1st. post for the big cats

[h2oMag]

no they were sit down seats the canopy was a after thought

Bill remember this one with canopy ??? The 31' Image [Team Believer] She ran in P class in the late 80's.

[bill63]

Bill remember this one with canopy ??? The 31' Image [Team Believer] She ran in P class in the late 80's.

How could we forget the martin family!! Bob took the canapy off after a year or two he did not think it was safe the way it was built. Boy that boat was slooow.

[KAAMA]

Cool info, any more on that team ????

A little history if you want to read---back in the day...around 1985 or so, I remember seeing Al Kropp periodically running his 32' Baja with a pair of Merc 454/370hp engines with TRS drives named "RAMBO" on the sides and a big knife with blood dripping off the blade ....yeah, I think it was a little over the top). Anyway, I didn't know Al that well, but he was from the Chicago area and I think he owned a condo at Michigan City or New Buffalo. During the summer of 1986 he showed up at the St. Joe Venetian Festival I remember my friend racing Al with his 30' Scarab with a pair of Merc 330's. The Scarab beat the Baja no question. This was a few miles south of the St. Joe jetti/pier heads.

That same day Jimmy Ariola showed up to the same St. Joseph Venetian Fest with his 32' Hustler LE with Arneson drives and 550cid/650hp Dennis Ferara engines along with couple of his buddies with 30' 9m Carreras---one with Merc 400hp Cyclones and another with some warmed up Merc 400hp Cyclones...I think they were 468cid engines that made 550hp with solid flat tappet cams.

Anyway, I remember it was a beautiful Friday night---the whole weekend was beautiful. Jim was from Chicago too and he always liked coming over to the Michigan side of Lake Michigan...from "Burns Ditch" to Michigan City, New Buffalo, St. Joe, South Haven, Saugatuck and Grand Haven for the annual August summer offshore races.

It seemed as if EVERYBODY seemed to know of Jim's 32' Hustler boat "SAVAGE"....and this was because of his frequent stops in all the ports all up and down Michigan's west shoreline. It was at a time when offshore boats were just beginning to make a very small, but curious dent in the boating world in those areas and it started with Jim's 30' Carrera with a pair of Merc 400 Cyclones and GIL dry exhaust system.

I remember hearing Jim coming down the shoreline with that Carrera (before I met him)....usually on a Friday evening or Saturday morning heading north (usually for Saugatuck) along the shoreline or returning back and heading south late Sunday afternoon or early evening. He usually kept the boat at "Burns Ditch" just south of Michigan City. (I was raised in St. Joe and lived there for many years during that time so, I was always down by the beach).

So, I think Al Cropp always got an ear full of Jim as he would roar by--the two eventually met and Al Kropp bought that race boat and asked Jim to drive for him. I think they raced for about 1-1.5 years. Jim quit racing after those 2 offshore racers were killed in Miss Liberty USA (April 1988 in Panama City, Florida). It was another cat in the same race/waters with an open cockpit. I was there with Jim at that race and I remember Jim saying it something like it wasn't worth it for him to take a chance on being killed for the sake of racing. A few weeks later he went and bought a new 38' Cougar pleasure boat and was one of the first offhore pleasure boaters on Lake Michigan to put supercharged engines in an offshore boat---rode in it several times.

The last I knew of Al Kropp was that he bought a 38' or 42' tripple engine Baja with Merc 502cid/465hp engines and I saw him with his boat at the gas dock in New Buffalo, Michigan. That was right around 1990-91 or so...no exactly sure of the year.

Jim sold his Cougar---and now but I have not seen Jim's old boat since he sold it back around the early to mid 1990's. I guess someone around Holland, Michigan has owned it for years and the boat STILL has not made an appearance! Jim is about 65 years old now, and I have not seen him in years, but spoke with him on the phone sometime in 2008. He says he still goes to Saugatuck in one of his friend's 40+ Cruiser...and he says they use the GPS and cut straight across the lake to get there.

Anyway, that's the way it was back in the 1980's and even the 1990's....those were some very good ol' days in offshore boating here along the sandy shores of west Michigan. I have a lot of great boating memories with people on Lake Michigan back during those days.

[DAREDEVIL]

Cool, thanks.........nice to read !!!!!!!!

[northernoffshore]

old carrera 30 w/ soild cams and dry gils, also had kobert steering on it.from chicago

[Velocity Vector]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTNRZ...layer_embedded

American Express Thanks Dare Devil

[JOLLEY]

Mine was raced sometime in the 90's it is an '89 and started life at Pier 33 in St. Josephs Mi. with stock Yammi 250's. it was sold to a guy in New Buffalo Mi. that owned a Bar/ Motel there that used it for Poker Runs. Maybe KAAMA can fill me in as I have little to no info of this things past.

I will say that I love it and it works for me. Sparky at Vicious helped me put it back together in '02-'03 and I haven't had any problems since. We trailer it all over and they are GREAT in the nasty water. Before and after shots

[Velocity Vector]

Here is one of the engines going into the 35' Ocean Express Cat

[Velocity Vector]

Bought some Stellings and 5" dry tails for the Cat project.

[Ratickle]

Nice. Glad to see it's still coming along......

[Velocity Vector]

Thanks, Ratickle some more parts coming, I saw these valve covers and fell in love so I bought them and also bought a set of KE oval Flame arrestors for the cat project. Arrestors are out getting engraved and clear powder coated.

[speedfreak2030]

Whats up fukcer? How is the new project coming and when is the boat going to get splashed. I'm off to the docks for a quick blast then Scotch will flow!

[Velocity Vector]

Whats up fukcer? How is the new project coming and when is the boat going to get splashed. I'm off to the docks for a quick blast then Scotch will flow!

Well I got my "like new" advertised headers in so we pressure tested them and they leaked like a sprinkler system. Took me a couple months to get my money back, a big waist of my money and time.

[Velocity Vector]

Well now I'm back to Supercat engines the blower motors trade above fell thru. So I bought a set of 3.3 whipple chargers with 1050 Dominators to go on the Supercat engines, We will be adding blower pistons and cams to them and try to get around 850 hp.

[Velocity Vector]

Speedmaster #6's rebuilt 1.35 ratio and ready to go. Cams and pistons going in this week on the 509's then the 3.3 Whipples.