Skater splashes

[tdimaniac]

The USA 39 ? Was what caused Arnows demise I believe ... He played both sides..., they were never a great boat.... He should of copied the Cougar, jaguars or CUV cats....they had some nice designs back in the 80's

[J.P.]

I thought American Offshore copied the old 30 Chris Cat or maybe they bought the mold.

[MCRacing]

Don't forget the great aronow cats , no one copied those!!

Hahahahahaha, that would be like copying gravel barge.

[Rayzor]

There were a lot of big cats before there were skaters. Go back and look at any of the offshore races before 1984-Arneson and some of old school guys were running 40+ cats made out of 100% wood and or aluminum. Then in 1983 when Pete did the 24, (and made it light weight), it set the outboard world up for total amazement. He (Pete) has told me many times that those were some of his best memories and that the only reason he kept building bigger hulls was because he had customers that pushed him for a bigger and bigger boat.

Joe

I agree with your post Joe. Guys nowadays don't realize that big cats were running race speeds of 130-150 a long time ago. And I agree that Pete always seems to be happiest talking about the achievements of his early boats. Don't leave out his 32As beating the world with Mike's small blocks in them! Those years are what really put Pete and Mike on the map!

[fastcat]

I agree with your post Joe. Guys nowadays don't realize that big cats were running race speeds of 130-150 a long time ago. And I agree that Pete always seems to be happiest talking about the achievements of his early boats. Don't leave out his 32As beating the world with Mike's small blocks in them! Those years are what really put Pete and Mike on the map!

Great info. Thanks for sharing the pics.

[1BadAction]

Ahh, been a long time since we've had a good ole fashioned pissing match/splash thread. I'm in. lol

[Onetime]

Weren't the Chris Cats wood?

[Double Rigged]

I remember going to all the FL races and the 24' Skater class and then the 28's had some of the best racing around. Also the most boats in class.
Peter has built a company with a great reputation and the 388 might just be the all around best cat built to date.

[quicklt1]

I'm a Vee person but if I bought a cat it would only be a skater!! I look at what wins in racing...

[JPEROG]

I agree with your post Joe. Guys nowadays don't realize that big cats were running race speeds of 130-150 a long time ago. And I agree that Pete always seems to be happiest talking about the achievements of his early boats. Don't leave out his 32As beating the world with Mike's small blocks in them! Those years are what really put Pete and Mike on the map!

Dale,

Funny you mention Mike, I was with him at the races last month and we were talking about the old days-His first big break was with the Don Q guys (Pete linked the deal for him) but they called him direct and asked for a couple sets of motors. Mike said he was so scared to say that he could do it, but he knew that he no choice other then to take on the order. He was working at Saleen as a young engineer (just a kid really), went to the mail box only a few days after the conversation with Don Q and opened up a check that was big enough to have bought him a new house at the time. He said he was shaking and had no idea what to do all of the money and no business account or anything else. He built the motors in his garage, put them in the back of his buddys truck, and would sneak in to Saleens shop at night to dyno them at night, go home shower and get back into work as if they had never been there.

You have to love will and determination-its all paid off now for both of them.

Joe

[Da Bull]

I agree with your post Joe. Guys nowadays don't realize that big cats were running race speeds of 130-150 a long time ago. And I agree that Pete always seems to be happiest talking about the achievements of his early boats. Don't leave out his 32As beating the world with Mike's small blocks in them! Those years are what really put Pete and Mike on the map!

You need to go back even farther to the late sixty`s. I have seen a picture of a Ron Jones offshore tunnel that looks exactly like a Skater. The picture is dated 1968. I`ll see if i can get it posted.

DB