Looks like the "Good Ole Days" ended when the cats took over.

So,,,who knows which cat was first , where it first raced and who raced it?

I think I know the answer.

Today we were up by Bear Mountain,Hudson River area at a marina & found a piece of history,a 38' Bertram raceboat named" DYNOMITE", no power but in good shape! Anybody know this boat?

81,
I think DYNOMITE is the old "Benihanna".

Bob, If it is , It's still in good shape, Hull is in good shape, No power or drives, fuel tanks, driveshaft covers, misc. parts,some interior,no hull #'s. Do you think it's worth investigating? Dave B.

Okay Ron.....what is the answer?

And how far back are you going?

For offshore I think it was Ron Jones 33 cat "zippy" later bought by Paul Cook "Betty's Husband" renamed KUDU started out as shaft driven converted to stern-drive by Cook

I'd say the first successful cat would have to be "Yellow Drama".

I'd trust T2x's answer more than my own, but the first time I ever saw a cat was Howard Arneson's red/white and black cat called ARNESON. Of course it also had surface drives.

I remember it clearly becuase I thought it was two matching boats running side by side. The following year, the Shadow cats started showing up. This would have been around the late 70 or early 80s.

Back in the sixties there was a very successful 28 foot deep v monohull named Ghost Rider...it was designed by Walt Walters and Jim Wynne. Jim drove it to many wins including the Cowes Torquay.

The boat was wooden, built by Souter in England of cold molded plywood. It ran two big block Daytonas on shafts. It was actually owned by a sportsman named Hugh Doyle. He donated it to his College as a gift.

He then contracted Walt Walters to design a catamaran capable of winning an offshore race. That boat was 28 feet also and powered with twin 427 Mercruisers with sterndrives. Carl Kiekhaefer was an early admirer of the design and pushed to have his engines included in the package.

Instead of England, Hugh chose a local buiulder in Osprey Fla by the name of John Holmes to build the boat. The name of that boat was Maui Kai.

I was involved with the failed Miami to NY race last year. I met the owner of Ghost Rider that was going to bring her out of mothballs to racing again. He said it's in a cacoon in his CT warehouse. He was ready drop in some new engines and do it again.

I also found a bunch of old photos. I'll post a few.