Old Flight Marine - "Top Cat"
 

Does anyone remember this old Flight Marine called "Top Cat"? This is the first boat that I ever raced in back in 1988. I lived in North Carolina at the time. The registration on the boat was from New Hampshire.

Brownie, I would have to believe that you would know the most about it.

Thanks, Ben Hedrick

thats it a dead race boat post.......I know h20boater would remember this one.......if you are serious about buying it back, theses guys can find.............

Top Cat
 

Ben, Did Mike Alesse throttle the boat with you? I remember the boat in the NPBA races in Greenwhich, Conn. Didn't one the drives rip off in one race? Keep the pic's comin' ! Dave

Dave,
When I raced it, it wasn't painted as "Top Cat", it was painted different and a guy by that name of Fran Geniesse drove it and I throttled it. We were based in NC out of Larry Good's shop, who Larry is Fountain's x-VP. I will dig up some more pictures of it with the different paint job. It was repainted white with splash blue, teal & pink down the front. No comments on the paint scheme; it was the late 80's and I didn't choose the graphics. Mike Alesse might have throttled it prior to me. I do know that it was raced up north somewhere. It had NH registration on it, but I don't know who owned it at that time and I remember that it did have a NPBA sticker on it. I was told also, that it was involved in a "shooting" onetime while leaving a bar or dock and we did find what looked like holes in the transom. I guess someone pissed someone else off...

Thanks, Ben

awesome boat, well kept up

That is the original "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM", Mike Whitmire's original P-class raceboat.

Brownie:

Was that the boat that had the unfortunate accident on the Intracoastal one night?

T2x

Negatory. That was a customer's boat (and the end of the company).

WOW! Brownie, We're gonna need details on that one...
Have you got any pics of it as MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM? I will scan pictures of what it looked like after it got repainted, when we ran D Class. It wasn't very nice looking though as I really thought that it looked great as Top Cat.

Thanks for the information. Ben

Also, I saw Mike Whitmire's M Class raceboat on HORBA and it looked like a Flight Marine Cat too, but the drivers pods were on the outside like Sheer Terror, not in the center as a sit down boat. Maybe it was Sheer Terror repainted as MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. I couldn't tell from the picture on the HORBA website.