of pleasure boats. Billy Don, sadly, passed away some years ago. The Chris Cat mold was taken from a modified Shadow Cat, which George Linder and I created back in 1979-80.

T2x

[TGC-32]

That's the boat that got me started in this crazy hobby. We (Total Marine) sponsored that boat for Phil Melillo and Jim Ross. We were a Chris Craft dealer at the time (I was still in school). Don Pruitt came up from Chris Craft headquarters in Florida to throttle the boat. It ran in 3 or 4 races in the 1984 season, and won at least one of them. It was very competitive. Jim Ross built some durable high-horsepower small blocks for her (she ran in the Modified class). She was rigged with the new Mercruiser #IV speedmaster drives on stand-off boxes.

Hanging around with these guys got me hooked! A few years later we built our Chris-Cat Pro-Stock boat that we ran until 1997. If memory serves me correctly, the old "Airborne" was sold and later became "Tropic Heat" out of New Jersey, where it raced for many years.

Good luck with it . She was a really cool boat!

Tom Caruso
Total Marine

[T2x]

Happy New Year Tom.......

[TGC-32]

Happy New Year Tom.......

To you to, Rich!

[Philip]

Lots of initials,,, T2x, TGC,, I feel left out,, Happy new year Tom.

Philip

[Jorekore]

Thanks for all the info guys!
I've emailed Billy at npba and he sent me what pictures he got of it and he Will also send me 2 video clips
It is real fun to hear that it was a competitive boat with some legends that have raced it, when i bought this boat just thought i was just another boat..
The boat is now in Sweden.

[Jorekore]

Early CHris Cats were built on the assembly line and had very inconsistent laminating. Later Dick Genth put Pruitt in charge of the Cat layup area. Billy Don and George Linder teamed up to fix that problem and the later hulls were much sturdier without any added weight.

Phil Melillo is still around and has had a string of pleasure boats. Billy Don, sadly, passed away some years ago. The Chris Cat mold was taken from a modified Shadow Cat, which George Linder and I created back in 1979-80.

T2x

This is boat is a 1984 modell but is it still a later modell?