Sean

Maybe T2X or one of our other resident catamaran experts can shed some light on this. I've noticed that all the Class 1 boats are either Tencaras, CUVs or some other builder other than Skater. Now I know that Randy Scism worked for the Victory team for many years building their "Victory" boats from what I believe were originally Skaters. My question is why don't we see more Skaters racing UIM Class 1? Are they not suited to the Lambo or Seatek power? Is it the drives?

Just curious because Skater is obviously the preferred catamaran here and CUVs are not really competitive and I can't rmember the last time I saw a Tencara compete...

shifter

The best Skater that showed up in Europe was Matt Alcones. The other boats predomently run BPM or TRI-MAX. That tends to leave the Skaters out. There might be a Skater this year, I know there is one testing right now. For the speeds running in Europe the center rudder boats are perfered. There will be changes in the future.
pat W

DanL

We raced a Vicory boat this year at the SBI/APBA worlds. Unfortunately, Blue Lightning was originally equipped with two 12 cylinder Lambourghini engines. It was terribly unbalanced with the whimpy supercat engines. All this just rectified at Competitive Edge Marine. I don'y believe there is any similarity to the Skaters. At 42 feet, it is 400 lbs heavier than the Skater 40.

BODYSHOT1

Kurt Berger runs a CUV (former Gifford boat) in SBI and does well..definately likes big water though..

satisfaction69

Also the old Heavy Metal 4 boat back in 94-96 the silver one that Joey Impressia and I think Hurley Stepp drove was a CUV hull that ran agaianst the Ohio Steel boat and a few other Open class boats. This is back when APBA had Modified class Open Class and some kind of Super Class, Saw all the boats at the 95' Dennis Kaiser Invitational in Sandusky, OH. I'l have to dig through some pics, there was also 2 more CUV and/or Cougar cats running that day.
Later Sat69

shifter

The last Tencara was run in 96 with Jim Dyke called Spirit of Norway. It lost to us in the worlds. sorry Jim. The Tencara was the first company doing the composit style Mike Peters boat.
The CUV is the last of the aluminum hulls designed by Mike Peters, built in Italy.
The Victory boat (not to be confused with The Victory Team) is designed by Brunello Ancampora. One of his boats is Bilboa and another is the Blue Lightning(the one pictured by DanL.
These were mostly based on the boats from Victory Team of Dubai.
The Victory Team boats came from the 40 Skater. Widen the tunnel 1 foot and stretch it 3 feet.
So you could say that there were a lot of Skaters in Europe.
The current Tencara style boat is the Platinum 40 Designed by Mike Peters and soon to compete in apba.
That should cover it.whew!
pat W

DPT MOTORSPORTS

Satisfaction 69,
If my memory serves me correct, The boat that BodyShot is refering to is the boat that you are talking about. I believe Bill Gifford bought that boat from Anthony Izzo. Not quite sure if it is 100% true but I believe that is what I was told when Gifford showed up in NJ with it.

Hauling Trash

here it is kurt`s boat

DanL

hey, Pat W checks in. Talk about an icon. Blue Lightning is Victory #7 , I believe. The boat was supposed to be a Budweiser boat when it first came over but somehow it ended up in South Fla without the drive train.

T2x

Heavy Metal became Gifford Racing which is now Kurt's boat. Joey Imprescia and Anthony Izzo campaigned the boat originally after Joey had his hands full for a few years chasing the original CUV "Dirty Laundry" cat of Joe Mach and the late Harold "Smitty" Smith. The "Dirty Laundry" boat had more bow lift and "flew" a lot higher (More John McCall influence)...... The later "Metal" boat has less lift and is probably more suited to the European courses.

Skater's are no longer in vogue on the "World" (Euro-Arab) circuit for the same reasons that Sterlings and Mercruisers, aren't......... They're American built...and , in case you missed it...these guys, while competitive, are from places like France , Kuwait, and Dubai..... not exactly fans of mom and Apple Pie. It's no coincidence that Dubai built their own boats (blatant Skater copies), bought Lamborghini's(Euro-Italian) over Sterlings, and use Rolla rather than Merc wheels. Finally they replaced Schism with first a Brit and later an Italian team manager. You'll have to look long and hard for a #6 drive while you're at it. The Italians have long embraced the Buzzi's and CUV's for the same reasons (plus government subsidies and tax breaks)..........

T2x