The cougar was a 38', and was the former "Dirty Laundry" Boat. We powered it with Keith Eickert 900's EFI's the boat ran as "open class" -500 inch, 12:1 motors with Big Chief heads. We won the National Championship in 1996 with that boat - and here is a tid bit that even Ryan Beckley does not know - so how then could Alcone run the # 1 number in 1997 ????? - Fact is we sold it to him the # 1 plate

CUV was the former "Ohio Steel" boat, We first ran it as "open class" with KE 900's then we switched to Superboat with KE 1200's with one of the first double whippled charged engines - lot's fo blower issues back in the day - CUV was a much better ride and faster hp/weight ratio -

No construction complaints with either boat - both took a pounding and only occational would a rivit pop - Probably replaced 20 rivits in 5 years as a result of stress -

Aluminum is a good conductor of noise - both boats were increadably loud inside when compared to other similar size boats - I drove fiberglass cats and even Al Coplands 35' wooden cat with 750's - Even with an open top V the boat will be louder with both vibration and noise than a similar glass boat -

The upside to an aluminum boat is that you never need to run a ground wire -

j.p.
 

James keep it goin you been there and done it thanks,jw-- hope j.p. follows along !:D

info.
 

guess he does now :rolleyes:

dirty laundry
 

James, Did Joe M. have a 50' later on or am I mixing this up w-spirit of the amazon. Wish there was a detailed history book on this stuff. Has anyone fully documented or tried to on this subject matter ? thanks jw PS very noisy I heard that !

Joe Mach had several boats, his badd ass boat of the day I believe was a 47 CUV with (4) KE 900's running through two arneson drives - This is the boat that Joe Flipped over in Lake St Clair MI, I think that was Joes last race - Boat was purchased by a local Miami guy (mike) and is/was used as a pleasure boat around Miami.

Joe had a boat in between the Cougar & CUV that was a 42 CUV it later ran as Endangered Spicies - Clay Wilson/ Errol Lanier ran it

The 38 cougar that started life as Dirtly Laundry, then became Riveted, races as an Open Class boat, that included a trip to Mar Del Plata Argentina for an SBI race years ago. ( FYI, one of the racers was Daniel Sciolli, he later went on to become the Vice presindet of Argentina) The 38' eventually went to Texas and was last seen having turbines put in the boat -

The 42' CUV - Started life as Ohio Steel with John Raben and Hurley Stepp, Became Riveted as an Open & Super boat and was sold as a pleasure baot August 2001 and was last seen in Baltimore MD.

Boats both boats had arneson ASD6 drives and were powered by Keith Eickert Engines - Competion in the day was Sloppy Joes ( Mike G) Alcone (Matt & jerry) Drambuie ( Forrest & Johnny) Reggie ran a cat with Mike S, La Grande Argintina with Fabo & Sciolli ,Jaws etc.. fun stuff - The CUV also made a trip to Mar Del Plata Argentina for a race, and in those days we had races around Paridis Island in the Bahamas - running under the old bridge that connected Paridise the the main land WFO was exciting -

The aluminum boats could have been made lighter as technology changed and requirements change, but the fabrication and skill level required to build one off boats is expensive.

One of the best features of an aluminum raceboat was the fact that there was no tooling. We made every boat different (and hopefully better) than the previous one. When we were doing 38' class one cats at Cougar, you could buy a Kevlar 37 1/2' racing Cigarette hull for 24G's. Our class one cat was 85 G's bare. Peter at Skater has mastered the art of building different boats in the same mold. Very smart guy..............

I thought I'd read some where that Al Copleand (or a contemporary) was replacing sections of hull plate and many, many rivets, almost every race on a Cougar? But it sounds like James had a much easier time of it. What's the maintenance cycle like on an older aluminum race boat?

I came very close to buying a 38' CUV v-hull last year and the stories of replacing rivets and chasing leaks made me nervous... Still one of the coolest boats around in my mind.

There's a bare aluminum cat sitting on a Myco in a storage field here in Ft Myers if anyone wants one. Does anyone local know who's/what it was when it was racing?

The only rivets are in the sides and deck on a Cougar. The bottom, tunnel and transom are all welded. Copeland's 50' four engine Cougar rode so well in the cockpit, that you could beat it to death and never know it.

Our 40' Caricoff was built in 1973. Been racing it for over 25 year with no major damage. Here is a photo of the original configuration and current configuration which ran in P-3 class in 2005. With 750 Sterling and a weight of 9000lbs. it will still run mid 90's all day long.