Going to Sport Catamaran Heaven

[Speed on the Water]

Coming in August, a round-up of Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboard engine-powered catamarans will present the perfect counterpoint to the bigger beauties at Super Cat Fest, https://speedonthewater.com/in-the-news/5328-going-to-sport-catamaran-heaven.

 

[Ratickle]

This may be an interesting review. Depends on the criteria being judged.

I have some opinions.....:sifone:

 

[Ratickle]

After what the Fountain and the Nordic did, how are you going to make sure the engines are still stock and have not been flashed?

 

[Ratickle]

Some of the things I really want to know:

Obviously, that the motors have not been modified. I have no idea how they can make that positive. The Fountain ECU was modified. Obviously the Nordic ECU was modified. Who else has?????
Rough water handling.
Overall length.
Running surface length, (no steps or bustles included). These 34's that are 32' long drive me nuts.

I'll keep thinking.

 

[Ratickle]

Top speed should be at a set distance. Like the shootout. Top speed from a dead stop over 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile or something.

Then get all of them through the traps at the shootout back to back to back for the 3/4 mile with the same driver.

 

[Ratickle]

I guess another thing that drives me nuts, overall width. The so called widebodies, where a 44'er is narrower than the competitions 36'er. Or a 35'er is narrower than the competitions 31'er is just ridiculous.

So, overall width and tunnel width.

 

[Ratickle]

I'd also like to see the quality of the unseen areas finish. Some of the boats I've looked at, you could cut your hands on the crappy fiberglass finish quality in the bilge and storage areas.

 

[Ratickle]

This upcoming test is now completely suspect because some manufacturers decided to modify engines and pass those engines off as "we build better boats". Because of that, there is no way to trust results of performance reports unless the manufacturers themselves put new ECM's in the engines before they run any tests, and don't let the boat out of their sight until the test is over.

It's kind of like the balls in Deflate-Gate, or racers caught cheating with illegal boats and engines. No way to trust anything reported if the engines are out of sight for any length of time.

This really drives me nuts.

 

[fund razor]

I misunderstood the title and thought this was about owning a DCB M35.

 

[Ratickle]

Anyway, I'm certainly bummed out with what has happened. Kind of reminds me of way back when several, I think it was four or five, manufacturers sent their boats to Powerboat Magazine with identical stock 525's or 500's. Then, the Fountain broke a motor. When they went to fix it so they could continue the tests, the Magazine people found out it had been completely modified on the inside.

So, acceleration tests mean nothing, top speed tests mean nothing, speeds and fuel consumption at certain RPM's or cruise speeds mean nothing. Everything about these tests are now subjective, nothing can be trusted objectively.

This sucks!!

 

[fund razor]

Anyway, I'm certainly bummed out with what has happened. Kind of reminds me of way back when several, I think it was four or five, manufacturers sent their boats to Powerboat Magazine with identical stock 525's or 500's. Then, the Fountain broke a motor. When they went to fix it so they could continue the tests, the Magazine people found out it had been completely modified on the inside.

So, acceleration tests mean nothing, top speed tests mean nothing, speeds and fuel consumption at certain RPM's or cruise speeds mean nothing. Everything about these tests are now subjective, nothing can be trusted objectively.

This sucks!!

If you want a class of boats with the same power, you will have to get them from the same place.

 

[Ratickle]

I am really hoping Mercury guys are there with the same pair of ECU's they can put in each boat as it runs. Then there will be no issue.

 

[Ratickle]

I'm trying to find out if Mercury's factory computer program, the one they do not sell, will check to see if an ECU has been modified in any way ever. I know that Ford's can pick up if you have re-chipped your diesel and then replaced with the original for a warranty issue.