Thanks for the compliment jlew. They have a long history of being a great rough water boat, and build quality is second to none.

PP Build Quality
 

PP build quality was good, but I'm afraid to say, those two photos are of boats, not built by PP. 34' Coyote on the left, Cigarette on the right. No common build history whatsoever...

Ed, I know these were pre-Powerplay but wasn't it the same hull design? Didn't Dan race a 34 Coyote and eventually used it to build his 33 Powerpalys?

No, not the same hull design at all. The 34' Coyote hull was taken from the much longer, deeper vee, MSV hull, for which Jean Claude Simon designed a deck. He designed a simular deck for the 28' Cary & 32' Cary, which became the 32' Cobra, by Performer. Dan inherited the 32' Cobra molds from an owner that also went away to school. These hulls derived from the 27' Magnum, as many others did. Bob Latham is a long time owner of an original 28' Cary with this ribbed deck Simon design. Jean Claude Simon designed decks, he did not design hulls, he used existing hull designs.

I thought the 32 Cobra's were the heritage Powerplay's?? No?

So your saying the 27 Magnum became the 32 Cary became the 32 Cobra and then the 33 Powerplay. Wasn't the 32 Cary also "The Cigerate"?
I know I have read that there was a conection with Powerplay and Coyote somewhere, I'll try to find it tomarrow. I aim not douting you just curios to find out where I read this. I seem to recall seeing it more than once. Some of this is confusing.
I guess the statement of them having a long history of being a great rough water boat is still true.
The hull on Slap Shot sure looks similar to the Powerplay

Did Dan race the 34 Coyote named Powerplay?

Original 32 Cobra Molds
 

The original 32 Cobra hull mold came to PP with three deck molds. One was the original Jean Claude Simon ribbed deck sport deck mold(which I personally cut up). The second was a "race" deck mold, which became the PP Sport Deck design. Dan did not design this deck shape, it came with the old 32' Cobra molds. Cobra(Performer) did make a couple of these prior. This deck mold came with a separate race fairing/dash that was later incorporated into the deck mold to make it one piece. The first couple PP's built in late 1987-88, were the separate add-on, race fairing/dash. You can easily identify these few boats by the limited cabin door height as you enter the cabin. The third deck mold was a center-console design, which was nothing more than a modified ribbed deck Cobra deck with the center area removed. It had a very basic square center-console. We used the 32' Cobra hull mold for all the 33 PP's up until 1994, when we retooled it, raising the hullsides 4 3/4". When we raised the hullsides, we had to actually shorten the hull length as the hullsides deepened, to insure that the new hull would mated up to the original decks. The boats remained 32' overall length. Still, Dan decided from the beginning to refer to the boats as 33', even though they were not. We tooled up a new design center-console deck & console in 1993, retooled the entire SportDeck mold in 1994, for no other reason than to deepen the cockpit floor 2", to take advantage of the new deeper hull, & tooled up a new staggered engine compartment race deck in 1995, which I believe we only made two decks from. Does this help answer its origins? Ed

Coyote
 

Yes. It was a boat named powerplay that was later used as the company name years later.

I'd say that sums it up.:D