Going to Sport Catamaran Heaven
 

Coming in August, a round-up of Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboard engine-powered catamarans will present the perfect counterpoint to the bigger beauties at Super Cat Fest, https://www.offshoreonly.com/article...tamaran-heaven.

From the OSO home page.

Hay matt nobody commenting so i will just say hi how are you

I'm great, thank you! Excited about this roundup. John Tomlinson suggested it almost two years ago—so it's been in the works awhile.

Looking forward to it Matt, Maybe Performance Boat Center can weigh each boat before the test as that would play an important part in the speed/handling department and validate the test results as opposed to hear say!

Given the time crunch involved at that time of year for Performance Boat Center, that won't happen. We'll rely on the manufacturers to supply dry weights for their entries. Most, at least to the best of my knowledge, have been pretty good about that during the years.

I'm really looking forward to this. Great idea!! I hope each manufacturer uses completely stock motors including no Rev limiter alterations or ECU flashes. That will be the only way this is a true comparison.

We can only hope LOL! Myself would be more interested in what those guys have to say running those boats in some slop and could care less about the top end number.
Better check those sponsons for ballast!

Given that everyone involved on the test team is familiar with the operating range of Verado 400R engines—and that there should be a Mercury Racing presence on site—I'm not concerned about any builder trying to gain an advantage through ECM modification. Double Rigged's post does bring up an interesting point: Lake of the Ozarks conditions on test day could well limit top speeds, so of course will report top speeds within the context of those conditions. (We'll also start the top-speed testing portion of the day as early as possible. That should help.)

While Powerboat magazine's testing program was far from perfect, the four of us who were extensively involved in it (Teague, Tomlinson, Johnson and me) learned a lot from it. We'll try to bring the very best of it to this roundup.

Great question. While I know there are other cats manufactured in other countries, I don't know a lot (as in almost nothing) about them. Here's one example, https://speedonthewater.com/new-boat...-catamaran-1-1.

While I believe it to be true and have seen nothing to prove otherwise, it's probably a tad arrogant to say that the "baddest catamarans on the planet" are made in the United States, but there you go. I suppose it's a bit like calling the World Series the World Series when only U.S. Major League Baseball teams are even allowed to compete in it. But there you go as well. :)

I'm covering a pair of poker runs in Sweden in August. That should be an eye-opener.

I would like to see Mercury on hand to check ECMs. We have already seen Fountain hide the truth regarding their boat.

Sounds like a great event that you guys put together. Can't wait to see the results.
I wouldn't be too concerned with rough water until at least after noon.
Probably best off to make the high speed runs closer to the dam as there will be even less boat traffic that direction.

Agree - I'm surprised no one organizing has considered St. Louis Scale co. or Hammel for a portable set of scales - weigh boat and trailer before splash and then just the trailer..... closer than a guesstimate and real time data for drawing conclusions.

Perfect opportunity for ALOT of exposure to whoever built the hot ECM Fountain ran....if boats run stock then hot box would be quite the article although there could be interesting conversations with the Merc hauler there and swapping ECM's

I agree, No secret sauce in making most of these cats run. Need HP vs Weight. I bet that Fountain stock would run around 120mph. To reach 130mph it would require a pretty good bump in HP. More than 25-50 per side.
I would also bet Mercury knows and has their own version of a tune as evident with the 340x MTI last year that jumped the same 10+mph from one run to the other with the ROS motors. Who knows they may tune all the boats to provide a great showing for their motors.

While we will have Mercury Racing representation on hand, it's worth noting that each of our test drivers is a certified Mercury Racing dealer who is quite familiar with the operating parameters/range of the stock Verado 400R outboard engine. In that context, with those eyeballs so to speak, I don't see any builder trying to gain an advantage with a modified ECM, particularly in such a public and "formal" setting. While this may not be the answer everyone is looking for, we'll most likely let the manufacturers supply boat weights.

Did Fountain hide the truth? I thought they came out and said the ECMs were modded right away, no?

This sounds fantastic. If all works out properly, and Skater gets Dales boat done, we will be there to check it out.

Totally read the headline and first line of text as Mercury 400R going to Sport Cat heaven...which in reality probably isn't a too distant future. I would guess by this time next year, we'll be seeing or at least hearing about the SC version of the new 300R V8. Hope to see some new gear ratio options in the very near future so we can at least see how the 300R stacks up against the 400R with more than a 100 lbs of weight savings per motor.