^^^Yeah well he needs to hurry the hell up and start building his boats again...

My last, "water is not flat" post,....maybe.

I was all about racing sailboats originally, and when in high school was a member of the AYRS (amateur yacht research society) While mostly about the design of sailboats, it included powerboats in its research. they published a small journal a few times a year. There were two brothers in England that were into outboard powered circuit racing boats and wanted to test with models. They devised a test tank that was round. Round like a ferris wheel and in cross section was a trough, perhaps 10 feet in diameter. An old car engine with transmission rotated this wheel at speed while a garden hose filled it. This was in England, and back yards are called gardens, so hoses there are called........

Small models for testing were carved and their drag measured in this rotating test tank, except, it didn't give results.

Back to the drawing board and new models were made with the base line and waterlines curved to match the curvature of the water. They alleged to get good data and won the subsequent championship. Really. You can't make this stuff up.

Jim Good Point "observation"! Way back When I decided to build the first Cheetahcat, once the general bottom layout and tunnel were established (another story), I was constantly in the back of my head going over the boat, Then driving home one day the proof appeared looking up there was a 150 Cessna cruising @ 120 MPH on a 100 HP engine, My design would give me the speed, IF I could guarantee the low mass.
Like the old wood Cats where a 1” of Gaboon Plywood is blasted away and people saying “a lot of pressure there” Flip side ;the boat should NOT be there.

So what did the first Cheetah Cat actually weigh, all up, less fuel with crew? Length? Beam? tunnel width?

@ 36' with 9' beam 52" tunnel, weight before nuts and bolts 1188 # by Danny’s scales, I can do much better today. The Boat in my avatar was the model 8, 10 meter a "low volume" build avoiding energy lost in that semi truck wind blast.

What a great thread !
I remember Bill Gazell showing up in KW with the Cheetah in 1990 . He explained the construction to me , the boat's light weight , the running pads etc. I was blown away .
In that race unfortunately I damaged my D class Chris Cat and had to retire while Billy took it all in his class .
I think the Cheetah is amazing even by today's standards .
Did you ever build one with I/O's ?

Yep......great stuff Steve1.............thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guys thanks , The IO was to be a 12 series , The engineering and working drawings were were done for the boat .

A 40 footer ?
Can you post a drawing ?

here is a drawing