Article: Blistering Speed and Agility: The Argo Cat 23 Is An Extraordinary Tunnel Hull That Has Few Rivals

[Scream And Fly]

You can view the page at https://www.screamandfly.com/content...Has-Few-Rivals

[Jimboat]

Beautiful boat! Great article, Greg!

[LakeFever]

I saw one in person recently. Awesome boat for sure

[Scream And Fly]

I really appreciate it thank you!

[JPEROG]

There is no question that they rip....I recently picked up a new river boat and look forward to running with the Argos.

Joe

[concorde]

That sentence: "A cross-sectional view of the hull reveals a profile strikingly similar to that of an airplane wing." is spot on! Argo's creator Pentti Fabritius is a good friend of my father's dating back from late 60s and somewhere in the 70s they were browsing trough RC model airplace cataloque, my father had. That catalogue has tens of different cross-sectional views about different wings and Pentti knew, that the fast catamaran must take advantage of same basic aerodynamic principles as planes to get away from the drag of the water. So aeroplane wing shape for the "bridge" was selected for testing...

Pentti also collected plenty of aerodynamics - related literature and e.g. also got himself into glider (sailplane) community to learn about that effortlessness of those things, how to get max speed with minimum power, which was needed in smaller Offshore 3 classes. With all that collected knowledge and naturally plenty of testing, Argo powerboats became the ruler of the Offshore 3A - 3D classes for couple of decades with plenty of UIM titles and speed records.

And that history is now built-in into Argo 23 as well. Boat , that can do 200kmh (~125mph?) with single 300R (or 90mph+ with 150 Opti) and that's called "Tuesday"

[Scream And Fly]

Thank you @concorde , I really appreciate that insight into how the boats were designed. It is indeed a remarkable design, as has been proven over the decades of race history where Argos competed.

I am most thankful for the feedback from, you all. I really enjoyed my experience with this boat and I”m really looking forward to getting back into this boat. There will be a lot of videos and photos for the next article, and if any of you has any specific questions about the Argo, be sure to post them! I’ll make a thread in the General Discussion forum for this.

[concorde]

Thank you @concorde , I really appreciate that insight into how the boats were designed. It is indeed a remarkable design, as has been proven over the decades of race history where Argos competed.

Even though this article is about present , successfully modified version of the original design 23ft ArgoCat, I'll cannot help myself mentioning also the 21ft Argo monohull, which is also still manufactured with original and "open center console" - versions. Local Finnish magazine tested that open version few years back and the summary can be read from here: https://kipparilehti.fi/parexo-21-tw...a-nauttivalle/ (translate to English using your browser)

The beginning of the story tells it all:

A little older people remember Argos as the best successful racing boats in our country. They won numerous Finnish, Nordic, European and world championships.

Those who got to drive Argos at some point will remember them as stunning driving, which the skilled driver could handle almost any way.

Now someone might say, "yeah, golden memories." But when you've tried a new Parexo made with Argos's moldings, you can say it's still true. The Parexo 21 Twin Console we tried is clearly better than our memory, so that it could be named one of the best boats we have ever driven, at least in its size and price range.

Thinking about people who are testing boats for living, saying in 2020's that a hull design from the 80s (40 years...) is one of the best ever driven So Fabritius brothers knew exactly what they were doing back in the days.

[EthanWalker]

What an incredible read! I really enjoyed learning about the heritage of the Argo Cat 23 and how it evolved from its Finnish racing roots into the modern Widebody version now being produced in Florida. The comparison to COPO Camaros was spot on—it really captures that raw, stripped-down, no-compromise racing spirit. I especially liked the explanation of how the unified hull and deck design enhances lift and handling, almost like an airplane wing in action. Hearing that the 2+2 layout didn’t compromise performance makes the Argo even more appealing, since it blends practicality with pure speed. Excited to see more of these cats showing up on U.S. waters soon! thc infused drinks

[Just Tool'in]

The Argo was a pleasure to own and run. Adam McKeon did one heck of a job with the setup, and add a Dewald custom prop and you will have miles of smiles! Super fun, boat, never thought I would ever get the chance to own one! Great article! Steve