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06-27-2015, 03:51 PM #31
My father ( Ray Leger ) as early as 1961 saw the limitations in the Power Cat conventional catamaran as he and others were racing. His back flip at over 80 mph in a 16c Power Cat with twin 80hp white mercs with speedmasters was his lesson learned. He immediately began designing the 3pt hydro as the design for racing and high performance sport boats that Power Cat would go forward with. The design of this new boat was a good example of the method used by the old school boat builders of those years. There were 3 prototypes of the 3 pt hydro that were total design failures before the fourth that was successful. Building what looked right to the designer had its drawbacks, and costs. But learning from your mistakes is a sign of mastering your craft. When Power Cat moved its production plant from California to Texas in 1962, and no longer was building conventional cats for the racing, left a void in the market. The Stylecraft's and others that were
still building on this design, made improvements, and saw success but by 1968 Howard Eis was the only remaining competitive true cat still running in major races with a much modified boat of his own design. The Switzer Wings and Molinari tunnel boats were the wave of the future, and with the changes to the race courses and the move away from multiple engines the tunnel was the ultimate winner.
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06-27-2015, 05:30 PM #327000 RPM
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Some builders with more limited resources relied on customer/drivers to sort out their designs. In 1969-70 one builder sold several boats of the same design to drivers in my area. I saw every one of them blow over. Soon these drivers were going to another builder to try to cure this problem using a device he had devised for his own boats. This was unsuccessful and in a short time these boats just disappeared. The increase in available power and the rate of this increase outpaced the ability of these craftsman boat builders to deal with the consequences. These guys built boats that were works of art but not always science.
Last edited by 2us70; 06-27-2015 at 05:42 PM.
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06-28-2015, 01:45 AM #33Screaming And Flying!
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All the tunnel boat builders I ever knew, Cetti, Schulze, Molinari, Scotti, Hodges, Burgess, Velden, Seebold, and many more all had one thing in common, IDEAS,! Not an ounce of science amongst the lot of them, but a bunch of client/drivers that could tell them what was wrong with the boat they were driving?
Thats how progress was made------(in my opinion).
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06-28-2015, 05:49 AM #346000 RPM
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This thread, which started out as a simple question, has turned into quite a wealth of information from some of the finest racers of the time. Great Reading
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06-28-2015, 08:22 AM #35
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06-28-2015, 10:12 AM #36
Computer what? I wore a big Stetson hat and used it as a wind gauge. If it blew off my head in the pits, I needed to put a 10 lb bag of buckhot in the nose of my Molinari.
20 Foot Switzer Wing 2 X S3000 (Dust'n the Wind II)
!6 foot Wood Eltro Vee (2X Merc 1500's) (Dust'n the Wind IV)
15 foot Powercat 15C (2 X Merc 1500) (Dust'n the Wind III)
(Single engine boats are lacking something)
15’ Wooden Switzer Shooting Star...
16 foot Lee Craft Merc S 3000-(Gold Dust II)
(The exception proves the rule)
Obsolete and Proud of it
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06-28-2015, 10:41 AM #37
Very true words Rich.
I remember when I ran stock outboards i went to the ditch on Rt 84 in Ft Laud to watch the kilos or mile trials. It was 58 or 59. Ted Thompson blew his alky B hydro over. He was shook up. Bill Hutchins got it going again and calmed Ted down. Bill put a 1 lb lead weight on the bow handle and told him that would fix it. I went up to the halfway point to watch. Ted came by with the boat about 15-20 degrees nose high, only the prop in the water, as far forward as he could get. He got the record. A little science and some psychology to solve a problem.
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06-28-2015, 07:23 PM #387000 RPM
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A guy put a little Allison with a 100 speedmaster on it into the cow pasture on the north side of the canal one year. I also Pumo and Burke set the E Service Runabout record there. On the record run he was using the whole width of the canal.
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06-28-2015, 07:53 PM #39
The faster you go the narrower the ditch got. When Bobby Erra bought an SK boat from Skip Voit we took it up there. The boat ran over the record at 107 with a KB Hemi turning 7000, but Skip couldn't back it up. Bobby ran it to the bridge and back (no chase boat, no nothing). He told me to get in it. Treasure was there and wanted to go too. We blasted up and back. It was hard to keep it straight because of the torque. The steering wheel was turned almost 90 degrees. The boat was a rocket. Treasure had her foot on the dash and when i pulled up to the ramp, she said "Is that it?". We played around with the engine at HM and got it to turn 8k from turn 4 to the stands in the stadium. I don't think Bobby was ever beaten in it. Then he lost his hand in a flip in St Pete.
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06-29-2015, 12:34 PM #407000 RPM
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Jock Horner and I were sitting on the back of a boat just before the west end of the kilo when Pumo set that record. The boat changed sides of the canal with every jump and we both realized at the same time that we were in the wrong place for the next one. We bailed to the bank and the " Second Mortgage" knocked off the lower cowl trim off the motor where we had been seconds before. I have heard that was Pumo's last time in a race boat.
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07-22-2015, 10:27 AM #41
Jim: Any chance you will make it to the Power Cat Rendezvous this year? http://www.powercatboat.com/Rendezvo...eGray2015.html
Looks like we are going to have our best turn out this year ever, and the guys from Arizona are coming with their twin engine 15c .. Would love to see the two boats together on the water... Hope you can make it..
Danny Leger
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08-23-2015, 07:42 PM #42
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08-25-2015, 08:28 PM #435000 RPM
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08-26-2015, 05:30 AM #44
Thats gonn a leave a mark............
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08-26-2015, 09:43 AM #45Member
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Upon getting the boat back on the trailer after the blow over they noticed the trim gauge read IN ORBIT.
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