Thanks for the input. I thought about Rivited, until I found out that it weighs about 11,000#.

I added two ft too a 38 cougar to install turbines. The amount of work that goes in to one of these boats is astounding. The labor cost must a factor, plus they are heaver then a composit boat

i have heard that aluminium boats are loud as hell when running. The metal conducts soudns much more efficiently than fiberglass.

In addition for apleasure boas the rivets look a little funky. HyLite powerboats out of canada figured out anew way to biuld them without riveting and super thick metal. They weld parts togehter and use coring for added strength and soudns reduction. GreenWing II was biuld by them it is a VERY nice lookign rig.

FYI kurt is cool imet him this summer down in NJ. He was super busy runngina race (ad racing) but was still cool. His boat bandit is pretty bad ass super fast and of course run the famous Bandit racing engines.

The guy I bought my boatfrom has a 38 cougar and it was discribed to me as sounding like a bunch of rocks in a tin can ! Very noisy .and he had a problem in the salt water with the aluminum . He said it is too much upkeep in salt water .

Did any of the Aluminum Cats run Seateks?

Seems like plenty of the Mono Hulls did, but nothing comes to mind with the cats.

Back in the 80s I had a welded aluminum 21 foot Maritime. It was used by a local marina as a work boat and had a Chrysler Slant 6 engine and out drive. I was told it was originally used in Offshore Racing, back in the 60's and had twin outboards. You could see where the transom was filled in and it still had a ballast tank in the bow. Best riding 22 foot boat I have ever been in!