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 (http://www.powercatboat.com)

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?

[Ron Hill]

The pictures says Claude Rasini and his brother Enrico win with a 125 HP Merc...

What year did the 125 come out? 1966???

I never met either of these two Rasinis...I knew Carlo, the older Rasini......and his BEAUTIFUL daughter....not sure their body guards ever allowed me to find out her name...

[Ron Hill]

This maybe 1967, as the early tunnels looked like "SLEDS"...

[Mark75H]

The 125 came out in 1968

[Ron Hill]

In '68 Renato won...with a red Molinari..."high rider" with the full cowling behind the driver...

OMC ran Schultz Boats...Four boats Ted May and I ran one Evinrude and Denny and Dewey Berghauer drove the other Evinrude... Tom and Mac McCune drove one Johnson and Dieter Schultz and another guy drove Dieter...The famous Charlie Strang phot of Paris....with Ted May standing on end....right behind him, Dieter's Co_driver nosed dove...

Denny hit the bouy by the pit turn...didn't realize there was a current...and then sank...Ted and I ran second all day, but late in the raced I went inside a river barge and we lost a lps to the McCunes, who ended second and us third...OMC didn't wish to argue with the French...as it was still OMC 2nd and 3rd.

That 67 number on the Rasini photo leaves me to believe it is 1967...

[Mark75H]

Still sounds OK. What time of year is the Paris race run?

[Ron Hill]

Usually, the first weekend in October, except, 1973, it was on October 8th, my daughter's birthday....I didn't race, I was in California, helping deliver...

See, if Dieter raced the 1966 Paris Six Hour, air freighted his boat parts to Sid Craft's shop....after Paris....Havasu was always Thanksgiving...Dieter's 1966 Havasu boat was "SLED" shaped...His 1967 boat was a twin engine, which he never made the start with...126 boats with a paceboat start....Dieter was next to me, and got run over from the rear, before the start... The boat was repaired and ran Parker, 1968...same race the Berghauers had a new twin Schultz...which Dewey nose dived...but it was blue, like Ted's and mine...all the OMC's in the 1968 Six Hours de Paris...

Did you note RSINI'S "blinding" SPEED AVERAGE??? 54.4 mph.....WHY WAS RACING FUN THEN??? Because we RACED 6 hours......and if you crashed you got wet....

[Mark75H]

Thanks, Ron, that's what I thought. Like cars next year's models are usually available for racing in the fall like at Havasu & Berlin. 1968 model Mercs could easily been raced at Paris in October of 67.

[Powercat]

This photo is a good example of the transition period in US racing.
It was labeled as Havasu 1968 but I am not sure of its origin.
The multi engined cats were on the way out and the tunnel boat
was here to stay.

[OLEGATORXX]

Boat #100ON was indeed the winner in the 1967 race. I attended that race which was the first race Mercury ran the BP engines. Rasini's engine was a MERC1250. As was mentioned in an earlier post, the race was the first weekend in October. One other tidbit about that race; I got to visit with Marcel Raveau at that race.

[lilabner]

First really good tunnel boat I saw was in 1963(?)..Bill Sirois ran it in the Gold Coast Marathon with an Osca engine/Merc outdrive in the Volvo Class..I think he finished 2nd or 3rd overall, but was disqualified for "not being within the spirit of the rules"...EC was livid..next Volvo was something like 53 places back..Bill was smiling anyway.. :D

[Michael J Gwaltney]

Usually, the first weekend in October, except, 1973, it was on October 8th, my daughter's birthday....I didn't race, I was in California, helping deliver...

See, if Dieter raced the 1966 Paris Six Hour, air freighted his boat parts to Sid Craft's shop....after Paris....Havasu was always Thanksgiving...Dieter's 1966 Havasu boat was "SLED" shaped...His 1967 boat was a twin engine, which he never made the start with...126 boats with a paceboat start....Dieter was next to me, and got run over from the rear, before the start... The boat was repaired and ran Parker, 1968...same race the Berghauers had a new twin Schultz...which Dewey nose dived...but it was blue, like Ted's and mine...all the OMC's in the 1968 Six Hours de Paris...

Did you note RSINI'S "blinding" SPEED AVERAGE??? 54.4 mph.....WHY WAS RACING FUN THEN??? Because we RACED 6 hours......and if you crashed you got wet....I remember in about 1970 Dieter was at "Goat's" Shop in Waukegan to finish up his Green twin engine boat and bought a trailer (too small) to tow boat to Havasu with a station wagon. He had boat bow angled up over back of wagon and impossible to mount motors.

He showed up at Havasu late with wagon full of western souveniors, boots, hats etc. Jack told him to go get another trailer so we could mount engines. He came back with a second trailer (too small) with a trailer ball mounted on the back of it towing the original trailer with boat moved forward. Seemed to work, but very dicey trying to back two trailers down the ramp. Michael J

[Ron Hill]

Didn't Ron Brown from Fort Collins, Colorado buy that hull?? Green??? Stuck up in the air about 10 feet in the nose...