377 Talon cats
 

OK . . . so i spent the year racing a 377 Talon cat and all in all had a pretty damn good time in the boat. So, whats the history with these things? How many are there? is it an original hull? anybody know where the the canopy lexan was derived from? was it made special for those boats? I can tell ya one thing it sure is well built.

any members on hear have them?

Gary Armington designed, tooled, and built it in Sarasota. He still builds and repairs some boats in a small shop about 1 mile from me. I would guess they built about a dozen 37's before the molds were sold to Hustler. They built many different variations of the boat and weren't afraid to try anything. Gary is a true craftsman. I am sure anyone can see that in the amount of effort put into the tooling of that boat. That particular boat was built for Steve Neeley of Out Of Bounds and raced in the Modified class for many years. Steve later built another Talon for the original Super Cat class. It was a cool piece rigged by TNT. Last I knew Jim Dyke had it in Vermillon , Ohio. I believe the canopy is a Talon design made by Texstar. Talon's 25' is THEEEEE most copied Cat hull ever built......almost every west coast 25-30 cat is some sort of a knock off of Talons Original design. This is the same design as the one Sonny Crockett raced off into the sun set on ones of Vices season finales......

In three seasons we have run over 220 hrs in our 03- 377.

We use her as our test boat for our methanol injection systems.They are very solid well built boats and when set up right run real well..

We stopped by the pits several times in Key West to talk to guys but you where either busy or on the run.

The boat ran real strong especially on Sunday.

I saved the front page of the KW news paper of your rig passing the 46' Skater to show the boys up here in the Chesapeake Bay !

Cool rig!

My neighbor has the 37' that was cut down to a 36 and rigged with triple outboards. It rides like it is on rails. Very cool boat.

Ryan- great info. I knew you'd have something on it for me. :D

WW- can you post pics of yours? Yes we did run pretty well on sunday the water was perfect for the boat and we made a pretty good prop choice. To tell you the truth i run somewhat conservatively because of the open top, i just dont wanna push it like that. Ed has the full encloure that we will be putting on this winter. The boat handles well and really is a pleasure to run in. Wish i would have been able to chat with you in KW. That was cool seeing it on the front page of the paper :cool:

Jeff- is that the yellow and white one that was in the classifieds?

It's this one. Pretty cool boat, but it can't hang in water over about1.5- 2' chop. Runs about 102-105

Turns on a dime though when it is hooked up. Used to be a race boat. P-3 It would be nasty. 80-90 it is pretty awesome boat.

http://www.offshoreonlyclassifieds.c...o26099-en.html

hmm . . thats weird. the OB's must throw it off, Ed's boat takes ruff water pretty well. Only boat i've been in that is almost un affected by cross chop and boat wakes in turns, seems to eat that stuff tright up. We run it in P-1

I think he has the X a little to high. THe issue is blow out. The other issue is that he has no adjustable trim. The boat didn't come that way.

You set the engines before you put it in the water and it stays there the whole time.

It does turn on a dime.

If it would stay hooked up, it would really be nasty.

It is 3 houses down from mine hanging inthe boat stall. One of these days I will get rich and hav a 40' skater hanging in mine and that will piss him off. :cool:

Hey slowdave imagine if me and curty ran it:party-smiley-004:

LOL jus kiddin luv u pal

hey . . . i think i can talk Ed into trading you for the Skater :drink: . . . .

"Suigeneries" was the baddest 37 Talon ever

Hey JC, what do you have that is going 190?

I know I am either missing or forgetting something that I have read here lately.

Some years back, I was told that the Talon was pulled from, or at least copied from the Maelstrom design.

Rick Bowling's "GONE AGAIN" I believe is a Talon and seems to be ever evolving. He is now running twin turbo motors with some good success. Doug

saw it out in Havasu, pretty sweet. He put a really cool canopy and rear hatches on it.

I've got an 03 377 , i absolutely love the boat. It's the only cat I've ever been in that dosen't bounce at any speed, and it is super stable.

Talon
 

I loved their 22. Very well built, handled great, and FAST!

Do a search on fastest 46 skater Byrdmans:cool:

What happened to the pro stock Flowmaster talon?

Oh yeah, I think I saw that one.

Congrats.

That is one sick 46' you boys are making some serious power and have that rig dialed in.
Great job!

not sure which one this is. got a few other pics i need to dig out.

That was the Holiday Inn Express, supercat at one time.

I saw Rick Bowling at the Lauderdale Boat Show, and he told me that he has 'Gone Again', 'Jelly Belly' going 162mph.

Here are a few picks of our rig not near as cool looking as yours but she has done well for us.
With the center pod we don't do a lot of hard turning especially in the rough.

We run 1.24 ratio Drysumps and with a 3 1/2"X dimension she likes 36P 17" 4 blades at about negative 1 or less and usually crabs in the high 140s at 6300 to 6500 rpms a lot of slip..
With 1/2" spacers she likes our 36 1/2p 16 1/2" 5 blades and is on rails into the 150s at 6200+ rpms and then starts to crab ounce again at all trim settings regardless of how I ease into boost or just hammer it.
We have tested 20 sets of props and she still seems to like a big diameter 4 blade props overall.I know you guy's are looking for solid handling over shear speed and your rig looked real good going through turn #1 we would never attempt that with ours.
Good luck next season!

I like the 377 they have on the Hustler home page......sweet.:cool-smiley-027:

Since menapause has set in on you greg :eek:,let me help you
ITS A FAST mofo SKATER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!:cool-smiley-027:

Nice! We spin 29 and 30 inch four blades to stay within P-1 speeds and are turning i think 1:6? wet sump mercs and 750 supercat 510's spinning to about 7400. We dont have a center pod and actually i didnt know they produced them with one. She turns pretty well. I see you spin them in, we are turning out.



Rock On! . . its a Talon nation!!!! :drink:

I am looking at a 32 right now you old Biatch. Now go stock up on viagra before they run out, or should I say, Running out Racing. :evilb::evilb::evilb:

Yep....:party-smiley-004: :drink:


Dave I have to agree with you on this boat - the 377 just plain rocks! Had to work on one for Lake Cumberland marine with the Ilmor package and that thing just drove like it was on rails, almost took the fun right out of it! Has to be one of the best user friendly cats ever built.

Heck even the little 25' talon with an ilmor 625 was a blast and handled perfectly. With both boats I was able to run flat out first time in 'em. If I remember right 104 for the 25' and 115 or so for the 37 but that was a few years ago.

The yellow and white one was built for Ron Chiovitti, a big banana importer here in Toronto. It originally sported triple second Effort v8 omc's. It was rerigged with tripple mercs and runs 109 now I believe. Its a center pod boat.
Cloke on here had a open 37 centerpod boat, United Nations that was originally rigged with triple merc outboards but he converted it to twin 900 poker run motors and wet 6's. Ran in the 130's somewhere.
The old Hott Knots marina boat, Vanishing Point was a open top canopied no pod boat with 900', and dry 6's that ran 137.
Borderline is an open, centerpod boat with 750 NA sterlings and wet 6's that runs 120ish I believe.

These were all early 90's hulls built by Talon.

Here is one my father had for half a summer.

KE 675 with B-Max drives. GPS tattletale pegged past 120mph.

It was nice and smootth. Real stable at 106. Unfortunately we only got to put about 5hrs on it in 6 months. After 2 blown motors (same part each motor) and 2 locked up drives, he had enough and got rid of it.

I believe this and one other shared the same paint scheme. There was a very small green stripe that set them apart and power too

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...nfrontview.jpg

This ones in Santa Barbara. It used to be the "Holiday Inn" supercat. John Peterson has it now, him and I ran it in PX (POPRA) a few times. It has the blower motors from the "Conseco" boat.
Maybe for sale?
Let me know if you're interested, I'll get you his #.

roy...

My buddy bought this boat and it now lives in Discovery Bay in California Delta. He has since put #6 Drives and upgraded motors to 850hp, handles great.

Thanks for the info, I have tried to keep track of it and the last place I saw it was Pier 57. Glad he enjoys it. My dad loved the boat, but I don't think he was ready for the blower motors and maintenance. I always thought #6 were they way to go on it.

I noticed that your boat has a slight "v" in the tunnel instead of the pod. Think that it was modified?

I always see this one running 1000 Islands PR. It has big power and runs sweet.

i dont think it was modified but i could be wrong. There is no evidence of it ever having a pod from the inside. Yes it is a slight V the way back. Wonder what the breakdown is to 377's that had it and ones that didnt. The only 377 i have ever seen in person was Ed's. Seems there were several different deck configurations to. I do like the canopy ones.

Talon
 

Here's one that showed up on our rivers this summer dave. Clean , all white , and loud !!! :evilb:

must be somethin about those Talon owners liking them loud . . . . its gonna take all winter for my ear drums to recover :D