Originally Posted by BROWNIE

When I worked for Tom Gentry/Johm Connor on the Gentry TransaAtlantic project, we tested hull shapes to build a record setter across the Atlantic that would be truly noteworthy. We invited everyone who thought they had the right stuff to submit a design, and we would tank test it. Our tank was the New River in Ft. Lauderdale. We started with Harry Schoell's instrumented towboat, and a few models. All my stuff got knocked out in the first round (much like my boxing career). We had some really heavy hitters submit designs, and we tested every goddam one of them. I pulled models for nearly three years. Learned a lot. We finally ended up with a design from the former head of advanced ship design from the US Navy. We fiddled and fiddled with it, and ended up with a 184' long, 50' wide, 24' high, hard sided surface effect ship (skirts front and back). 1 million pounds, 100 knots. 38,000 hp, surface drives. It was a really crappy boat, but boy, was it efficient! We didn't bother with styling at that point, and it looked the box that Sonny Levi's boat came in. The picture is our second boxiest boat model. The day before we were starting to build a 1/5th model, Tom dumped his cat in Key West, and that was that. Dammit!

Originally Posted by T2x

Thanks for the kind words, and yes the Lavin Foundation as you so accurately noted has saved a number of lives.

In truth all of us, Brownie, Peter Hledin, Linder, Peters, etc worked off of each other. As one built a hull another would watch and learn from it. The true innovators (and there are very few) took the state of the art and advanced it. Certain boats were examples of this: The first Cougar Cats, the Shadows, The Phillipine Cougar, The Popeye's Super Boat, Rolling Thunder, The Cougar Vee, Jesse James, Copeland's (Sirois') Outboard power head powered hull, Fabio's winged diesel vee, the 40 Skater....... All of these were departures from what came before and while they were evolutionary.... they also were examples of bold and unique change.

This is why I am so intolerant of the heel biting swine who "pop" designs and pawn them off as their own...when in fact they did nothing beyond make a mold and call themselves "original".

While I am grateful for your belief that the Conquest lines should have continued, and I believe that the Captain America design is as good as anything available today, I also believe that , had we continued, our direction would have changed in the years that have passed. My favorite design at present is one that we are about to get some really good data on. It has sat around for 40 years without any advancement or updating at all and it never had the benefit of any kind of engineering budget or financial support.....

I believe it has tremendous untapped potential.

Time will tell.........

T2x