I finally made it to the end of this post. There is alot of good info in this thread.

Go cats.

Curtis

my eyes hurt thanks to all for the enormous pit of knowledge i just fell in.....NEXT.......!!!!!!!!!

While I'm being shameless...........

Wow , INCREDIBLE , T2x is one of the best all around Buider/Racer Figures we'll ever know!!!!! Take my word for it , secrets safe , old boy ! This has to be one of the most informative posts I've seen in a long time. I just want to say it IS people like T2x that make being part of this site & owning a CAT so cool!!!!!!!! Thanks dude! It was 60degrees in Mich. again , ran thru another 30 gals. Love my O.Express!!!!!!!

There IS a book on "The History of Tunnel Boat Design". Check out...
"History of Tunnel Boat Design".

Thanks for the kind words, Catmando. Yes, I am the author. I like the forums because there are so many different views and so much experience with high performance powerboats - and the people are always so great. It's just great fun.

I've been designing power cats for many years, and used to race tunnel boats. I've written a few books on powerboat and tunnel boat design, and published a software program for optimizing tunnel boat design and setup. I try not to make a big deal of it on the forums, though...don't want to seem commercial.

Thanks again for the kind words. I'm sure we'll chat lot's.

Here you go Apache Pete.......

T2x

Now that you brought it up...... Whatever happened to the last Jessie James boat? Rich you guys built that one did't you? The boat with the 3'' propshafts. Saw it race a few times ,never heard about it again.

Somewhere in this thread we noted that the "Jesse James" 48 foot Super Boat....is out in California.....stripped and rotting. The boat was purchased by a Japanese group. It seems that many of our old Conquests were purchased by Japanese "racers"......who either raced them once and threw them away.....or raced them not at all...and threw them away. I'm told there is a field near Atami in southern Japan with a collection of old Cougars, Jaguars, Conquests, Chris Cats Etc......all sitting in the weeds.

I guess the dollar got a little too upside down against the yen there for awhile......

By the way, there are at least two old Popeye's hulls there as well. It's almost as if when a boat made a magazine cover ......they immediately bought it. The same guys who spent fortunes on these boats would not talk to a builder about anything new. If it didn't have a recognizable name on the side........ there was no interest at all.

T2x

Good thread. I am glad that you reprinted it. On the other hand, I wonder if you ever had a blood transfusion from Crouse. Your PR trumpeting for Linder, Shadow, Conquest, etc., sounds like Crouse inflating 188th street egos. Your snide remarks about Cougar "they made an aluminum hull or two", "they made some wooden hulls that weren't very strong" or words to that effect, seem to have missed the point that, before Skater made an offshore wave, Cougar won 33 APBA offshore races overall IN A ROW. Also multiple Worlds. Also just about all the Superboat championships. Did you guys ever win ONE overall?