Bill Gibbons is, by any estimation, a conoisseur of Sanger Boats. As an owner of a Sanger hydro jet, a blown Sanger flat bottom, and a blown Sanger Super Jet, all of which are immaculate and beautiful examples, it only made sense for Gibbons to continue the trend when looking for a new project to tackle. After seeing an Eliminator Daytona outboard that well known builder Tom Peterson had just built it was clear that a cat was in his future, and given his penchant for the Sanger brand it was only natural that the Sanger Alley Cat would be his target vessel. What was found was a boat in the Fresno area that used to belong to Jack Davidson and was the only 20' Alley Cat ever built.
Initially, Bill had hoped to pick up a "turn key" boat that he could do a few upgrades to. Due to a few fatal flaws in the boat and Bill's taste for all things custom, however, the die was cast for a full-on custom rebuild of the little catamaran.
Enter custom builders, Tom Peterson and Scott Kornowski. Bill had envisioned an upgrade of the Alley Cat, which was already a unique boat, and he knew that in order for the build to be executed effectively that he would need a build team that had the right balance of engineering and ingenuity and Tom and Scott were just that team.
Tom pulled the boat apart and then took it to Scott's. After Scott looked at it for awhile he came up with some amazing ideas for personalizing the boat. Some of the ideas included removing the wind screen, bubble compass, cutting the dash out and re-angling it to look better, patching over 150 holes, capping the boat, redoing the bottom of the boat, installing additional bulkheads and, of course, a new floor. The fuel tanks were rotted on the bottom so Brian Murphy at Tank It in Lake Havasu built new ones for Scott to install. In his spare time Scott also completely customized the trailer for the boat. As the updates took shape the conversation switched to controls. Bill, had seen center controls on several east coast boats and liked the concept. Scott went to work building a custom, one off, center console that followed the lines of the boat and integrated the new billet controls with custom linkage and trim gauge. The result is nothing short of spectacular.
Once the glass and gel were complete the boat went back to Tom Peterson's shop for final rigging. Bill also reinforced the transom with a custom turnbuckle setup tied into the newly installed bulkheads. All of the rigging is typical of Tom's high standards which has gained him the respect of enthusiasts and peers alike throughout the custom boat world.
During the build Scott had the idea of a car-like interior. He built the seat frames and sent them to Bill Sturgis of ARKO Upholstry to work his magic. Bill, came up with a Ferrari inspired interior that perfectly suits the colors and lines of the Alley Cat.
For power, it was decided to ditch the twin outboard set-up in favor of a single Merc 300 built by Joe Abellera of Dave Bush Racing in Lake Havasu. As luck would have it, Brian Murphy of Tank It had a jack plate laying around from his racing days that was the perfect option for this application. Once the motor was done the cowl paint and lettering were completed by Bob Thompson which tied everything together.
The result of bringing all these craftsmen together is one very unique, very cool Sanger Alley Cat that truly has to be seen to believe! -
Here is a link to the gallery of the entire build. Check it out!
http://www.tommygunimages.com/alleycat
