personally . . this is what i come here for :cool:

No......... this is the 8 engine Popeye's Cougar...8 outboard powerheads laying in the sponsons hooked to a single shaft on each side with Gilmer belts....driving through a single #5 drive on each sponson.

T2x

Did the boat ever run to expectations?

Sounds like a neat engineering exercise, but I don't recall it ever performing as expected???

It depends on what you expected..............


The boat was wicked fast in calm water....and was designed to set a top speed record...not to win a National Championship or run in rough seas.... so...based on it's intended purpose...It lived up to its "expectations" when it set the Open Class Kilo record. One interesting point... in later years Bobby Idoni re-rigged the boat with supercharged inboards (2) and canopied sponson mounted cockpits(2)...and it appeared to be slower..... I never figured that out other than that it was so purposely built that the extreme change in c/g and power took it right out of its comfort zone.


T2x

It held the Official UIM offshore straightaway record at 138 MPH for a good while. It might have gone a lot faster if it wasn't on frickin' FIRE!

Doesn't that violate the rule about nothing being faster than a scalded cat......? Besides boats get lighter as materials burn away.........

T2x

I guess that takes burning off fuel to a WHOLE new level.:D :p

Thanks for the info. That looks like a small boat. What size was it?

35 or 36 feet.......As I recall.... Open class minimum at that time was 35 feet....

T2x

Lets keep this one going, great history lesson, how about some more info about the "players", like George Morales? ...Matt