Ratickle
Founding Member / Super Moderator
I hope you build one so I can see the final bottom design.
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Thad Allen's Apache + The Birth of the Cheetah Cat
- Thread starter Steve 1
- Start date
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I hope you build one so I can see the final bottom design.
cosmic12
Founding Member
Keep us posted on that and maybe a compelet build thread.
The side view of that is beautiful and I keep looking at it thinking what a cool little V-bottom river lake rocket it would be.
catastrophe
Registered
With 14000 views this thread is obviously appreciated by our membership.
The two Steves have taken some time to gather up some info on the CHEETAH Cat and are now ready to continue.
Including sourcing some of the photos this whole effort has been time consuming, so on behalf of all of us at SOS I would like to say a thank you for their input.
So......On With The Story:cheers2::USA:
The two Steves have taken some time to gather up some info on the CHEETAH Cat and are now ready to continue.
Including sourcing some of the photos this whole effort has been time consuming, so on behalf of all of us at SOS I would like to say a thank you for their input.
So......On With The Story:cheers2::USA:
Steve2
Contributor
Many people have PM'd me asking about the designs I made for a few of Steve1’s Cheeta Cat projects, and thanks for the compliments. Since many have asked me about how the CheetahCat was started, and many members have asked about Steve1's skills and seem to really appreciate him sharing his knowledge, I thought I would give Steve1 a “lil” push and jump-start the story of his first Cat project, which will also showcase his skills and philosophies.
As some are familiar with how the Cheetah Cat went from concept to reality, many are not...so I will start from the beginning as I experienced it, and get Steve1 to start posting the good stuff. This is not only about how his design became a reality, but about how his technology developed, which was through a lot of testing, experimenting and some really simple basic common sense. He broke all the "typical" rules and proved many naysayers wrong on his first boat, which UNTESTED and never wet, went on to win the World Championships in Key West in rough water against some serious competitors...and the boat was unique in every aspect, much different than anything else out there; not a copy of anything, he drew the thing on the wall in his shop and it quickly turned into a boat.
AND light isn’t even saying enough, this boat was so light that it sat on empty (4) 5 gallon plastic buckets.
As most know, anyone with money can buy molds, layup a boat, get it rigged, put some cool paint on it, give it a name and go to market, only the Cheetah Cat was different, each boat is designed for each owners’ needs and built with a one-off process, and that construction method is what Steve1 will be discussing, because it is the most unbelievable method and he uses specific systems to allow the boats to be built within the same timeframe as a typical molded boat, but without any restrictions. The boats are designed and built by a formula based on speed, HP, Usage and etc. He just tells me to make it look cool and he’ll handle the rest.
Now, before Steve1 built his first Cheetah Cat, his expertise was utilized to help build the Powerplay reputation of the best fit and finish boats on the market, and this is where we first met – I was involved with sales and Steve1 was building the new sport deck for the 25, which BTW, had about a dozen different deck versions built before Danny could make up his mind. I personally do not care about Dan, but the guy put more attention to detail into his product than any other boat builder ever – and to me, that’s what made his product, BUT, at the same time, that was also his downfall. As he got busier, he wouldn't let a boat go out the door unless it met his expectations...which were usually way too strict for any type of basic production.
As I was very interested in design and function of high performance boats, Steve 1 taught me a lot as we would spend our lunches with drawings, concepts, examples and hours after hour of discussions that even allowed me to “experiment” and build my own stepped vee hull design in the mid 80’s…and using a lot of his input, the boat set the course on fire – if you know who Charlie Haimes, I believe this was his first real race experience as he was a major sponsor (Land N’ Sea) and my navigator.
But anyway, I’ll never forget one afternoon as we sat there one day during lunch talking, and a little Cessna 175 flew overhead – he said to me, “that little plane has ONLY about 100 HP and it will fly over 100 mph”. I cannot remember the exact statement, but he was making a point as to WHY do these boats require 1000+ HP to get that same performance – and once he built that first Cheetah cat, there was no more wondering…he took a 35 foot boat, the owner threw on 2 beat up Mariner outboards and this boat ran side by side with a 32 foot vee with 2 big azz engines, in Key West and took the World Championships. Any doubts, just watch the video.
Steve1 was also involved with the first glass Jaguar project, I think it was a 35 footer…not in the design, but in the lightweight laminate system, which I believe was the fastest cat to run Lake X in its day, AND more interestingly, it survived a 125 mph barrel roll…and was running that afternoon with no damage.
And then once Steve returned from a huge manufacturing project in the Middle East, he was involved with the task of bringing the"new" Apache Powerboat project to life by fixing/repairing the plug work on the first new 41 hull that a company up north butchered. And, of course, he was tooling the new retro style deck while building a special 41 foot one-off with a tri-vent bottom design never seen before – I believe most have read about this adventure...and what a ride it has been!
As some are familiar with how the Cheetah Cat went from concept to reality, many are not...so I will start from the beginning as I experienced it, and get Steve1 to start posting the good stuff. This is not only about how his design became a reality, but about how his technology developed, which was through a lot of testing, experimenting and some really simple basic common sense. He broke all the "typical" rules and proved many naysayers wrong on his first boat, which UNTESTED and never wet, went on to win the World Championships in Key West in rough water against some serious competitors...and the boat was unique in every aspect, much different than anything else out there; not a copy of anything, he drew the thing on the wall in his shop and it quickly turned into a boat.
AND light isn’t even saying enough, this boat was so light that it sat on empty (4) 5 gallon plastic buckets.
As most know, anyone with money can buy molds, layup a boat, get it rigged, put some cool paint on it, give it a name and go to market, only the Cheetah Cat was different, each boat is designed for each owners’ needs and built with a one-off process, and that construction method is what Steve1 will be discussing, because it is the most unbelievable method and he uses specific systems to allow the boats to be built within the same timeframe as a typical molded boat, but without any restrictions. The boats are designed and built by a formula based on speed, HP, Usage and etc. He just tells me to make it look cool and he’ll handle the rest.
Now, before Steve1 built his first Cheetah Cat, his expertise was utilized to help build the Powerplay reputation of the best fit and finish boats on the market, and this is where we first met – I was involved with sales and Steve1 was building the new sport deck for the 25, which BTW, had about a dozen different deck versions built before Danny could make up his mind. I personally do not care about Dan, but the guy put more attention to detail into his product than any other boat builder ever – and to me, that’s what made his product, BUT, at the same time, that was also his downfall. As he got busier, he wouldn't let a boat go out the door unless it met his expectations...which were usually way too strict for any type of basic production.
As I was very interested in design and function of high performance boats, Steve 1 taught me a lot as we would spend our lunches with drawings, concepts, examples and hours after hour of discussions that even allowed me to “experiment” and build my own stepped vee hull design in the mid 80’s…and using a lot of his input, the boat set the course on fire – if you know who Charlie Haimes, I believe this was his first real race experience as he was a major sponsor (Land N’ Sea) and my navigator.
But anyway, I’ll never forget one afternoon as we sat there one day during lunch talking, and a little Cessna 175 flew overhead – he said to me, “that little plane has ONLY about 100 HP and it will fly over 100 mph”. I cannot remember the exact statement, but he was making a point as to WHY do these boats require 1000+ HP to get that same performance – and once he built that first Cheetah cat, there was no more wondering…he took a 35 foot boat, the owner threw on 2 beat up Mariner outboards and this boat ran side by side with a 32 foot vee with 2 big azz engines, in Key West and took the World Championships. Any doubts, just watch the video.
Steve1 was also involved with the first glass Jaguar project, I think it was a 35 footer…not in the design, but in the lightweight laminate system, which I believe was the fastest cat to run Lake X in its day, AND more interestingly, it survived a 125 mph barrel roll…and was running that afternoon with no damage.
And then once Steve returned from a huge manufacturing project in the Middle East, he was involved with the task of bringing the"new" Apache Powerboat project to life by fixing/repairing the plug work on the first new 41 hull that a company up north butchered. And, of course, he was tooling the new retro style deck while building a special 41 foot one-off with a tri-vent bottom design never seen before – I believe most have read about this adventure...and what a ride it has been!
Jesse James
New member
can it be built as a tandem seat?.... would love to show all of my big boat budddies what it feels like to go fast in something small..... I slid in the cockpit of a seebold tunnel yesterday and it made me think about this thing....
Steve 1
Contributor
That would be no problem and I like that Idea.
Steve 1
Contributor
Sometime after Jaguar I was working at Powerplay, Danny hired me for tooling, trouble shooting and working so the glass shop would give him what he wanted ,I Bumped into Mr Steve Wilson who was our Salesman, the funny thing here is the deck Steve 2 mentioned after all the setups it boiled down to the windscreen placement again a couple days of moving it around for Danny, one morning Steve2 came over moved it a couple inches when Dan came in one look and said that’s it !
Steve2 went up to Jersey working for some people that had the Shadow Molds he invited me to come up for a seminar and sales party thing as speaker on composites afterwards we got to talking to a guy who wanted a larger cat, Wilson sketched it on a bar napkin I gave a price flew home made the working drawings and started the first Cheetahcat. My life was never the same again.
Steve2 went up to Jersey working for some people that had the Shadow Molds he invited me to come up for a seminar and sales party thing as speaker on composites afterwards we got to talking to a guy who wanted a larger cat, Wilson sketched it on a bar napkin I gave a price flew home made the working drawings and started the first Cheetahcat. My life was never the same again.
Steve 1
Contributor
I had the first Cheetahcat sold; the Old Jaguar Shop was vacant as Jack Had moved into the Popeye Shop down the block
I moved in and setup, first building my most powerful tool; the Loft , To this day I loft full size ,this gives me complete freedom to make changes without calling the Mylar guy or whoever and I can develop the internal structure and have it waiting ,plus I can play with the deck lines all in house away from the worlds eyes.
This is a very old system perfected by a Frenchman Gaspard Monge back in Napoleons time; Descriptive Geometry . I use lofting full size because this reduces the error to that of a width of a pencil line. The Old-timers were GOOD.
I loft vertical on a wall for a number of reasons MY KNEES and can see the lines better gravity helps bend my Battens and for the space it saves ,Now for this Boat I needed 40’ of loft which is 10 sheets of ½” plywood (you want this a couple feet longer on each end) fastened to the wall painted white with my old friend latex white interior paint holds the layout pencil lines and my kids crayon marks at home equally well.
Once this is up I place a long Batten on the baseline across the Loft straight and deal level and then draw Vertical station lines these corresponding to the lines on my original drawing
Now Traditional marine drawings were done with a Sheer plan like the side view the Half Breadth plan Boat cut in half up the center line and then laid back upside-down on the drawing and then the Body plan which is the boat has been cut like slices of bread..
Along with buttock, diagonals and waterlines the old guys were clever. Then the information is contained a table of offsets which were expressed in Feet ,Inches ,and Eights which is the distance from the Drawings baseline to elements such as Keel,Chine,Sheer and so forth up a given station line..
I need the Sheer, Half breadth and Body sections to get started on this this
The sheer is the side view with vertical lines or station lines to save space I superimpose this with the Half Breadth.
There is my Cheetahcat in those lines.
I moved in and setup, first building my most powerful tool; the Loft , To this day I loft full size ,this gives me complete freedom to make changes without calling the Mylar guy or whoever and I can develop the internal structure and have it waiting ,plus I can play with the deck lines all in house away from the worlds eyes.
This is a very old system perfected by a Frenchman Gaspard Monge back in Napoleons time; Descriptive Geometry . I use lofting full size because this reduces the error to that of a width of a pencil line. The Old-timers were GOOD.
I loft vertical on a wall for a number of reasons MY KNEES and can see the lines better gravity helps bend my Battens and for the space it saves ,Now for this Boat I needed 40’ of loft which is 10 sheets of ½” plywood (you want this a couple feet longer on each end) fastened to the wall painted white with my old friend latex white interior paint holds the layout pencil lines and my kids crayon marks at home equally well.
Once this is up I place a long Batten on the baseline across the Loft straight and deal level and then draw Vertical station lines these corresponding to the lines on my original drawing
Now Traditional marine drawings were done with a Sheer plan like the side view the Half Breadth plan Boat cut in half up the center line and then laid back upside-down on the drawing and then the Body plan which is the boat has been cut like slices of bread..
Along with buttock, diagonals and waterlines the old guys were clever. Then the information is contained a table of offsets which were expressed in Feet ,Inches ,and Eights which is the distance from the Drawings baseline to elements such as Keel,Chine,Sheer and so forth up a given station line..
I need the Sheer, Half breadth and Body sections to get started on this this
The sheer is the side view with vertical lines or station lines to save space I superimpose this with the Half Breadth.
There is my Cheetahcat in those lines.
Last edited:
Steve 1
Contributor
Offshore Ginger
New member
Steve is this the birth and start of the Cheetah Cat thread because like you this is my nitch and........... the thread that i have been waiting for including Dave and a host of other's . Steve let the good times roll .:willy_nilly:
Steve 1
Contributor
Artie yes This is the story and thank you.
Offshore Ginger
New member
So when and where do we begin . Steve at best feed us a bone .:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Steve2
Contributor
Steve, maybe expand a little more on how tight the parameters were on this project BEFORE you started, then how they got tighter as you built it and rules were adjusted...i think the customer put the most unreasonable demands on this project, and Steve kept saying he would do it no matter what...and then BAM, the boat exceeded all goals....i knew he was on to something when he moved the deck "almost" by himself, and i don't mean sliding it on the floor, it was carried across the shop!!!
Steve 1
Contributor
Yes as the horsepower came down I had to make some changes on the fly and the weight became even more critical and had to raid my own personal "storeroom" so to speak to fill in the holes as everything was on the line here.
That boat lived on scales while it was being built, the fairing putties were given 66 pounds in the budget that was it!! prime and Paint. The Deck I had projected at 200 pounds it came in at 188 pounds, you will see as we get into this further.
THEJOKER
New member
That is a work of art!
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