Class 1 UIM questions...
 

Maybe T2X or one of our other resident catamaran experts can shed some light on this. I've noticed that all the Class 1 boats are either Tencaras, CUVs or some other builder other than Skater. Now I know that Randy Scism worked for the Victory team for many years building their "Victory" boats from what I believe were originally Skaters. My question is why don't we see more Skaters racing UIM Class 1? Are they not suited to the Lambo or Seatek power? Is it the drives?

Just curious because Skater is obviously the preferred catamaran here and CUVs are not really competitive and I can't rmember the last time I saw a Tencara compete...

The best Skater that showed up in Europe was Matt Alcones. The other boats predomently run BPM or TRI-MAX. That tends to leave the Skaters out. There might be a Skater this year, I know there is one testing right now. For the speeds running in Europe the center rudder boats are perfered. There will be changes in the future.
pat W

We raced a Vicory boat this year at the SBI/APBA worlds. Unfortunately, Blue Lightning was originally equipped with two 12 cylinder Lambourghini engines. It was terribly unbalanced with the whimpy supercat engines. All this just rectified at Competitive Edge Marine. I don'y believe there is any similarity to the Skaters. At 42 feet, it is 400 lbs heavier than the Skater 40.

Bandit/CUV
 

Kurt Berger runs a CUV (former Gifford boat) in SBI and does well..definately likes big water though..:cool:

Also the old Heavy Metal 4 boat back in 94-96 the silver one that Joey Impressia and I think Hurley Stepp drove was a CUV hull that ran agaianst the Ohio Steel boat and a few other Open class boats. This is back when APBA had Modified class Open Class and some kind of Super Class, Saw all the boats at the 95' Dennis Kaiser Invitational in Sandusky, OH. I'l have to dig through some pics, there was also 2 more CUV and/or Cougar cats running that day.
Later Sat69:cool: :cool:

The last Tencara was run in 96 with Jim Dyke called Spirit of Norway. It lost to us in the worlds.:D sorry Jim. The Tencara was the first company doing the composit style Mike Peters boat.
The CUV is the last of the aluminum hulls designed by Mike Peters, built in Italy.
The Victory boat (not to be confused with The Victory Team) is designed by Brunello Ancampora. One of his boats is Bilboa and another is the Blue Lightning(the one pictured by DanL.
These were mostly based on the boats from Victory Team of Dubai.
The Victory Team boats came from the 40 Skater. Widen the tunnel 1 foot and stretch it 3 feet.
So you could say that there were a lot of Skaters in Europe.
The current Tencara style boat is the Platinum 40 Designed by Mike Peters and soon to compete in apba.
That should cover it.whew!
pat W :D

Satisfaction 69,
If my memory serves me correct, The boat that BodyShot is refering to is the boat that you are talking about. I believe Bill Gifford bought that boat from Anthony Izzo. Not quite sure if it is 100% true but I believe that is what I was told when Gifford showed up in NJ with it.

here it is kurt`s boat

hey, Pat W checks in. Talk about an icon. Blue Lightning is Victory #7 , I believe. The boat was supposed to be a Budweiser boat when it first came over but somehow it ended up in South Fla without the drive train.

Heavy Metal became Gifford Racing which is now Kurt's boat. Joey Imprescia and Anthony Izzo campaigned the boat originally after Joey had his hands full for a few years chasing the original CUV "Dirty Laundry" cat of Joe Mach and the late Harold "Smitty" Smith. The "Dirty Laundry" boat had more bow lift and "flew" a lot higher (More John McCall influence)...... The later "Metal" boat has less lift and is probably more suited to the European courses.

Skater's are no longer in vogue on the "World" (Euro-Arab) circuit for the same reasons that Sterlings and Mercruisers, aren't......... They're American built...and , in case you missed it...these guys, while competitive, are from places like France , Kuwait, and Dubai..... not exactly fans of mom and Apple Pie. It's no coincidence that Dubai built their own boats (blatant Skater copies), bought Lamborghini's(Euro-Italian) over Sterlings, and use Rolla rather than Merc wheels. Finally they replaced Schism with first a Brit and later an Italian team manager. You'll have to look long and hard for a #6 drive while you're at it. The Italians have long embraced the Buzzi's and CUV's for the same reasons (plus government subsidies and tax breaks)..........

T2x

T2x
Not Mentioning the U.I.M Bias, I got a belly full of it over there, Plus the Scrutinizers Not an American face to be seen At Inspection Time!


Best Regards

In 95 there were a lot of boats that appeared that had the same bottom as the Victory boats. I am pretty sure that Blue is one of them, but not totally.
There is a new skater going to race in Europe and a Scism.
The Dubai boats were built with help from Peter H.
Everyone uses Herring props.
There is one boat using #6 weismann "Dry-sump"It was Randy's but Victory sold it to another team.
If you need some friends in scruteneering Roger Troutman is fair.
pat W :D

Hey Pat hows it going? I still keep an eye on the lies here, one never knows when I will show up! Do you have contact details for Roger Troutman as I would like to get hold of him. Craig

Hi Pat:

It's Peter "H"...not Peter "L"...as in Hledin...not Ledin
The "help" that Peter gave Dubai was to recruit/recommend Randy, and a number of other American throttlemen to the Victory team, as well as selling the early boats to them. To the best of my knowledge the team turned around and cut/splashed/lengthened the 40' Skaters and made the 42' Victory's , under the watchful eye of Randy. (Similar to the lineage from the 36 Skater to the "new" MTI...if it worked once, and you got away with it......). Victory later dumped Randy (What goes around......), hired an English tunnel boat builder....dumped him..and hired Lamborghini's ex team manager(no Euro-engine bias there.........;) ).

"Everyone" (a handful of the higher funded teams) will use Herring props until Rolla upgrades his milling capability....only a matter of time methinks...or a "Victory" prop emerges.

Mercruisers are out of vogue over there...dry sumped or not... as much as a result of bias as anything else. Bottom line, 12-15 years ago (1987-90) most of the boats and 90% of the drives were American built. Prior to that Cigarettes and Magnums were the hulls of choice..Today you find the "occasional" Skater....the exception , thereby, proving the rule.......nuff said.

T2x

UIM class 1
 

Jim Dyke and Kjell Rokke are preparing a 46 SKATER as we speak to go to Europe. It is bieng extensivly tesed in Florida right now. Lambo power and Mercruiser/Colabella dry sump 6 drives. Has been at Lake X testing for weeks. Big speeds have been seen. This boat WILL be a contender. These guys know what it takes and wouldn't take something non competive overthere.

Ryan, as you know Kjell is defenately a contender in a lambo powered Skater. Good to hear he is testing another!!!
Dave, F2-07

I thought that all the boats in UIM Class 1 use the BPM Drives? I haven't seen any boats listed with Buzzi drives other than in the V bottom classes with the boats that Buzzi designed.

I don't think that the elimination of the Mercury Drives was an American thing as much as it is an evolution thing. The Speedmaster's are old technology in comparison to the current drives out there today. This is why Mercury Panicked and got control of APBA. Obviously the Surface Drives are faster, hence, the elimination of them from APBA Super Cat Class by 2003.

It seems that the European’s are more receptive to Technology, i.e., multispeed sequential shift transmissions, Surface Drives, Diesel’s, V12’s etc., than the American boat racers.

From what I understood alast year or the year before they reallllyy encuraged the diesel engines due to feul prices over in europe that's just from my standpiont. and as for the multispeed tranny's you NEED to run these primarily for those diesle engines due to the low RPM range of them, to get the props up to about 6,000-7,000 rpm.. It was also easier and more economicale to run shaft drives than to run say NO.6's over there due to the number of manufacturers. Also if you look back (don't quote me on this) the Victory Team ran two boats 1 with Lamborghini V-12's and the other with Seatek diesles both with equally amazing results. The last boat that Jim Dyke ran in U.I.M 1 was the Jolly Roger boat over their and I think they finished either 2nd or 3rd in the point standings, talked with him at the Cleveland APBA races last year when Jim and Dom ran the Popeyes in PX-V class.
That's all I can think of for now some of this is accurate and some is just heresay.
Later Sat69:cool: :cool:

Boatless, "Reverend" to quote from Blazing Saddles.
I think that you will see a change in Europe when some of the newer boats get there. The one that Jim did will turn some heads. The new one from MTI will also (tri-max). We still have some toys for over there to up the bar next year. Evolution is a good thing. I looked up parity in the "new" dictionary and it said Monopoly.

Craig, I will check to see if he is in dubai or the uk. one does know and I think you will need NO-Dose for this one. I'll have his # before you get here. :D

T2x, sorry for the "L" typing not thinking. Spell check on Scism. ;)
We need to fill in the blanks some other time when its not so public.A Tomato tomahto thing. I did the best I could with that.

pat W

Team Jotun, will run that Scism with the Trimax drives. This is the same boat that they were going to run in APBA but were denied entry into the American PowerBoat Association. The boat was modeled after the 'Tommy Bahama" originally I heard. It has since been widened, and lengthened.

I heard that Mr. Dyke is trying several different drive types on the 46’s Skater along with engine types.

Is this the same 46’ that Kjell Rokke bought like two years ago?

Boatless the European Racers seem more acceptable to Buzzis Technology Sorry I Ment the UIM Buzzi Club.(there are a lot of Arneson pop offs there too) As you know even with the Gear loss the Mercury is still a faster drive, Due to the Fact that you can achieve a Perfect shaft angle!! Whereas with the Crude shaft of the Tri Max you wind up with a Negative angle of 4 Degrees or more, influencing the bow downward. Unless you bend the Entire Dam boat into the shape of a “U” for Rocker!!

While on the subject of Arneson looks like he was very influenced by a Drive Patented by Doug Janish, Tom Adams Bill Serois Spelling not good here sorry Bill. They used a bellows that’s why, Arneson had to use something different. Like a Ball Joint. Saw it when I researched my Drive Unit.


Best Regards

here's something I dug up:
Length: 13.02m
Width: 3.6m
Weight: 4,500kg
Built: 1998
Builder: Victory Team
Engines: V12 Lamborghini with Lamborghini 4-speed gearboxes
Drives: BPM
Top speed: 160mph+