Zapcats

"Snuze: Needs another Swede" (markg) 08/03/2020 at 10:00 • Filed to: None

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Now that you all learned about Terre Haute, I’ll tell you about something I learned about:

Zapcats.

One of the vendors I was testing with brought a Zapcat out. His sons race it and he builds the motors. It looked cool so that night at the hotel I did some googling and Oh. My. God. This looks amazing. Here, see for yourself.

The only thing I can really liken it to is motorcycle sidecar racing where one bonkers individual pilots the craft and the other, more bonkers person, acts as living, movable ballast.

The boats themselves are built like RHIBs, with a solid center portion between two inflatable pontoons. The motors start as 50 HP units but are tuned up into the 60-65 HP range. The boats weigh around 180 lbs and the motors around 250. They can apparently make 50+ MPH, in other words, they scoot.

The vendor offered rides if time allowed, but sadly things didn’t wor k out. Maybe one day.

All this has led to an impasse in the Snuze house. Selling the 850 plus some extra fun money I have gets me most of the way to a used, entry level Zapcat setup (cat, 50HP motor, trailer) . Mrs Snuze has given me a hard no. I guess I shouldn’t have shown her the racing video first.

Future next gen S2000 owner > Snuze: Needs another Swede 08/03/2020 at 10:06

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Did you specify the team position f or the missus ? She may have wrongly assumed that she was not involved or that she wouldn’t have been able to captain the vessel under race conditions.

Tripper > Snuze: Needs another Swede 08/03/2020 at 10:07

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Lol holy shit, this is like “aggressive ” white water rafting.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Snuze: Needs another Swede 08/03/2020 at 10:42

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From the name, I was expecting electric-powered boats.

barnie > Snuze: Needs another Swede 08/03/2020 at 11:46

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Interesting sport but some of the worst camera work and editing I’ve ever seem. Don’t zoom in on an expanding field, change scene every 1.3 seconds and cut the music track. A bunch of boats com ing at the camera? Back up and cover the field! No scene lasts long enough to actually see detail. It just looks like a bunch of boats bouncing about. What happened to that boat that spun about 2/3 through the video? No cohesion or story. And these little screamer motors are cool to listen to, not the repeating 5 bars of a free soundtrack. Damn that looks like fun.

Ok, I wrote this and then wasn’t going to publish. Ah, fug it. JMO

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Snuze: Needs another Swede 08/03/2020 at 12:53

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Australia has a racing series like this but I think they use a more traditional V haul. 

Snuze: Needs another Swede > barnie 08/03/2020 at 13:30

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No worries, I agree the video leaves something to be desired, but there are lots of other good ones on Youtube. I grabbed this out of my history and now that I tried ro rewatch it I realized it was a bad choice.

But don't let the video disuade you, the boats are AWESOME!

Snuze: Needs another Swede > TheRealBicycleBuck 08/03/2020 at 13:30

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Electric powered boats aren't there, yet, but it's coming. 

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Tripper 08/03/2020 at 13:31

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Its incredible.  I got to see one live rip across a lake and it was so cool!

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Future next gen S2000 owner 08/03/2020 at 13:32

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I told her up front she could work the tiller.  Ive got 50 lbs on her so Id make more effective front ballast.  When she balked at the idea I offered to trade spots, but she still wasn't having it. 

Snuze: Needs another Swede > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 08/03/2020 at 13:33

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Apparently they race these in Aussieland as well. According to the guy I spoke with these are pretty popular there, in South Africa, and in parts of europe. There are a few races in the US but its just not as big here.