mikefili

I remember that Bermuda boat, I think Steve Defeo sent that boat to Bermuda and I think he co drove it in a race there. I also think that was a boat with a notch transom, I drove one on greenwood lake when they built it. At that time Steve worked at Image and he brought it to greenwood lake. The boat really did not run well as rigged that day, would not Carry the bow at all.

mikefili

Of course all of the twin boats ran cleavers, lots of stern lift, little to no bow lift, not to mention most had some weight in the bow. Counter rotating lowers just locked the boats in, (in a good way of course). The twin boats ran like freight trains flat and fast, actually handled better in my opinion than the single boats. so much power and speed there was no need to hang them, they just powered through anything! The twin boats were awesome. Werner Kuenzle had a SB that he rigged with twins on brackets, actually the boat did not like the brackets at all. Ran 92 all day.

Too Stroked

Between you and Rich, I'm getting a real education here!

T2x

First Bermuda Boat was all white...had no steps and no notched transom and I don't think Steve was involved with it at all. The buyer was a blond guy who raced it as a replacement for his earlier original Challenger. Sorry I forgot his name after all these years but he was at the NY boat show repeatedly. Sreve may have gone to Bermuda with a later boat, but I don't recall that either. Steve was out of Image before George and I left so I would have been directly involved with any 21's he delivered.

rsagert73

Hey there all. Hopefully I am posting this in the right forum as I just signed up!

I just purchased what I was told by the previous owner is a 1983 Challenger 21. Although the boat had been in his family since new he appears to have not known much about the make.

I think I have a 1983 Hammond Challenger 2100. It originally had a Mercury that was replaced in 1988 with a Yamaha 2.6L (which I am also learning about and think it is a 225HP Unit). I have seen MKII and Sport used as a sub model and I am not sure what this unit is. The seller used a serial number of J01520 for the boat (this is not the REG #) but it makes no sense nor can I find it anywhere on the boat. I am unable to post a pic at this time but the boat is White/Blue Stripe/White Hull and looks like the Challenger 2100's I am finding online.

Any help is greatly appreciated in trying to figure out what I own. THANKS!!!! Ryan

dnelson964

My 1976-77 now.....

mikefili

Hi Rich,
Wow, so many years ago, amazing that we remember any of this. I think the boat with the transom notch that I speak of and drove on greenwood lake was gray, although that was a rather common color for image shadows back then. I think it was Steve who brought it up, we even tried some of my props on it. Somehow I even think George was there that day, as I say, so many years ago

mikefili

Rich,
Yes Steve left before you and George. The cove marina was closed down and for all purposes a wreck. Bob who is JR's brother had tried with no success to build condos on the property, he knocked down the storage buildings on the rear of the property. Steve and George then leased it from JR's family and started to operate it.

T2x

We stopped using the Challenger name and stopped making them in 1980 or early '81. By the Time the Shadow Cat came out The Challenger 21's were no more. After that we called them Shadows and changed the deck and added a notched transom. The only 1983 "Challengers" would have been made in Canada and licensed by George.

T2x

The boat you are thinking of was one of two we built for the NY boat show. It was definitely a Shadow and it had both a notched transom and a step about 60" forward of the transom. We testedit in boath fresh and Salt water to assure that we had a complete understanding of the various step configurations we tried...none of them improved speed...in fact we lost a bit...and the handling was worse than the standard hulls (*slippery" rear ends in hard turns).[ATTACH=CONFIG]529459[/ATTACH]]