Cat morph to Tunnel

[Powercat]

1961-1962 appears to be the point when the catamaran
design becomes the tunnel hull

[Mark75H]

Some people give Deiter Schultz credit for the original earliest 1960's tunnels, with Molinari's improvements as the key that made them work. I haven't found any hard documentation of this yet, but my sources are pretty reliable. Maybe some pictures from an Italian newspaper or magazine from the period would clear it up.

I have been coming across pictures of Dave Kober's boats from a little later (in the mid 60's) that show his designs were headed that way. I kind of think he did not know about the Schultz or Molinari designs. Somehow his boats weren't as spectacular. Maybe they were too heavy. Maybe it was because he built smaller single engine boats.

[Ron Hill]

Harold Eis won Havasu in '63, '64 and '65 overall and was very fast everytime I saw him...At first is was called a owercat, I think...but he changed the bottom to straight sided tunnel walls and he ran hydralic powertrim (Hand pump in and let the pressure off down)...

Eis wasn't too open with his designs as he liked winning and winning money...His trailer didn't allow for viewing...but trust me, his runners were like a Sonny Levi Vee hull, split with an air slop...Each runner had like three or four strakes...

Schultz was the first to come to Havasu and runa single engine...The way his boote (boat) looked was like the early Molinaris... Square nosed and I thought flat bottom....until I looked at it on the trailer and wondered how the thing workered... It had not bottom...In 1966, I liked wide, flat bottoms...

Molinari's construction was much like a violin...Carl signed Molinari to a contract after a Paris Six Hour when a Molinari won...

Dave Kober's design was about the same time....Kenny Hoffman had a very fast Kober when the 135 Mercs were new..and this is about the same era...

Seems they went from flat bottomed cats (Powercats) to the tunnel about the same time and they could have all invented them by themselves as the Powercat's flat pads, and vee front sponsons allowed them to swap ends....if you dropped the nose....

So, boat builders were trying to keep the rearend under the boat when they squared up the tunnel side walls...

The twin DeSilva Cat that I ran in 1967 was a copy of a single Molinari that had won the Six Hours of Paris in the fall of 1966.

Schultz and Molinari could build a boat in less than a week....if something didn't work, they'd saw it off and start again...In fact, the boat Dieter won Havasu with in 1966 was built in O'Dea's shop...Dieter pre cut it and air freighted it here and built it and hauled it to Havasu.... Don't hold me to this, but seems that is true...

So, Dieter saw Molinari win Paris, figured out how to get a boat to America and won the single engine class that year...signed a contract with OMC!!! (Molinari's first attempt at Havasu was 1967 and if I'm not mistaken, blew over before the race and never started...it was a greebn twin...seriously beautiful, "S" curve bottom, only built one more like it, and Jim Mertens ran it in 1970(2nd place)... Sirois ran the same boat in 1971 to win. "S" curve bottoms were not popular...fast, but not popular...

[Tomtall]

I know Sam has got to have this book by "Kevin Desmond" - A CENTURY OF OUTBOARD RACING - This book is a must have for any raceboat nut.Covers all the history of the powercats and the burth of the tunnel hull.Many great stories of the factory wars overseas and in the states.

[Mark75H]

I know Sam has got to have this book by "Kevin Desmond" - A CENTURY OF OUTBOARD RACING - This book is a must have for any raceboat nut.Covers all the history of the powercats and the burth of the tunnel hull.Many great stories of the factory wars overseas and in the states.

Also many wrong captions. An intersting book, but very hurriedly put together. A number of mistakes, some outright errors, omission of almost all alky stuff in Europe and the US, some problems with translation from French. Buy it for the pictures!

Ron, you had the state correct, New Jersey, but the shop was Bob Urytzki's "Sidson" boat shop.

[Ron Hill]

I guess, because I picked up my Schultz (Harry Bartolomei's actually) Hydro, in 1967, on the way to Valleyfield, at O'Dea's...seemed like it was O'Dea's...

After the 1976 Havasu Classic, we discussed with Dieter, coming to California to build us a twin engiene rig at my dad's house...Negotiations feel through and we started talking to Rich Hallett...


The Schultze hydro had a 1" tunnel and the chines were built i nto the air traps...She was 13'6" long...big for a "C" hydro (500 CC) in those days.

I actually drove her like a lay down...the cockpit was so long, I couldn't kneel off the corners...so I just layed down and hung on...Harry used a lot of NITRO in those days!!!!

So, was the rest of my story close to correct???

[Mark75H]

yep

[Powercat]

[QUOTE=RonHill]Harold Eis won Havasu in '63, '64 and '65 overall and was very fast everytime I saw him...At first is was called a Powercat, I think...but he changed the bottom to straight sided tunnel walls and he ran hydralic powertrim (Hand pump in and let the pressure off down)...
..........
Ron:
This photo shows a 62' Power Cat with a hydralic afterplane, is that the
type of powertrim you mentioned or was Eis trim'n the motors? My Dad first
started using these hydralic afterplanes on the Mississippi river race boats
to help get the boats on plane with the heavy gas loads. I remember going to
the big aircraft junk yards that were over by LAX with him to pick up the parts
to build these. They soon became a standard option on many of the marathon
boats to handle rough water with the shorter boats.
Danny Leger

[Ron Hill]

Danny,

I really was only thinking "TRIM", I had forgotten the IMPORTANT flap in the tunnel. In fact, once Harold Eis has her "Aired Out", I think he did not trim the motors (Kept the gearcases going through the water straight), just adjusted the flap...He was a smooth driver, as I recall.

Harold's was a Powercat...at first, right?

Great pictures...

What is the powercat link?

[Powercat]

Ron:
I don't know from first hand knowledge about Harold Eis but
the photos I have seen show his earliest boats being Power Cats.
I think as you indidcated he started modifying them and possibly
the Stlyecraft cats to his own designs.

Link to Power Cat Website

Danny Leger
.......

Danny,

I really was only thinking "TRIM", I had forgotten the IMPORTANT flap in the tunnel. In fact, once Harold Eis has her "Aired Out", I think he did not trim the motors (Kept the gearcases going through the water straight), just adjusted the flap...He was a smooth driver, as I recall.

Harold's was a Powercat...at first, right?

Great pictures...

What is the powercat link?