Screaming Eagle Boats buys American Offshore 2600 molds

[Spectre Powerboats]

Yesterday a final contract to purchase the very popular American Offshore 2600 molds was signed between the owner of Screaming Eagle Boats (SEB) and the owner of American Offshore. The molds currently reside in California and are being prepared for their long journey to SEB's shop in Ohio. The purchase included 3 different deck molds, the hull mold and several other smaller molds.

The SEB crew with several attempts over the years to purchase the Talon 25 molds from Joe LoGiudice at Hustler Powerboats, but had no such luck. SEB decided it was time to start taking some old, out of production boats and cut them up to build a new 25'-26' Cat or make a deal on the American Offshore 2600 molds. With the help of Charlie Amann, out of Cincinnati Ohio, who most of you may know as the owner of the original Agitator 32' supercharged inboard Skater and also a very fast American Offshore 31 footer, a deal was done. SEB Thanks Charlie for all of his help in making this deal come together.

Rumored history to the creation of the American Offshore 2600. Todd Lamb of SEB, had talks with Gary Armington and Chip Fendt, both previously of Talon Powerboats. Armington and Fendt, claim to have sold a new Talon 25 boat to Ed Ferro in the mid 1990's. Ferro later used the Talon 25 to build the American Offshore 2600 molds. We at SEB did a blueprint of the Talon 25 and one off of an American Offshore 2600 and saw basically little difference in the bottoms. The majority of the difference the SEB crew saw, was mostly done on the top side.

The SEB crew anxiously awaits the arrival of the molds and can not wait to put their spin on them.

In more news from the SEB shop. The Victory Team in Dubai has been going through some changes in their boat racing teams. SEB was fortunate enough to hire 2 of their top composite workers during this re-structuring. We look forward to addition of these guys to our crew. The plans are for them to relocate to the US the first of the year.

http://www.powerboatlistings.com/powerimg/m/28815/IMG_4820.jpg

[mragu]

What are the different deck molds? Open model?

[capteliminator]

That's awesome!!

[AZMIDLYF]

Believe they are the one deck pictured, a dual canopy dash, and an open bow.

[Spectre Powerboats]

Believe they are the one deck pictured, a dual canopy dash, and an open bow.

Correct. There is the standard deck, the NSX deck (which is the twin canopy deck) and the open bow deck.

[joneill]

Great to hear! Glad things are working well for you guys,

[Spectre Powerboats]

Great to hear! Glad things are working well for you guys,

Thank you. Things are good here. Are biggest struggle like all business's, is finding help or people to even show up for work.

[Boomer 880]

Congrats on another great hull for your stable of 22-36' boats.

I wonder how you will position all of these great hulls with potential buyers, based on which application fits best for their use. You have a lot of great options with some hulls having the added option of no center pod, a small pod and a full pod. Where do you see your 22-26' boats fitting for buyers?

Great to see all your hard work coming to fruition.

[delawarerick]

Congrads on the mold I have been in a 26 American offshore 4 people alot of chop a good ride at 80 plus. I hope you all have a great Christmas and a super great New Year. Rick

[Spectre Powerboats]

Congrats on another great hull for your stable of 22-36' boats.

I wonder how you will position all of these great hulls with potential buyers, based on which application fits best for their use. You have a lot of great options with some hulls having the added option of no center pod, a small pod and a full pod. Where do you see your 22-26' boats fitting for buyers?

Great to see all your hard work coming to fruition.

Thank you. The Talons and Edge will be great river and calmer lake boats. The 26 AO filled the gap we had from the 22's to the 30'. The 26 AO's will run over some pretty nasty stuff. A friend of ours Walter Steinbaugh, had one with about 900 hp and we use to run over some nasty water with it. The 30' and 36' are great lake and ocean boats. My goal was to have a size Cat boat available for any application.

[Spectre Powerboats]

Congrads on the mold I have been in a 26 American offshore 4 people alot of chop a good ride at 80 plus. I hope you all have a great Christmas and a super great New Year. Rick

Thank you Rick!

[cdubya]

I have been trying to decide for a couple of days if I should post about this thread. I prefer to keep a low profile, and probably don't have half the knowledge most of y'all do, but, when I was much younger, I did work for a dealership outa Kansas City (Offshore Marine), and I did rig a couple of American Offshore cats. Mostly 3100's but some 2600's also.
The above story about the Talon is true as told to me by Ed. The 3100 is a Chris Cat.

Many years ago I rigged a 2600 with a Reher and Morrison big block that we sent to the Hot Boat Magazine Shootout in Lake Havasu. I think it ran 100 and change??? That would have been 1996 or 7???? It was in the magazine but would like to have someone confirm that.
Y'all got a great mold, but I'll tell you just like I told Ed, hang some screamin 2 stroke power on it and let er eat!
Best of luck,
Chris Weiss.

[Spectre Powerboats]

I have been trying to decide for a couple of days if I should post about this thread. I prefer to keep a low profile, and probably don't have half the knowledge most of y'all do, but, when I was much younger, I did work for a dealership outa Kansas City (Offshore Marine), and I did rig a couple of American Offshore cats. Mostly 3100's but some 2600's also.
The above story about the Talon is true as told to me by Ed. The 3100 is a Chris Cat.

Many years ago I rigged a 2600 with a Reher and Morrison big block that we sent to the Hot Boat Magazine Shootout in Lake Havasu. I think it ran 100 and change??? That would have been 1996 or 7???? It was in the magazine but would like to have someone confirm that.
Y'all got a great mold, but I'll tell you just like I told Ed, hang some screamin 2 stroke power on it and let er eat!
Best of luck,
Chris Weiss.

Chris, Thank you for posting. I always heard the same story back in the 90's, but there was two sides to the story and I had no reason to get involved. It does sound like there is a lot of truth to it, as I have had a lot of guys come forward and go as far as saying "It is true, I was there."

No doubt about it, twin 300's or even twin 400's would be the way to go. The reason I bring in the twin 400's up, I believe the boat can handle them. The Talon 25 and the AO 26 are big boats for there size. I know of a couple of Talon 25's that had triples, so I have to believe with a lot of proper set up, twin 400's easily achievable. What a rocket that would be.

[outboardrick]

I have been trying to decide for a couple of days if I should post about this thread. I prefer to keep a low profile, and probably don't have half the knowledge most of y'all do, but, when I was much younger, I did work for a dealership outa Kansas City (Offshore Marine), and I did rig a couple of American Offshore cats. Mostly 3100's but some 2600's also.
The above story about the Talon is true as told to me by Ed. The 3100 is a Chris Cat.

Many years ago I rigged a 2600 with a Reher and Morrison big block that we sent to the Hot Boat Magazine Shootout in Lake Havasu. I think it ran 100 and change??? That would have been 1996 or 7???? It was in the magazine but would like to have someone confirm that.
Y'all got a great mold, but I'll tell you just like I told Ed, hang some screamin 2 stroke power on it and let er eat!
Best of luck,
Chris Weiss.

I remember that boat at the Hot Boat Shootout, they all called it a "Nascar" motor. The test team ran the crap out of it and the owner kept complaining that they would always bring it back out of fuel :)

[cdubya]

I remember that boat at the Hot Boat Shootout, they all called it a "Nascar" motor. The test team ran the crap out of it and the owner kept complaining that they would always bring it back out of fuel :)

Yep, that's the one. I knew they ran the hell out of it.
That engine puked a lifter at the shootout when I ran it

[Raceman]

Like I've said before, I like the 25 Talon hull better than anything else I've ever ridden in, so sounds like you're starting with a winner with the new molds. The problem with the 25 Talon is the deck from the 80's, or maybe even 70's that's completely obsolete from a functional and a styling standpoint. Actually I think the 25 Talon is near perfect in style and proportion from the front seats rearward, but coming forward from there they fall off the cliff. We've got both a dual outboard and single stern drive version of the 25 Talon. Personally I don't like the deck on the one pictured at the top any better and hope you will replace it with something more contemporary. It seems as though more and more boats are going to a "look through" instead of looking over a faux windshield, poking the head up in 100+ MPH winds designs. Unfortunately the twin canopies on my 28 Eliminator Daytona aren't much better from a wind deflection on driver's face standpoint. Lotsa' stuff around with short, contoured functional windshields. I think if you build a 26 like that you'll have a winner. Good luck with the new hull.