You saw it there in 1986 or 1987, those were the only two years that she ran in that event. That hull inspired a lot of people it seems......

If that one was really built in the 90's it would have been built for the Late Randy Lienbach that died a few years back testing his MTI . The boat was never picked up there was a fued between my old boss Ross and Randy and it was still sitting around the shop when I left in the spring of 2000. The 35' race was the 33' race with a set of falseies added after the fact for ruleing at the time. That was one of there best working hulls .

Anybody know who built the first offshore cat in america???????

I know Active Marine (AKA Express marine AKA Ocean Express) always boasted that he built the first all composite offshore race catamaran which was built in the late 70's in Algonac Mi. just down the street from the oringinal Chris craft plant. When I worked for Ross at Express I tell you there was some great stories he used to tell of back in the day.

Didn't Betty Cook's husband Paul Cook have Ron Jones build a tunnel Hull for him in the early 70s? It was called Kudu. Don't think it did to well back then. Raced a few times.


Thank you
Jim

The earliest offshore races( early 60's)featured Powercat and Ted (Ron Jones' father) Jones hulls.......... just a little bigger than the one shown above in this thread.

The "Kudu"....designed and built by Ron Jones was the first "full size" U.S. offshore cat.....

Ross Focht, Alan Brown, and us (Shadow) all debuted our composite cats at about the same time (1980)....... The first two featured English Cougar licensed designs.....ours was 100% American. In any event....none of us was "first" as the fiberglass Powercats were 20 years earlier.

T2x

Ross Focht, Alan Brown, and us (Shadow) all debuted our composite cats at about the same time (1980)....... The first two featured English Cougar licensed designs.....ours was 100% American. In any event....none of us was "first" as the fiberglass Powercats were 20 years earlier.

T2x[/QUOTE]

Living on Lake St Clair I was able to see the Active cats evolve. I believe Butch Rayns Express was the first Active cat in 1979,1980 . Here on the lake she was known as the wooden shoes, because it wasnt very fast. By 1980 Ross went with the Cougar designs that worked, I believe the black 33' one was the first one to race by Gary Stewe in Sport class. This Active later became Bob Kehrigs [M-588 COUGAR, & M -17Magic] that won the Key West Worlds in 1983.
T2x was the Black Duck the first Shadow to race, or was it Love It ???

The first Shadow to race was mine...... "Shadow Cat" in 1980. Shortly after that the first Black Duck debuted along with "Erickson Racing" and "Luv-it". Then the avalanche followed in 1981. Butch Ryan can say for sure, but I don't think his boat was the first Active cat. There was an open boat (a 38 footer i think) with "Cougar" emblazoned on the sides that ran in 1981. I think that was the first Active Cat.

Active Cats
 

ROSS BUILT THE FIRST 33 FOR BUDD DRETTMAN, THE OWNER OF ACTIVE TOOL AND MARINE. BUDD AND ROSS RAN IT FOR A YEAR. I BOUGHT IT AND PUT MY TURBO MOTORS IN IT TO SEE HOW THEY WOULD PERFORM. THE BOAT WAS HEAVY AND HAD A VERY NARROW TUNNEL SIMILAR TO THE LATER CIGARETTE CATS. ROSS BUILT A NEW KEVLAR GRAPHITE CAT WHICH I BOUGHT , SWITCHED ENGINES AND THE REST IS HISTORY , THE BLACK COUGAR WAS BOB KEHRIGS CAT.

I believe it was a guy by the name of Hugh Doyle, and believe it was 30` something feet, Built in Osperey Fla. I would say it was 1964 ?????? Was built in collaboration with Kiekhaefer. Power I think was a pair of Mercruiser 427`s I forget who the designated driver was, but I do know that Odell Lewis was slated to drive it. Maybe Brownie will know about it as well. It was very top secret at the time, I was 19 yrs old and a Mercury test driver in Sarasota, we used to stop and watch the progress, at the time it seemed huge and mean.