Cougar US-1 38, know anything about it???

mattboy · 05-10-2009, 05:08 PM

Does anyone know anything about this boat?? Cougar US-1 38 with twin mercury racing 1000hp SC engines?? It is a 1989 built boat.
Could it run in any classes these days?
And what would be the rebuild intervals these engines?

Thanks
Matt

the edge · 05-10-2009, 05:49 PM

That Cougar I think you will find was extended by a couple of feet the engines are I would imagine on very low hours they were fitted by Cougar about five years ago ? the boat was owned / raced by lord Normanton .

sterling · 05-10-2009, 05:52 PM

I believe that boat is made a little longer at the factory to 40 ft length
The 1000 sc engines are bowtie racing engines,old motors but reliable ,need overhauled around 100 hours ( depending on throttle position),blower re-stripped too # 6 wet sump drives ,eats up some horsepower ( around 80 ) ,that is a full race us1 38 ft with nothing upfront but bulkheads and stringers.
very strong ,call the factory for info ,they know the best

Tony Davis · 05-10-2009, 06:31 PM

I always thought that it was an old triple outboard boat that was modified to a sterndrive!

alice · 05-10-2009, 07:05 PM

i too think it used 2 be an outboard boat and it came from saudi

The Force · 05-10-2009, 07:19 PM

Was an outboard boat, converted - built very light according to Pete.

Not I sure agree on the 1000 sc's - i would descibe them as "delicate" - Im told they would need a refresh immdiately to save mr big bill. Saying that - not a lot left to race in apart from the odd basic. Hull needs a lot of HP to push it quick. Pictures are old in advert. Suggest you get a really good look over...

Beautiful wave crusher though, with the right power crackin round britain / marathon boat. Sadly in current guise exceeds engine cc maximums. Twin Seatek 980 diesels, anyone/?

mattboy · 05-10-2009, 09:46 PM

Thanks guys, the engine have 2 hrs on them since rebuild, but has been sat for a while.
I took the picture this avo while having a good look round. The hull is in great condition you can see it has been built light, engine bay is mint just fuel lines are cracking and need replacing.
So bin the engines, couple of seateks and it could do some endurance racing???

Jon Fuller · 05-10-2009, 11:01 PM

Not sure those 6's would take Seateks.

I thought Joe did the extension / conversion from Yamaha OB's to sterndrives?

Also thought Dave Allenby owned it, not Normonton, though Normonton did race in it with Dave.

A couple of pics from 2004 at Cowes, and one from 2002 before the extension, running with the Yams. (again Cowes)

Tom Stone · 06-10-2009, 12:44 PM

wasn't it powered by triple 250 yams? i remember seeing it testing on windermere one summer

Jon Fuller · 06-10-2009, 04:45 PM

Yeah it did.

Blew a lower at Cowes 02 and had to borrow one from Dave Sperlings boat, and did a hurried nosecone job on it. I think Dave got a new lower out of the deal.

3jcs · 06-10-2009, 11:07 PM

Is this the boat that originally raced in Italy as Outsider Taxi with Isotta diesels. Then purchased by Ray Mcenhill called it Outsider and came second in the Cowes Torquay Cowes. That boat then stood in the yard at the Culpin Brothers Dorset Lake yard in Poole. Was a great boat sat around unused for ages. I think it was the design inspiration for Ray's next boat that was beautifully built by Malcolm Cole down in Poole out of titanium had jag turbos in it. Unfortunately although a thing of engineering beauty she ran like a pig going backwards but at least it used to blow its engines within 20 miles to end the pain.

Jon Fuller · 07-10-2009, 07:19 AM

No, Outsider was an ali 46, this is a plastic 38

FLYING FISH · 07-10-2009, 07:47 AM

Quite correct Jonny,it was a Stain built craft originally `Cougar Italia`.Now what does that tell you.I see nothing has been mentioned about Yellowdrama the 46ft Cougar mono at Drivers.Still havn`t managed to confirm it`s history or it`s power.I was told it had 3 x Yanmars?

Jon Fuller · 07-10-2009, 07:56 AM

2 Yanmar 440's, on surface drives (Arneson lookalikes-ish) and it was a boat called 'Pussy' that had triple Merc 575's before. Sank in Cowes marina. Was owned by Paul Brett (involved with Cougar). Phil Sired owned it for sometime, during which time it was kept at the old Cunninghams yard in LA, but he decided it would cost a packet to get it into the kind'a shape he wanted, so sold it on. The current owner had the surface drives & Yanmars fitted as far as I know.

I 'think' 2 of the motors from it's time as 'Pussey' ended up in the 'Dry Martini' Cig now at drivers, but could be wrong. Tony Hamilton would know more about that.

Pennpromo · 07-10-2009, 08:38 AM

If my memory serves me correctly that boat originally left the yard with three 2nd effort V8 Johnson engines on the back, PAscoe and I had all sorts of issues testing it, and was exported possibly to the Gulf? Never had any fit out in the bow and was quite light. Bloody long time ago! As mentioned Pete C is the best person to talk to. But yes it did go back to "Cougar" to be extended as it was too short and had the beak put on. As I recall the last time I spoke to Joe Donahue he mentioned something about swapping the blower pulleys around to lower the boost to get some sort of reliability. The boat sat at Somerley in the old waterworks for many years under cover, lost track of it since then.

FLYING FISH · 07-10-2009, 10:59 AM

Thank`s for the info,Jon.

mattboy · 07-10-2009, 11:31 AM

Thanks for all this info guys. Thinking about having it ,but as it will not really be much use as it doesnt fit in any class then not sure.
Can i run it in as a pleasure boat?? not really she needs to be raced! so change the engines and do some endurance racing??? will spend more on repowering than the cost of boat???? what to do??? Well, still have the phantom 20 to restore and keep my mind from wondering back to the US-1 for the minute!

TRAVELLER · 08-10-2009, 11:25 AM

Boat was built in 1986/87 with 3 V8 Johnson went to Dubai as a race boat ran about 83mph, was kept mostof its life in air condition workshop, rigged it with Pascoe and Woody at cougar, Re-rigged it at cougar with Joes help it ran first time out 85mph but still had had over 1000rpm to go. Would make good round Britain or Marathon get engines de-tuned to around 700HP very reliable at that. Would be to slow with deisel.

The Force · 08-10-2009, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRAVELLER

Boat was built in 1986/87 with 3 V8 Johnson went to Dubai as a race boat ran about 83mph, was kept mostof its life in air condition workshop, rigged it with Pascoe and Woody at cougar, Re-rigged it at cougar with Joes help it ran first time out 85mph but still had had over 1000rpm to go. Would make good round Britain or Marathon get engines de-tuned to around 700HP very reliable at that. Would be to slow with deisel.

Intrieged how fast this boat has/will really run - current owner says 90-100 with 2000hp - cougar boys said they saw it at 105 with 1000 revs to go, as the 1000sc's never ran well, 3 outboards over 80.....

I think she would be quick with 2 * 980 HP seateks (but that would be a rigging cost of nearly 4 times the current asking price of the boat - need big heavy direct shaft arnies! :-) )

cfun · 08-10-2009, 03:33 PM

If they say 85mph with more to go sounds like 105mph in a well set up rig was possible

Seem to recall a motor boat and yachting feature back in the 80's with a US1 38 fitted with 2x600hp 2 valve Lambo engines speeds attained were around 77-78mph in a fully cabined boat

One of Richard Carrs boating buddy's said his Cougar 41 when fitted out with the 3x750hp engines (2250hp) ran around 105mph but it was a fully fitted bird pulling machine not a stripped out racer and how much of a loss of speed is attributed to a third propulsion unit