Originally Posted by T2x

There is some very famous race footage that we did back in the day. Small craft warnings went into effect off Ocean City, Maryland during an Offshore race.....BIG SEAS......VERY BIG SEAS. the 47 foot triple engined supercharged Apache "Tweets Revenge"....hooked up with the 40 foot Skater "Spirit of Norway"..... two top teams. The Skater caught and passed the Apache with both boats running airborne contuously.

The old Cats in calm water/Vee's in rough water nonsense ended in the early 80's when we figured out that simple plywood was the wrong material to build cats ....or vees....out of. The next fable that needs debunking is that cats can't turn as quickly as vees. Attend one tunnel boat race and you will never utter those words again.

There are two problems with all of this however.....

1. The faster you go in any boat, the higher your skill level needs to be...aside from docking of course.

2. Not all Cats, nor vees for that matter, are created equal. There are any number of cats that I wouldn't be caught dead in....no pun intended. So to say that "Cat's can or can't do this or that." is a mistake. The fact that a Skater or Victory can do such and such is no guarantee that a "Hollywoodcraft" can do the same.

T2x

Originally Posted by vette131

here's a video we took right before dark when a neighbor showed up in a helicopter. would of been more fun if he could keep up!! mine doesn't lean much in the turns.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/httpww...=1452469752875

Originally Posted by Monkeyron

I think they were testing a new 30' Cat twin screw without interior at Lake Castake CA.
I did not find the answer but Drivers found one Motor & drive 15 feet from the boat and the Hull had a hole in the side. It was guessed at the time they were doing 80 mph when it happened. 4 of the 5 aboard Died.
M~R

Originally Posted by Tom A.

I am not trying to be a d!ck here, but if you can't afford a safety course like this, you might be shocked at the insurance rates. Also, making the wrong move at "slow" speeds can cause a major incident. I have seen veteran racers flip boats at 1/2 the speed their boats are capable of. What happens to the guy with 1/10th of the experience in a similar situation.
There is no substitute for experience and also proper training from someone who knows what they are doing.

Originally Posted by mastercraft240

Rick where are you getting this $4000 ?????? It's $2500 plus airfare/lodging-- and its no vacation. When brad came down he was driving a ford echo and staying in a very reasonable/cheap hotel room. Depending on how many people are in the class, you can be paying less than $150 his travel. 4-8 hours???? Dude, 8 hours is the first day ALONE. Thats just classes by the way. Another hour or so traveling to your boat and doing pre-checks on your boat to make sure your equipments ready. Sounds like your going about this all wrong. You cant trust the guys pre-sets, his driving skills and yours are completly different. Also, no accredited boating course is going to help better your driving skills. Jesus, even the Coast Guard hired the boat school to teach them!!!

Originally Posted by BEAR

Hey Rick,
I frequent both Tahoe and Folsom all summer long as well as some other friends with performance boats.
Let me know when your going out and I'll try to plan a few of us to get wet with ya.
Ryan
(916) 698-0571

Originally Posted by TahoeRick

Wow, I just noticed that his thread is still going...! First, I have to travel a lot myself and if I and I alone have to pay for travel expenses ( At the time I thought it was myself, maybe one other person) from Florida to Tahoe and back including lodging and rentals - $1500 extra seemed reasonable. flights can easily be $400 - $500 each way.

Anyway, everything has changed. I signed up for the Havasu course on 4/25 and 4/26. Expenses are not to exceed $350. Still a whole lot of $$$ to pay for a safety course, but if it keeps me from doing the right thing the course is worth much, much more. Hey, most of us are still recovering from the economy taking a dump too. This was a difficult decision for me - not because of the value of the course, but because of having to spend this amount of $$$ on a sport...

Originally Posted by TahoeRick

Does this infer that V Hulls and Cats are similiarly safe at the same speed?

Rick

Originally Posted by ShadBurke

I believe there was an incident several years back when a HTM demo went wrong causing something similar to what has been described to you. Very rare I believe.

Originally Posted by TahoeRick

Wow, I just noticed that his thread is still going...! First, I have to travel a lot myself and if I and I alone have to pay for travel expenses ( At the time I thought it was myself, maybe one other person) from Florida to Tahoe and back including lodging and rentals - $1500 extra seemed reasonable. flights can easily be $400 - $500 each way.

Anyway, everything has changed. I signed up for the Havasu course on 4/25 and 4/26. Expenses are not to exceed $350. Still a whole lot of $$$ to pay for a safety course, but if it keeps me from doing the wrong thing the course is worth much, much more. Hey, most of us are still recovering from the economy taking a dump too. This was a difficult decision for me - not because of the value of the course, but because of having to spend this amount of $$$ on a sport...