As the 2025 offshore race season rockets to the finish line—culminating with next week's RWO World Championships in Key West—it will close the curtain on the inaugural year of Cat 300 class. The new class struggled through the year with only three competitors, and as of this writing, no Cat 300 entries have signed up to race in Key West.

However, Super Stock throttleman Todd DeFilipps says he's adamant that brighter skies are on the horizon for the fledgling Cat 300 class. As owner of Wicked Powerboats—builder of two of the three boats that raced the class this year—he's quick to point out that the popular Factory Stock class was raced by only one team in its own inaugural year of 2021. DeFilipps, who also serves on APBA's Cockpit Safety Board, says he wants the truth about Cat 300 to come out to prevent it from diminishing. "There are a bunch of other competitors who are building boats for the class behind the scenes," he told Speedboat. "I've been helping them to make sure that whatever they build has the newest, latest and greatest safety standards. But they're afraid that the class is going to go away before they actually get their boats done."

Cat 300 was the brainchild of APBA Vice Chairman Rich Luhrs, who hoped to bring elements of racing from the UK to the USA. First was 3C class, which previously raced the 15" Mercury 200XS, while competitors in Sweden and Norway ran the 225XS class. "Originally, Cat 300 was intended to be identical to the 3C class, which is the most popular class in Europe," he says. As it turned out, the American hulls required more horsepower than their European counterparts, requiring a step up from 225-hp engines to 300-hp, which is a pricier endeavor. "The idea, though, was to have an entry-level, single-engine outboard cat class, and we fulfilled that goal. It's an ideal way to allow an individual to get into an actual non-bracketed race boat at a modest price, and to see if they want to dive into the larger and more expensive classes."

Currently, Cat 300 comprises canopied boats 23 to 26 feet, with a maximum 56"-inch wide tunnel; boats must weigh in at 3,200 pounds and include a 5,000 Newton safety cockpit.

One veteran racer who is actively assembling a boat for Cat 300 is Bracket 500 Class competitor "Pantera Mike" McColgan, who drives the 28' Pantera Tunnel Vision with throttleman Robert Bryant. McColgan found and purchased a 1986 24' Skater from a seller in Illinois—an original Factory boat with triple 2.5L Mercury Racing 260 modified engines. Before buying the boat, McColgan sent the boat's Hull Identification Number (HIN) to Peter Hledin at Skater, who immediately said, "Oh, man, that's the first one I ever built, for a millionaire down in Texas. That's a good one to find!"

McColgan has been working with PRO Class 1 and Super Cat legend Brit Lilly of Lilly Sport Boats (Arnold, MD) to fabricate a canopy for the Skater, first by laying up a mockup canopy. He hopes to race the finished Skater in Cat 300 during the 2026 offshore season. "I like the newness of it," he says of the class. "What gets me excited is that we're all on an even playing field. I'm trying to prove that other racers can do what I'm doing with an older boat. They can go buy an old 24 Skater or an old 25 Motion and bring it into the class."

On the flip side of that coin is Michael Hledin, son of Skater Boats founder Peter Hledin, who is in the process of assembling an all-new 26 Skater that he hopes will join the Cat 300 contingent in the future. "We're literally building it by hand," he tells Speedboat. "It's been primed and everything now. We're getting pretty close to building the mold on top of that. Then once we pop it out, we can start laying up hull number 1. We're still a few months out, but we're thinking we can definitely have one ready to go—if not for next season, then certainly by Key West next year." Hledin says he's still unsure whether he would race the boat himself, but it's something he's considering.

Meanwhile, South Florida-based Bill Ratlieff of Renaissance Prowler—who started building high-performance offshore fishing catamarans back in 1998—is working on a 25'10" prototype that he also hopes to enter into Cat 300 class and is about three months away from being completed. "It's been a longtime dream of mine to get into boat racing," he says. "I was thinking about Super Stock class when they came out with the Cat 300, which is more of an entry-level class. Todd has kind of guided me through the process. So we're planning to build our own model. I'm not sure yet if I'll race it myself, but I've got several people who are interested in racing it. We think it's going to be competitive."

LCB/Lanier Custom Boats, one of the three competitors in Cat 300 for 2025 (along with Jackhammer and TFR/XINSURANCE), was piloted by Mike Bethan and Sean Lanier. After racing the hull in 2025's APBA circuit, Lanier is currently building a new Wicked to compete in the class next season. Racing in Cat 300 was "awesome," he says. "We raced hard in Englewood and got the high points. It's a great little class. We want to grow the class." Lanier is also working with DeFilipps on a project to transform that same Wicked hull into a fish version with an all-new deck; the first boat is said to be about 85% complete.

‍