Thundercat racing has grown massively popular in many countries across the globe in recent years, but our history begins in South Africa. This is a country with barely any winter, endless days of sunshine, dangerous rivers and huge offshore surf.

In the early 80's the first motorised inflatable race boats were created by local pioneers that had been searching for a sport that could test the extreme sea conditions of this vast country.

The development originated from life-saving monohull surf rescue crafts that were designed to use in a variety of sea conditions from flat waters to large breaking surf.

Racing proved very unstable and the shallow capability's caused great control problems which were solved by the ingenious fully inflatable catamaran tunnel hull design. The boat design has undergone dramatic evolution with these finely balanced boats progressing from rivers to sea, finally battling South Africa's large breaking surf. The boat technology has greatly improved since those early days with the sport crossing the oceans worldwide causing great levels of interest, thus the birth of Thundercat Racing Ireland.