Answering a Question about PP ,Without people like Jack (Jaguar) and Danny who have faith in us and trust us with projects we could never advance in our careers.

Many nights Dan was there by himself hovering over a boat in the rigging area,That Boat company was very personal and his reputation was on every boat back in the day. I will say he was fanatical when it came to the tooling because whatever I did was it!! The glass Crew loved him and he had good people.

The Cheetahcat 8 Story:


August I walked out of the Kuwait Airport 1:00 Am in the morning to a comfortable 115 F, I joked with the Cab Driver saying by noon this place must be impressively HOT and He said this is nothing wait and see. Anyway noon I walked out of the hotel and It was in fact like a oven.

The Kuwaiti’s keep it quiet I was there and we setup on the second floor of a building in a area called Shuwaikh A lot of industry there.

Now after the 94 UIM Championships a new rule was passed that all “S” boats were to be no longer than 10 Meters in Length,Well they were at the time with the exception of ONE which was The Cheetahcat and they were 11 Meters ..

Anyway sat down and drew something a little different since I lost a meter and now had to compress the boat NO!! something new was needed and the #8 boat was it, with a wider tunnel and adjustable canards for flat water ,also the boats volume was decreased to bare minimum ; that wind blast from a passing semi.That need addressed as well ,The Crew had to sit tandem and I had to make some minimum weight and was warned not to be caught light. OK I added a simple ballast system on the CG Low and Outboard far as it would go!

Had the Core flown in from Switzerland,Trucked in some Dow resin from Dubai scrounged a bunch of 5.6 oz Surfboard S-Glass and some biax from England that I figured a way to cut the mat off.The Kuwaiti's had 650 people on staff so borrowing a couple to drag "I" beams up the stairs was no big deal.

Ok I was ready to go with the project.

Need a good level food coloring is all over the earth for the water level and made a 3 piece wood pattern then had some lead ducks cast, still drawing by hand. My guys liked the Cheetahs you can see the graffiti.

Quick hull fixture, the first race since the liberation of Kuwait is coming up fast and do not have much time left.

While in the Arabian Lumber yards When I asked about the Species of wood they said Red Wood !! OK it was light like spruce but had a very fine grain, I picked up a plank from another Pile there and asked what it was same answer Red Wood, Huh!! Everything was Red wood in the Joint ! But this one was Hard as hell and heavier than any of the Maple I had ever worked back home, We used it for mallet's turns out it comes from the jungle somewhere and they do not know much about it,except it is kind of red looking.

The Cheetah 8 Deck was done in a female fixture, I had some Pakistanis sawing up a truck load of "Red Wood" for this boat,there on the back wall is my loft this "Red Wood" makes a hell of a batten hard to break.

Picked off the bulkheads and bagging them.

Pulled the hull shell and setup for assembly on the "I" Beams using Aluminum for the holding fixture.

Foaming in the tanks since the boat was light and the fuel was across the center of gravity I went with Aluminum Tanks (we were the largest aluminum guys in Kuwait) and used some Italian foil suppressant in the tanks as well ,they were Round so one weld down the seam.

Cheetahcat 8 Internal structure battery boxes are mounted

The Deck is ready to be pulled from the fixture up there on the third floor.