Hull choices.... River Cat or ?

[Brewbud]

I am looking to build a good all around boat, 34" or under, that can run in the 60's without falling apart on the first tumble. It needs to be good on an oval and ok in some slightly rough conditions. I am thinking a cat on 6s since I am partial to them. I know I will be giving up some rough water performance by not going with a mono.

I have seen some great River Cat builds here. I like the look and am pretty sure the hull will get me where I want to be so I am leaning toward that hull. It looks like there are a few options I could take with the River Cat hull itself.

1) FG hull and lay in some CF myself for additional strength.

2) CF hull and add more CF myself.

3) Keith Bradley sells a FG River Cat hull with CF already laid up. Advantage being CF done by KB and will work with GPS. Any other pro/cons?

Option #1 is least expensive. Option #3 is close in price to option #2. I am leaning toward option #2. Does the CF version need the extra reinforcement at 65 mph? Is a little more weight a good or bad thing in this situation?

Is there another hull (cat or not) I should consider?

I have not built a boat in 20+ years (Dumas Thriftway Too) so I am considering this a "first build".

Cheers,
Tab

[Fluid]

The River Cat is not the best boat on "ovals". As an oval race boat it will just not be very competitive - for sport boating it is not a bad choice. Speed is no problem for this hull, I've had mine into the 90s on 6S in a SAW setup. But even with a long rudder, tight turns are best not performed at high speed.

What is the OP's most important goal, speed or handling? The Cheetah handles far better and is good up to the low 60s. Of course it can be pushed faster but that requires a lot of power and very careful setup. I've crashed mine at near 60 with no damage except to some chipped gel coat on the hatch. My fault, I knew it needed reinforcement but I figured I'd do it next time.....


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[keithbradley]

Check with Amp Eater Racing for a Cheetah hull, he was selling that not too long ago. That would be a much better option for your needs than the river.

[kfxguy]

I don't think a Rivercat would be a good choice for oval racing. There are some people who have done it and say they run well but I don't see it. With a long rudder and a prop in the 40-42mm range it can do decent but nothing like a cheetah. 60-65 mph is nothing for a Rivercat however. Very stable boat at that speed, just not stable at turning at that speed, it's just not wide enough. It's around 9" wide and a cheetah is like 12" wide. I can double check those measurements if need as I have a few of each on the table right being built. The cheetah is more suited to what you want. It can go really fast and turn very well at 65ish. Here's my buddy's cheetah that I built for him. I gps it myself on 6s, it goes 66mph. He said he's not lifting the throttle in the turns.

[Brewbud]

Thanks for all the replies! Great information there. Glad I asked. Now I have another decision to make. I am mostly interested in a good handling fast and fun boat. I do like speed but I am not the type that will do a speed run, slowly turn around and then do a speed run back. I do like to use all of the pond though LOL so wide sweeping turns at high speed are fun. I am not as fond of the looks of the Cheetah but it does sound like a good fit. If I decide to race later I now know it would be the better choice. Now I see why you guys seem to have so many boats!

I looked at Ampeater racing's website but it doesn't seem to be working correctly. I have tried Firefox, Chrome and even IE. In Firefox and Chrome the pull down menus work but the page it brings up is empty. In IE a page is not empty but the the pull down selections are not offered. Anybody else having problems with their site?

[Chilli]

Aeromarine makes some of the better handling small cats. They have a Mean Machine and Sprint Cat that are about 30 inches and a Avenger 36 and larger Sprint Cat that's acutally a little over 34. OSE can get them for you.

[T.S.Davis]

Tom at Ampeater is a personal friend of mine. He's been struggling with an order for some time. To say that he's frustrated with his access to product is putting it kindly.

Tom runs his Cheetah on 4s. It runs really well on just 4s.

I ran mine on 6s with a silly powerful setup. Great big Neu 2215. It ran great going straight but struggled through the turns. Sort of like an OPC where you had to get the throttle just right or bad things would happen. That said, it could easily have been the fact that I was carrying a lot of weight with the gigantic motor. That may well have been the source of my handling woes.

We've also seen the Aeromarine Team Believer on 6s and the Aeromarine Sprint Cat on 6s. The Sprint Cat is still the best 6s oval cat I've ever seen myself. You can run that in offshore and be very successful too.

[T.S.Davis]

Tom wont care if I steer someone away from his stuff. I'm sure Steve can get you one of these.