I called on the Talon today and yes it can be had for the 120K. There was a bid entered on it over the weekend and a survey was do last week. They had issues with 1 of engines not firing and the carbs flooding over. I will find out Wednesday wether the bid was accepted. If not I will drive down Thursday to look at it before I decide to bid or not. I am also looking at the Awesome Cat this week but I already have 1 of them.

A buddy of mine had an Awesome cat and it ran awful in the rough. He also had a 40 Hustler and it ran much much better, when a 38ft cat should be able to run right with that thing in the rough. I looked at buying that Talon when LCM still had it. The boat was in good shape but the black need to be repainted. Then im pretty sure the motors ran fine. This was a year and a half ago. The boat sat outside at Liqidators for some time with no cover I was told during the winter so I bet its not in very good shape anymore. I would take the Talon over the awesome any day. Another local guy had a 377 and it ran pretty well besides blowing 6 bmax's before he had #6's put on. Also a cat doesnt have to be heavy to ride well!!

By: Mark Rotharmel
>
When big water and high winds slow others down, it's great to have a boat designed for the job. This is a 38 foot signature built by Awesome Power Boats. A spectacular cat, said to be fast and luxurious and designed for the discriminating performance boater. We're about to see how it handles when the going gets tough. At rest, you can appreciate the true size of this boat, with lines and graphics that accentuate the meaning of performance. Mcleod interiors have been customized for comfort and security, with grab handles built into the seats and ergonomically placed for every passenger on-board. Whether driven single-handedly or throttled by a co-pilot, the helm is laid out for optimum visibility. Awesome's powder coated gaffered steering wheel attracts attention to a wide bank of performance gauges and switches, with matching gaffer controls mounted next to the trim indicator and remote stereo control. Under the hatch rest some very powerful motors in a compartment both spacious and well-organized. Mercury racing supercharged 600's were coupled with combination bravo-imco drives propelled by a 34 inch pitch bravo 1, 4-blade propellers. For a catamaran, the Awesome has plenty of well-lighted cabin space incorporating 5'8" of maximum head room and a centre pad that could accommodate the Jolly Green Giant. Now, today's test is taking place in Lake St. Clair in Michigan, and the Awesome 38 Signature, at 37"'9" long with a 10 1/2 foot beam weighing 9,000 pounds, is going to have to take on some pretty rough water. We've got wind gusts up to 25 miles an hour, but we've found a calmer section of the lake right now to do our initial speed run. So here we go. Let's see how it gets up on plane. "Quick, 4.37 seconds, and what's nice about that was a lot of these cats, when you get them up on-plane, the props ventilate just when you're at a high r.p.m., but the r.p.m.'s stayed low. I just shot up momentarily to 5 and right back down to 35 hundred. So running at this speed, we turn the drives up a little bit. We're at 3,000 r.p.m., it runs real nice. 3500rpm - we're at 60 miles an hour. The Awesome 38 cat is a two-tunnel. It has a wedge in the centre but it is a two-tunnel, but it's running on pads that are about 8 inches wide on the bottom portion of it. Now, that's a little different. Two tunnels run right on the knife edge, but this is actually running pad that ends just forward of the second step. But I'll tell you what, at this speed, which is around 65 miles an hour, 3800 r.p.m., this boat rides like a dream. We'll do an acceleration run running at 40 miles an hour to 70. Here we go. Baby and the boat feels good. Then I try to turn it a little bit, doing a nice, gradual turn - the boat stays absolutely level. Lovely. Port turn is beautiful. Time for the high-speed lap. Here we go. 75, 80, whoa, nelly! 101! miles an hour. Beautiful run. And absolutely straight as a die. Nice and level. Clipboard notes show our cruising speed at 67 miles an hour at 4,000 r.p.m. Mercury racing's twin h.p. 600s.c.'s turning 34-inch Bravo 1 props find maximum r.p.m. just outside the operating range. But our speed was an awesome 101 miles an hour. Well, we certainly had a mean machine to conquer the weather today, which was clearly less than ideal. I consider this boat to be a wave tamer, but I was most impressed with the way the boat handled the wind gusts at extremely high speeds. The bow doesn't get played in any direction and the hull tracks straight and true. Overall, the 38 Signature is well-appointed and aggressive. It's simply awesome.
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> Specs:
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> Length: 37' 9"
> Beam: 10' 5"
> Weight: 9,000 lbs.
> Fuel: 216 gal.
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> Test boat engine: Mercury racing supercharged 600's, coupled
> with combination bravo-imco drives, 34-inch pitch bravo 1, 4-blade propellers.
>
> Acceleration: 0-plane in 4.37 sec
>
> Top speed (radar): 101 mph
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> Cruising speeds (radar): 67 mph @ 4000 rpm
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> Speed testing by Stalker radar

600hp bravo drives in a 38ft 10000lb cat in the rough?
:bong:

JKK

Good article but the bigger challenge should be to find ANY article that really sums up a boats faults! Do magazines ever tell you a boat sucks? Most boats are great when they are brand new and you are testing them without worry of paying for anything in the event of breakage!

Not sure if there are any out there, but don't pass up a DCB 35' either. They are worth a look.

Actually the boat runs XZ Drives with IMCO upgrades


Mercury Bravo XZ

Designed for high-performance applications, the Mercruiser XZ features:

Dual water pickup gear case,
Billet aluminum bearing carrier
Heavy-duty propshaft and hub
Heavy-duty U-joint
Steel upper gear bearing chimney
Improved thrust bearings
Near-net gears
Thicker upper gear floor
1.50

IMCO Pop Shaft Upgrade
IMCO Drive Shower Upgrade

Brian, Check out this Skater. Does have some creature comforts, limited of course. Hey, it's a cat. Buy it. Pull the motors and sell them. Do your own motor program and go tear up Lake Erie. I did see a 36 Skater pleasure cat with the complete outdrives (ZX) but less the motors for about 75K. On OSO but the ad is gone.

Does this cat handle well? Hey, it's a Skater. nuff said.

if you can get into a 36 Skater in this range you'd be in quite possibly one of the best cat hulls of all time. They really are a fantastic boat.