Opinion on 37' Active Cat
 

Found a 1982 37' Active Cat, an old race boat. I can get it for almost nothing. The layup looks a little rough, but no obvious damage.
My main concern is the weight. It seems to be a heavy hull for a cat, kind of like the old chris cats. I know it's the same design as the Benihana and War Cry race boats, but not sure about the layup.
Was considering supercharging a couple 502s, ZF trannys, and inline ASD6s.
Anyone have any experience with these hulls? Thoughts about them?
Gary

Hella heavy......but we were able to coax mid-teens out of Warcry with Merc 750hp EFI's running through crash-boxes and #5 drives. That thing could blast through some nasty water, but took a while to get up to speed.
Mike

mikiedreb
Thanks for the resopnse.
If it's good for rough water, maybe it would make a good LOTO boat.
Do you know what the bare hull weighs?
Regarding weight distibution, the fuel tanks look like they're WAY far forard in the boat (ahead of the drivers. It also has a ballast tank up there. Is this the normal setup for these hulls?
So I'm guessing 550-600hp motors should push it to 90.
Gary

What happened to this company? They used to be located near me in Algonac Mi.

Gary-
Ask Kat Driver. I think he's ridden in one. As I recall he said it porpoised a lot: maybe that's the reason the weight is forward?

Gary,

Warcry ran (4) 50 gal fuel tanks (2 pairs) just ahead of the engines between the cockpits. Nothing ahead of the cockpits. Never had any porpoising issues. Although it took a bit to get her on plane given the weight, she always accelerated straight and level. Barry had the rig weighed at a truck stop....12,000lbs with trailer. The trailer was a custom deal built by Jack Davision at Sanger .....for deep water launch...not light.

Given the performance with the 750's, you may be hard pressed to get it on plane and up to speed with any less horspower. I'd suggest blown motors for rec. use.

Mike

Gary, question...

This Active that you're looking at wouldn't happen to be the old Panasonic boat from yesteryear, would it? I remember seeing that one in Redwood City years ago. White hull with red graphic, Arneson drives...

Mike

mikiedreb
Nope, I dont think so. It's all white and used to have SSM Vs.
Sounds like it will need more hp than I want to invest in it. I knew it was heavy but wow, 12,000lbs on the trailer. Might as well get a 39' Aronow cat.
Gary

BTW, mikiedreb
Welcome to the board.
Gary

Mikiedreb: You forgot a famous
Movie star won a offshore race
in "Warcry".
Remember me? Say HI to Paul A
Mike J.

Re: Opinion on 37' Active Cat
 

I know this is an old thread, but what the heck! Gary, did you buy the Active cat?? I only ask because to my knowledge at least a couple of them broke apart. If I remember rightly Aoki's Benihana came unstuck, as did the italian cat Hublot, which fell apart during the Needles Trophy race of the UK coast way back in the 80's.

Re: Opinion on 37' Active Cat
 

The hull came from the Cougar 38' hulls shortened to 37' with a modified deck.
In the early '80's was a cat quite succesful.
The most famous Active 37' was Benihana/Flap Jack of Aoki-Quam,Gallagher/Systems of Bob Kaiser,Panasonic of Vince Vento,Hublot of Walter Ragazzi.

Re: Opinion on 37' Active Cat
 

No, I decided to pass on it. It was going to cost more than it was worth to me to build that much hp.
It's still available at LOTO, cheap, if anyone is interested.
Gary

Re: Opinion on 37' Active Cat
 

any pics?