A twin T58 turbine cat is an incredible piece of kit and if all the bits still work(?) sounds like good value. Probably however, would be most appreciated tearing up and down lake Havasu with Tom Cruise Raybans on and perfuming the marina with the smell of kerosene.
Back in the late 1970s, we designed and built a 45’ cat, fitted with a 1600HP Rolls Royce Gnome H1600 the British version of the GE T58 - a very interesting project to say the least.
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(Here's a really dodgy polaroid of the boat at the Enfield's Somerton works at Cowes in 1979- sitting on the trailer of ex Maltese Magnum that also had a gnome fitted at that time).
Apart from the 28 volt 600Hz electrics, the transmission was reduced from about 20,00 RPM coming out of the power turbine to about 5,000 using a modified Type 100 gearbox from a Wessex helicopter on a single shaft with disk brake to a fixed surface drive with a 6 bladed (hollow bladed welded) propeller.
Steering and reverse was by 2
horizontal axis “dipping” rudders which also acted as a reversing bucket.
The 4 step hull – which was designed to be as light as possible , weighed a mere 1650 Kg -i
ncluding engine, tanks, controls and stern gear .
Probably the boat which had a beam of 12 feet, would be too light even to race in class 3 these days!
The hull was completed along with the engine installation and stern gear–but our engine supplier (who provided the engine, gearbox and technical support in return for publicity) could not guarantee full time support and after some acrimony sadly the project died-
We had a lot of support from other sources including British Hovercraft Corp, Litton Industries and the RNLI –all back in the days when Jim Callaghan was prime minister and the Police were number 1 with Message in a Bottle!
If anyone considers buying the Seahawk and bringing it to the UK - my advice -make friends with a retired RAF Helicopter crew chief or ground engineer- better bet just buy the engines, boxes and ASD8s about the same weight as a 300 Hp outboard and probably 1050HP each!
Cheers Guy