T2x:

The bottom design on the Powercat hydro appears to be a 3 point design. The two outboard sponsons terminated at the step, then there is one sponson in the middle that starts at t approximately the longitudinal midpoint.

Am I correct in this thinking?

vtec

Power Cat made four distinct performance hull designs...back in the day:

1. The standard non stepped twin hull catamaran

2. The standard non stepped trimaran.....(for single engine applications)

3. The Three Point hydro

4. The four point Hydro cat.

T2x

Just got confirmation that the El Boss cat is For Sale and has ben converted to a semi pleasure boat but still has the blower motors and drives from when it raced all fresh of course

The three point Power Cat........at one time held the world o/b qtr mile drag record....... Chuck Mercereau driving...
T2x

side view

So, has anyone built a true 4 point design in the 30+ range that was designed for rough water? What were the results?

Sure, that would be a single step cat. They work fine.

1960 Powercat 1800-C Day Cruiser with Triple 1963 75hp Scotts.

I think I understand what each of these hull configurations are, but can someone post hull (bottom) pictures or drawings of which one is what?

Thanks.

BTW, BROWNIE & T2x... please keep contributing. This is fascinating!

The late, great Chuck Mercereau........ Those of you who have been to Lake X or visited the Mercury truck at races, may know J.D......... Chuck was his uncle.

T2x

Wanna race.......

Yes my friends.... while the LLC may have "invented" "deck to deck" racing in 1999, "bow to bow" racing was created many years before.

T2x

As you can see "helmet to helmet" racing was also quite popular.................................

In those days when old man Kiekhaefer said..."let's go racing"....... Mercury stole the show.

By the way....#40 is Mr. Mercereau.

T2x

im waiting for more
 

youre not going to try and charge us for more old stories are you?:D

How come some of the boats in the above photos have letters and numbers and others just have numbers? Please don't tell me they had 30 classes then too?;) :p

At the time that picture was taken....the classes were quite simple and all of the boats with twin 80's would have been in one class......
Later the OPC classes went from E (50 HP) through JJ (twin 100 hp) to UU (modified twin Stackers)...and there were a total of 4 classes stock (motors/boats) and 6 classes modified (motors/boats). Remember , however that up to 200 boats competed in these 10 classes... and most events were'nt televised.

At that time it was a participant's and enthusiast's sport only, with wonderful, clear coverage available exclusively in boating magazines and newspapers.

The race pictured above was very easy to understand...obviously.

The multi class issue/problem now is due to the fact that we see twice that many classes, with far fewer entries, and lots of overlapping.... (how many classes currently allow twin big block vee bottoms in offshore?.....I count 7 or 8). This has made the television programs impossible to understand...or at least to build on.

T2x

The pictures above remind me of a scene in a movie with Elvis Presley where he is races offshore in a one-off design and beats a rich, spoiled guy. :D

The boat in that movie was actually Lou Brummett's "Miss Mandella"...... a legendery...and beautiful...marathon flat bottom. I loved the "hobby horse" close ups...in the "racing action" scenes.

Any other questions?

T2x

I'm sure I can come up with some other questions for ya... :D

I liked the hobby horse closeups as well. They were ridiculous but fun nonetheless.

Here ya go...............

So, were you driving any of the boats in the racing scene? Seems you've got some "inside knowledge" of this movie! ;)

Thank ya...thank ya very mush....

T2x... a hunka hunka burnin love

You may want to rephrase that. Afterall, Gordo's post revealed some interesting tendencies amongst our breatheren...and that goatee is, well... :p

See Elvis isn't dead, he's actually T2x.

ttt

This is such a great thread. Thanks to all that contributed. Miller, keep those questions coming. Darren, looking forward to your DVD that you're creating.

Rich......will there be a Skaterfest next year??

Stan

Stan,

How's the boat now that you've had it for some time? It looks awesome in the photos. The paint is great.

Miller right that is a cool looking boat.

The Cigarette won the 1981 Imperial World Cup in Key West. May want to research in the future!

Alpicon,
That's a bit tacky telling T2X to "research" before posting....this was also pointed out in post 6 of this thread by Darren US1, 8 years ago.

It was the Cigarette. I was standing on the Start Finish barge when Willy pulled up... Ten minutes later a shrimper pulled out into the lane.. Black Sunday was trimmed out and went over the shrimper's wake and broke his tie bar and had to idle past.. the same shrimper threw a nasty wake and rocked El Boss into the barge putting a gash into the side. By the way... in the Needle Nose video.. they state El Boss as a 37' Cigarette with Twin 700 hp Evenrude motors... The other two 37's were Ajac Hawk and The Collection... Eddie Trotta in a 39 comp. Cigarette... Hal Halter in a 39 bubble deck Cigarette... Jerry Kilpatrick in a 39 Squadron/ Cigarette..

This was also the race that Paula Aiken in her 30' Velocity stuffed and sank..

Fast shaft,

Did not mean to offend T2X or anyone else for that matter. However, do not need to see Darrens #6 post or anyone else's for that matter. I was there as my father was competing in the same class in the Damn Carrera.

are you Sal or Humberto's son?

Hey T2x wasn't there a chris cat up in brick named THE BOSS?

Beats me......

But I do stand corrected. Willie won World Championships at Key West in both the Shadow Cat and the Cigarette apparently. If Darren says it's so....than it's so.

Rich,

If I recall the Shadow was in 82. In Oct of 83 he blew out the sponson and almost sank at the Penrods race in Ft. Lauderdale.

I don't recall the Penrods race, but the sponson issue I referred to (flywheel cutting through it like a buzz saw) happened in Saugatuck. The hull was replaced and as I read back through this maybe more than once. According to George we built one after a "race in Miami". That had to have been one of the last things I had anything to do with at Shadow. We were involved in a bunch of squabbles back then.......... and I'm such a likeable guy.

This was a delam/ blow out.. I was 300 yds off his port aft qtr when it happened. He came in along side a 41 Coast Guard Utility boat with the pumps keeping him afloat. If you remember what happened to "Love It Again."... similar issue but closer to the transom if I recall.

There Was Nothing Mentioned In This Thread About The Docksider Boats ,,Wasnt There 2 Of Them,Back In The Day???

Im too young to have been around back then

Owned by Don Franklin from N.J.

i am Humberto's son