Fabio Buzzi is, indeed, one of the most gifted and talented design engineers extant. His ability to craft boats, engines, drives, and overall concepts are second to none. His fit and finish leave a little to be desired, but that is as much due to his active mind and endless stream of "projects" than to any fabricating issues on his part. I rank Peter Hledin above Fabio for pure speed and , of course cat design and construction. Fabio, Beard/Curtis and Linder, I submit are peers . I would rank Mike Peters below this group..........

Harry Schoell is an interesting addition in this equation. Certainly he deserves mention in here somewhere , but has had little Catamaran succcess as yet.

Buzzi is also ranked in a tie for first place in the sense of humor category...........parallel to the equally offbeat...Alan Brown.
Third place runner up is the very lovely Steve David.......but only when he tries to be serious.

T2x

T2x,
Where's your comment about Buzzi, I was really looking forward to it. I've heard a lot of the name, but the only one I've seen is a really ugly one at Dick Simon. OK, so somebody can say that about mine, but I don't know how anyone would call that Buzzy one beautiful. I'll take some more of that coolaid now and wait for the answer.:)

Wow that was fast, came out before I even asked!

Fabio used our Miami facility for boat preparation prior to the 85 Key West races it was his grey Iveco cat (with motors out of the red Iveco) the first time I had seen anti stuff planes, what a character this guy is!! The little cat had no cockpit space and the throttle box was on the tunnel.

Also a Master rule tactician example I was talking to him about the rules-eventuality and the diesel he was two steps ahead ---Like running the multi turbo diesels on gasoline and a 500 cubic inch two stroke should there be rule changes, He had it very well covered .

Anyway we took him and his crew to our secret site Simmons aircraft salvage in Medley they went crazy when they saw that place ,bought like truck loads of everything imaginable.

I got an Invite to go back to Italy with them and work on his first Super Boat in retrospect I should have went.

TTT...

Sorry, one of the few serious boat discussions going these days. Maybe it'll help generate more serious topics besides jokes of the day and what kind of truck should I buy...;)

Reckless:

Oh, I'm sure some step bottom boats were Jokes of the day on occasion. Did you hear the one about the Fountain Super Vee that went to New Jersey and became a flounder?

T2x

before this thread goes away from lack of interest instead of OSO Gods can anyone please explain how steps fell out of favor in the late fifties or early sixties? Did like the T2x joke.:)

T2x or somebody else, Who are Beard/Curtis, Harry Schoell and Mike Peters and what did they do? Where does Don Aranow fit in? I know Reggie thinks he is on top of the list, but where does he fit into the history of performance boats and what did he do?

Most of what I know about boats came from this thread and others on OSO. We may joke around a lot, but myself and probabaly many lurkers really appreciate any info we can learn from those of you that have been so involved.

Thanks,
Tom

Tom:

I'm bringing back..........the board horror......."Great Moments in Vee Bottom history"......... That should begin to answer some questions for you.

T2x

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

And from an OSO history perspective it is great to see T2x had an attitude from the first post, assuming I am reading correctly that GREAT MOMENTS IN V BOTTOM HISTORY was your first post ever. Sense of humor, great knowledge, attitude, I just can't figure out how you ended up on the wrong end of the step debate.;) ;)

Beard was some of the genius behind Cougar, he also discovered the reverse three point’s (the cat version of the lawn dart) tendency to nose dive first hand.

Harry Schoell the ole “Master” is alive and well in Pompano Florida he is an amazing person/engineer/boat builder there is not enough space here to list his work.

:)