Awesome thanks!

I went from a Waverunner to the 32" so that was a bigger jump lol! Insurance didn't give me any grief for my lack of "cat" experience or multiple boat ownerships like many have. Had to take Tres Martins class or they were going to add some premium to my policy but they still would have written it either way. For anyone wondering the class is worth its weight in gold even if it is not required, I'm now a believer everyone should take it regardless. My insurance is $3400-ish a year I wish there was a cheaper option for these boats though... it's sad we have come to insurance being a deciding factor for them.

Took a while but Tres Martin has finally been mentioned.

Just a thought, take a course first, then if you’re convinced a cat is safe (in educated hands) buy one. Obviously you’ll feel good about buying one after the course, that’s what the course is designed to do. Having that confidence first, might make the shopping/purchase experience easier and more enjoyable once your concerns are addressed. :)

RR

I agree 100% and had planned on the course but my understanding is you have to provide your own boat for the course? Wouldn't that mean buying the boat first lol? Maybe I was mistaken but that's how I read it on the website?

sent you a PM. here is a Chris Cat out in the wild from the heyday of racing

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...6d3307062e.jpg

Sent you an email....man that thing is killer!! Love the velocity stacks through the hatch!! Just pure old school awesomeness right there!!

That is correct you must take it in your own boat.

Ms. Maxon ran Open Class back in the day so those are Mercury Racing Open engines. 500 ci with Kinsler fuel injection with tall stacks. boat ran around 140 back in the day.

That's incredible!! I would think it wouldn't take much to get her to run 100 even with the TRS drives? Maybe 500 a side....would a TRS hold that??

here are a couple others. My dad was VP of Chris Craft at the time and was one of the ones that pushed for the Chris Cat project. got to run a bunch of them back in the day. I was one of the few that was allowed to run them at the dealer meetings as you could not turn the dealers loose on the their own. one of the best rough water boats I have been in unless you step up to over 40'.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...6f178ccef7.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...494f068ae8.jpg

Are they all 2-3 seaters or did they make a "pleasure" version? Sorry for the ignorance I honestly have heard of them but that's about it lol

I am rebuilding an American Offshore which is the same boat, Chris Craft sold one set of the molds to them after they stopped building them. the boat ran 108-110 with iron headed 509's that were around 600 hp with bravo drives. always hated the bravo's as they dont tend to live long on cats. currently re-rigging the boat with #5 speedmasters and 565 engines that should make close to 800 hp so she should run up to around 130 but the owner just wants to be able to cruise at 100 which is pretty comfortable in these boats.

pleasure boats are two front seats with four rear seats as you can see in the pics I sent you. all the race boats deleted the rear seats and were covered with a deck filler.

Ah OK, didn’t know that. That would certainly make it difficult. :)

that boat looks hot as hell !!! Nu pun intented ... :)

i got to rebuild mine and splash it in water someday... someday !!!! :)

So this is an interesting video....running in a Chris Cat in a poker run....doesn't appear to be that choppy other than boat wakes and it looks like a very wet rough ride...am I missing something? Was he not going fast enough to be up and out of the water? I was expecting smooth and dry plus a what looks like way smaller vee bottom walks him....not understanding what's happening here lol

they do have a true tunnel and fairly deep....DCB and eliminators have the center pod.

that smaller v bottom is a 39’ Sutphen with massive power in it. They are running on the east river in NYC. It’s way rougher than the video makes it out to be.

Spectre 36
 

The Spectre 36 is a splash of the old 32 Skater that was then lengthened.

No pod.

Yep. You can run an inboard cat very loose, too.

Check out the Alcone 46 Skater in the Class 1 race at Arendal, Norway.

cats have to have air under them. in the video he is not going fast enough to air it out. once you hit the mid 70's she lifts up and starts gaining speed again. cats are not good "ride around and 50mph" boats. in that water he could cruise at 80 and she would air out and run smooth.
I was the crew chief on the Alcone boat for all but the first year he raced. I was there in Arendal setting the boat up. In testing I ran it to 164 in Sarasota bay with the open class engines.

bang for buck its really, really hard to beat a 36 Spectre.
Dollar for speed its really hard to beat a 32B Skater.
Ultimate while still having a budget its really hard to beat a 36 Skater in anything.

Know when to run 5/10ths, when to run 8/10ths, and when to run 10/10ths. Just like any boat, you can get into trouble if you aren't within your limits. You can lose control of a V if it has some go and is up on top of the water.

I've almost dumped my 18 foot aluminum fishing boat at 45mph trimmed out hitting a wave goofy.

so true. I ran the little 10' cougar cub I rigged for a customer and at around 40mph she was pretty loose and flighty. told him I would not recommend letting just anyone run the boat.

Do you have a pic of your new 42?

Cats are basically ground effect aircraft. Except that they have no control surfaces like flaps.

You’re talking about the Chris-Craft video and not the Arendal video, right?

How much power did you have?

yes I meant in the Chris Cat video on the speeds not being enough to make it happy. the open class engines were around 980 each. we had a set of 1350 hp blower motors that we ran in it for SBI unlimited. in race trim with those she would run 175 plus if you had a good run. we ran both series with the same boat swapping out engines and drives.

this is what was in Mrs Maxon. Mercury racing class 1 engine. nothing like a set of stacks to announce you are here at the docks.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...af77cd762a.jpg

Maxon was BAD.

I agree with the others, very good thread. You have done a nice job of getting some cat people to comment about their experiences. The Chris Cat is a good boat, 30 ft long I believe and with that I thought I chime in on that video of that poker run and make a couple of suggestions.



About eight years ago I picked up a really nice (less the wet transom) Wellcraft Excalibur Kat with Kaama 425 surface drives. It is almost a clone of the Chris Cat: it is 30 ft, single step, 10’ beam with a 45” wide full length tunnel. Two-plus-one bolsters up front, 7’ wide bench behind. It is deep, 36” from teak sole to gunwales. It has a queen size bed down in the berth. Yep, I rebuilt the transom for a retirement insanity project and put about 150 hours on the engines over the years. It doesn’t pack much air until it is over 70 mph, and with the surface drives, there’s little pitch authority. Top end in its youth, upper 80’s.



You’re right, video starts out with a lot of other boat wakes running parallel. My cat does the same outside chine spray in lieu of rolling like a v-bot. It also looked like it does the same tunnel sneezing at those lower speeds. I went full screen to see where the tach’s were for some of the video. At the spot in the video where you mention the v-bottom walking away ( looks like a 22 Classic), the Chris Cat was at 3000 rpm. For my cat, that is best range/speed, 46 mph and about 2.0 mpg. Take a look at the video at about the 8:22 minute mark. There I see 4000+ rpm, and based on my cat, that is about 60-65 mph. Then at 9:22 minutes, I see 5000 rpm, for my cat that’s over 80 mph. Not a lot of boats were walking by it at that segment as it was starting to pack air. The guy running it is was obviously interested in saving a few of his old cat’s “nine-lives.” I don’t baby mine, but I sure don’t abuse it as I too am trying to prolong its life. Whoever was running the camera/phone, wow, I’m surprised they didn’t go swimming as they were standing up for most of the run.



Don’t rule out the old deep, narrower tunnel cats, it might be something your wife could live with, and you could still have some safe fun without huge insurance premiums. Going old (1986) like I have means you’ll have to get it surveyed to be insured. Best Wishes!

I wish they still ran those motors instead of the carbureted motors they run in Super Cat - so much cooler looking! They just scream "race motor" imo.

That's my footage from the run. That was my first time onboard a catamaran. Its a solid, well built boat. The east river and lower Hudson were pretty rough with all the commercial boat traffic so he didn't push it that hard. Once we passed the Statue of Liberty he was able to open her up and we were in the 80s all the way up to the mouth of the Harlem River. I beleive i cut the video once he had it wide open. I was sitting down as that's not a standing boat. Holding the phone up high was tricky as any slip could send it flying. Awesome classic boat.

Cats are Pure evil and will Fuc you up or kill you given the chance, Dogs are like old heavy straight bottom Cigs, Love you every minute and get you home no matter the conditions .

Dog Pile Commences Now.

Three Sent to Hospital After Cigarette Boat Rolls and Capsizes | Ocean City, NJ Patch

the below incident happened near me in 2006

Attachment 577674


:picard1: :blahblah: :D

Less weight, wider the tunnel, more speed.

even old dogs will bite you if you let them

No. Catamarans are not inherently dangerous. Nor are V-bottoms. However, there are inherent risks in performance-boating, period, that can't be wished or even trained away.

Drivers who refuse to take their learning curves seriously are dangerous. Overconfident, complacent drivers, regardless of experience level, are dangerous.

The vessel for those drivers who answer to those descriptions is just an unfortunate means to a bad end.

I don't own a catamaran or a V-bottom, and though I've driven a lot of both I make no pretense that I'm a highly skilled operator. But for what it's worth, I have had the awful responsibility of reporting quite a few go-fast boating fatalities during the years.

This is incorrect information.

The M37r DCB is a TRUE TUNNEL cat and as capable of any run, in any conditions, as anything else in its size range.

And I have driven, throttled, or both, in just about every cat model you can think of over the years. Happy to provide the videos if necessary.