50 feet long and 150 mph... sustained!!

I would like to have just the sound of a turbine in an ordinary daycruiser. Maybe through loudspeakers and then go around in the ports scaring the ---- out of all PWC-terrorists and kids with noisy V8:s...

But what is surprising with the videos; How can they go at that speed without racing life-jackets and helmets??? Or are they thinking that if they crash they will die anyway?

I was active in offshore powerboat racing for about twenty years. We didn´t ever go out without all the safety gear on, not even for the shortest test drive.
Besides that you can hit floating debris, any mechanical failure can be lethal already at speeds above 60 knots. Lost steering is common, one engine or drive giving up will give the same result and I have lost many friends over the years, despite all safety precautions...
This is one of the things you can not learn the hard way, since you will probably not get a second chance!

I would actually not go out with that kind of boat without a canopy of the fighter jet type...

I had the great pleasure of meeting John Arruda and John Haggin(owner of the AMF Outerlimits turbine boat) at the Miami boat show. Mr. Haggin's boat is the fastest 51' Outerlimits ever built(125mph). Mr. Arruda's 50' Nor Tech Supercat was built with four 850SC motors in an inline configuration. He acquired it from the previous owner and rerigged it with his turbines.

The Feb. issue of Extreme Boats magazine has an article on these boats.

www.extremeboatsmag.com

The Nor Tech's "partial canopy" is merely a windshield for diverting air over the passengers. Of course it might also double as a water diverter, but we all hope that never happens.

There are a number of Nor Tech cats running north of 150. The green monster, Xtreme Xhibit, powered by FOUR 1500hp motors, is testing close to 200mph. It is an open cockpit boat.

I agree with AMG; those speeds are way too fast not to have a full-race canopy, an escape hatch in the tunnel, and oxygen on board. But sometimes even those precautions don't guarantee survival.

Two years ago, Ed Mosmiller and a friend were testing his canopied 40' turbine Skater on the Chesapeake when they hit something, possibly a sand bar, at high speed. Ed was found hanging upside down in his harness, drowned. The body of his friend was found three months later.

Last year, Randy Linebach, driver of the Supercat Airborne Marine, was killed in Orange Beach, Al., during a testing session before the race.

My first ride in a performance boat was in an American Offshore 3100 cat(Chris Cat as I'm sure you know) on Grand Lake in Oklahoma back in '97. I was hooked! I like Bob Seger's song Going To Katmandu, so that's how I got my name.

Thanks for the memories of all those famous racers and their famous boats. I came to performance boating late in life(I'm 61 years old now), so I need to brush up on the history every chance I get. Could you mention a few books I could purchase toward that end?

My age and the speed of my boat prove that even old guys still have the need for speed. Howard Arneson is pushing 85 and has logged more hours at 150+ than any man alive today. He still runs his 46' Skater, powered by a single 4500hp turbine, on Mission Bay in San Francisco. He says it's "therapeutic" lol.

Too bad I just found this forum. I was in Miami for the show, we could have had a few beers together.

Yes I know DJD and Packinair. I talked to Scott about buying his 23' Sanger cat, but I had been on the trail of the Carlson long before.

I remember talking to Crouse at the 2001 Miami show. Interesting man with lots of great stories, but he was in a legal spat with somebody at that time and wouldn't shut up about it. He had his book there, I think it was $50.

Do you still have the Skater? I've heard those 24' cats are very "temperamental", shall we say. Did(do) you have any handling issues?

I didn't know the AMT is an offshoot of the Conquest. If I'm not mistaken, George also designed the Chris/Shadow Cats. George and Rich Luhrs(T2x) are long-time pals.

Yes, AMT is dominant in its class, and MTI has forged ahead of Skater in the Big Cat offshore racing wars. I wonder what Peter Hledin has up his sleeve to zap Randy with??? Heh heh.

I can't wait to see what the MTI 55 is going to look like. For power, how about twin 1200hp Isotta Franchini diesels and a 1500hp turbine in the center? That turbine should get it to 100+. I wonder why Randy didn't build a 48-50' cat instead of that monster? Who's gonna insure the **** thing??? Can't hardly get cat insurance now as it is.

CTDave why don't you chime in here? You've been involved in performance boating for many years.

Now I don't know about poor throttle response from the turbines, but it wouldn't surprise me if Turbine Marine has solved that problem along with the other systems it reconfigures.

However, they HAVE solved the outdrive reliability problem. The turbine output reduction gearbox is fitted with a torque metering system that allows the driver to monitor and limit the ft/lbs of torque to the drive at any given time.

You're right about drive life, especially with the Merc SSM#6. With piston engines up to 1500HP you wouldn't have many problems with the 6, but 1500HP turbines put out too much torque. I know the Aqua Toy Store Nor-Tech and the Turbine Marine Nor-Tech have #6s, but running almost 2000ft. lbs. through two 90* bends in the drive can't be good for it.

Shaft drives are the way to go with the T53 and T55 turbines. Callan Marine's chief mechanic told me he completely rebuilds the BPM shaft drives on the race boat after every race. You probably wouldn't have to do that on a pleasureboat though. Drive oil should be replaced every 10 hours running time in a pleasureboat.

Update on the 55MTIs; Dan Jackson's 55 has twin 1075s with BPM drives and a rudder. Another one called "Jaws" has four 1075s. You can find pics of them on OSO in the MTI forum.

To be fair,...

..., CC & Ford thought of it first.
Heard they had some real "heat" problems underneath which prematurely ended the program.
CHeers!
Eric
PS - My vote for the marine motor of the future is diesel-electric, no?