Bay Boats

Bill Allison Created and founded Flats Cat Boats out of necessity. Bill was a college football player and after a serious back injury in college he had to create a boat that was comfortable to ride in after his injury. Traditional boats were to hard on his back.

Bill spent years drawing up and researching options for his catamaran design. The goal was to create a boat that ran smooth, dry and shallow. That is why he created and designed the first catamaran hull. The first Flats Cat hulls were made with aluminum, but he soon realized that the aluminum was too noisy and spooked fish and fiberglass was the answer. He eventually patented the first Cat Hull for the Flats Cat on October 3, 1989.

The catamaran twin hull design of the Flats Cat is revolutionary because of the reverse engineering that creates water flow and lift like no other boat on the market. This design is why Bill Allison and Flats Cat earned the first patent.

The design was created in conjunction with the help of much research, including help from Texas A&M and the tenacity of founder Bill Allison through years of hard work and innovation.

The first Flats Cat created was the 21′ Flats Cat in 1991. Shortly after the 18.6 was created in 1995. The original Flats Cat boats were constructed in aluminum and later were built in all fiberglass. the 17′ Flats Cat was then added in 2001 and a year later was the birth of the 19′ Flats Cat.

Today, three models are still being built in Fiberglass. The 17′, 19′ and the 21′ Flats Cat.

Bill Allison passed away in 2014 and Gina ran the company until Chris Mapp took over the company in 2020.