Found info on a 188ft Cat..........made of wood!!
 

I ran across this photo being auctioned on eBay, and thought it was pretty interesting! It doesn't say in this photo how big it was, but I found an old newspaper article that talked about this sinking, the conditions, about the boat and the builder who was a retired raceboat driver. Here is yet another boat that was described as "unsinkable"......and made of wood, yet sits at the bottom. LOL Cracked me up about the housekeeper description too. That's the way folks talked back then!

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=5145,6215556

Cool read. He made some very cool wooden runabouts as well.

Look at his race boat!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ica_2_1921.JPG

The Miss Americas are some of the coolest boats ever built. :coolcowboy:

Gar Wood was one of the original powerboat racers an a real innovator. He raced in the 20's and the 30's. Reliable high powered engines were only available from the aero industry. The Liberty V 12 engine was very popular and used as the base engine for most of these boats. Packard used this design and carried it forward. These guys were doing 100 mph on the water 90 years ago.

He was a legend on the Detroit River. His mahogany runabouts are sought after.

Wannabe

I believe these are a couple of Gar Wood built boats, this was a few years ago at a wooden boat run on the Ohio river.

I might be the only living person who raced against Gar Wood. Gar Sr. and Gar Jr. raced the "Orca", a 48 wooden cruiser powered with a pair of 1710 Allisons. It was the 1964 Miami Bimini Handicap. They won the leg over, but couldn't start the next day to come back. Jake Trotter won overall in a Formula 233, and I was second in my 233.

Brownie. I would guess you are the only person ALIVE to race Gar Sr. He was getting on at that time.

Allison 1710 was the engine they put in the P 40 Warhawk and they first put in the P 51 Mustang (RR Merlin came later).

John Harrah put 2 Allisons in a custom 55 ft Hacker on Lake Tahoe.

Wannabe