Ancient history
 

I was President of Cougar Marine in their glory days, and President and owner of Flight Marine. Between the two companies, we held the world's (APBA and UIM) straightaway records in all the cat classes for years. We (I) ended up believing that all the useful lift was generated in the tunnel. One of the record boats, Ted Toleman's 38' tree-wood Cougar cat, set the record at 121.08 mph on Lake Windermere, in England. With twin 600 HP Chevy's on Arnesons, it was impossible to slow the boat down by using the throttles. It felt as if the throttle lever was hooked to a pitch control, and the further you backed off, the higher the bow came up! The only way to slow down was to lower the drives, then back off. If you blew an engine at full speed, I am sure that you would blow over backwards.

In another example, Tom Gentry's 4 engine 48' Cougar aluminum superboat was tested with and aerodynamic deck, then with two engine crates bolted behind the cockpit (by Sammy James, crazy s.o.b.). No difference.

I am AMAZED at the current level of performance and relative safety of the sport.

AB

Really Fast
 

Brownie: You must have seen alot of speed in your days at Cougar Marine and Flight Marine. I agree with you whole-heartedly, that it is truly amazing to see the speeds that tunnel boats are now achieving. The available power in both outboards and inboard engines can really challenge a design nowadays. The years of history of these fast-cats is really intriguing.

I'm currently writing a test report on a 46’ Skater powered by twin 1350hp Sterling V-8’s. This is one of the fastest rigs I've had the pleasure to review. The setup is capable of well over 175mph! The design seems to handle it very well, too.

Brownie real nice reading thank you , And keep coming back Sir !

Best Regards:)

Brownie - Great to have you aboard. You should check out the history of cats thread and add your two bucks worth!

Can you shed some light on the origin and features of the Excaliburcat?

Thanks

Tom

EXCALIBUR CAT
 

The Excalibur cat is my old Flight Marine cat. Al Copeland set UIM records at 103, 112 128 & 135 mph. Seemed awfully fast back then! Wellcraft leased the mold from the jerk who bought it after my partners death (in a Flight Marine cat!)

Hi Brownie you are right IMHO everything meaningful dynamically in a Cats performance comes from the dark side! Oops unless it has a Mast and a Sail. If memory serves me well the Cigarette café racer was also one of your Projects right ?

Best Regards Sir
:)

Yeah. I did the Bullet and Decathlon 31's from scratch, and the CR and the Top Gun 38 on revamped and lightened existing hulls. Loved the job, but it was too much work for a geezer.

AB

BROWNIE - If you mean Joe Dupuis in Orlando, I know of whom you speak; quite a character. I ran into Joe when Talon had an ad in the South Florida Boat Trader for a 1996 Excaliburcat, hull and deck only. Apparently Talon had built two hulls for Joe to be used in the movie "Faceoff". The deal fell through and Talon was left holding Hull #2 to recover their money.

I wanted to buy that hull because Talon said the hull and deck bonded together weighed only 2400 pounds and was built according to their lamination and coring specs. As the owner of a heavy 1986 Wellcraft Excaliburcat, I was interested in rigging that hull with all my stuff. But I was leery because Joe had only sold a few of them for twin outboard fishing with a center console deck, and didn't seem to know anything about setting them up for twin big blocks. He also had recently had someone(?) put inserts into the mold for two big steps and a strangely notched transom, but had no data to support the effect on performance.

I wish I knew where that hull ended up. I heard it was sold to somebody who converted into a center console fishing boat. If I had known of you back then, we might have had some fun.

Tom

Well, I'll be damned.

AB

well I thought I would bring this vary interesting thead back from the dead, vary informative, I learned alot