Have any of you guys considered going over to the Dark Side...

[GravyStain]

Yes, I'm talking about powered Catamarans.

Lots of upsides:-

Fuel efficient
Loads of space on the main deck
decent flybridges
minimal roll at anchor - no seakeeper required
less sea-sickness as per the above

Lot's of downsides:-

Not exactly good looking
Cramped cabins
Not fast
Not so luxurious
hard to get marina berths on the fly
expensive marina costs
expensive lift out / in costs

Waddaya think guys - have any of you been tempted, or indeed got one. I'm still heavily reearching my options. I can't say that I'm enthralled by an older powered cat, but some of the new ones look great (but also pricey).

 

[Steruth1]

i have too been tempted but after being in the Med for 3 seasons it seems impossible or mega expensive to find a mooring. the boats i think have come on loads and offer great accommodation now and will certainly be cheaper on fuel, but maybe thats where the benefits end.... be good to hear from a owner who has transitioned

 

[GravyStain]

i have too been tempted but after being in the Med for 3 seasons it seems impossible or mega expensive to find a mooring. the boats i think have come on loads and offer great accommodation now and will certainly be cheaper on fuel, but maybe thats where the benefits end.... be good to hear from a owner who has transitioned

Yeah - that's my take on it too. The older stuff from 200(ish) just don't feel special inside. the newer ones are far more luxury yacht-like with berths to match...

 

[jrudge]

Same - finding a berth is hassle let alone 2 side by side or a hammerhead

The cats are great with amazing saloon space.

 

[Bluemu]

Have one . But ours is aluminium and an expedition boat, not a gin palace.
Because we are narrow for our length, no problems with haulout or marinas (15m long, 4.9m wide).
Don’t know about slow, but I’d say most powercats are faster than their brethren if you compare SD hulls to the usual D. But speed depends on you, your wallet, needs, tank size, etc.

 

[Bouba]

Every year the amount of cats, both power and sail, increases in the Med. A lot is due to the hire companies.
As a boat they are fabulous, they look good and have incredible amounts of room. As a neighbor they are a pain. It is hard to manœuvre around them in the close confines of a port or river, and they take up all the good mooring spots. They are only charged for one and a half places but they take two. And quite often their mooring lines take another place either side of them

 

[Seastoke]

Yes, I'm talking about powered Catamarans.

Lots of upsides:-

Fuel efficient
Loads of space on the main deck
decent flybridges
minimal roll at anchor - no seakeeper required
less sea-sickness as per the above

Lot's of downsides:-

Not exactly good looking
Cramped cabins
Not fast
Not so luxurious
hard to get marina berths on the fly
expensive marina costs
expensive lift out / in costs

Waddaya think guys - have any of you been tempted, or indeed got one. I'm still heavily reearching my options. I can't say that I'm enthralled by an older powered cat, but some of the new ones look great (but also pricey).

Have you seen p52 on ebay

 

[Bajansailor]

Have one . But ours is aluminium and an expedition boat, not a gin palace.

Blumu, could you post a photo or two of your power cat please?
The cat in my avatar is also 15 m. x 4.9 m and aluminium - she has 2 x 150 hp O/B motors.

@Irish Rover on this Forum has a Fountaine Pajot power cat - he has often mentioned the significant economy of proceeding underway with just one engine running.

 

[skipmac]

We chartered a 52 power cat from the Moorings in Nassau a couple of years ago. Have to say it was a nice holiday. Boat was fast enough, cruised at 25 kts and for the size and speed excellent mileage.

Huge amount of room. Wife, who has had a few skin cancers removed, has to keep out of the midday sun which was not only easy to do but also open to the view with lots of big windows, unlike being below in our sailboat.

Wouldn't want to take it out in nasty weather.

 

[GravyStain]

Have you seen p52 on ebay

Nope - P52? What make is that.

 

[Irish Rover]

Blumu, could you post a photo or two of your power cat please?
The cat in my avatar is also 15 m. x 4.9 m and aluminium - she has 2 x 150 hp O/B motors.

@Irish Rover on this Forum has a Fountaine Pajot power cat - he has often mentioned the significant economy of proceeding underway with just one engine running.

We really like this boat. It's 10.3 x 4.45M so it affords us a huge amount of space compared to a similar length monohull. An island berth would be nice but you can't have everything. 95% of motoring on one engine doing 7 Kn and burning 3.5LPH.
Now that I realise just how manoeuvrable it is we'd like to upgrade to a somewhat bigger cat. The two things we miss most are a generator and a deep freeze. I know I could retrofit on our Greenland 34 but it wouldn't be easy or ideal. We're on the lookout for a Leopard 39 or 43 or perhaps a FP Summerland 40. Might need to wait a bit though as our business has been affected by covid.

 

[GravyStain]

We really like this boat. It's 10.3 x 4.45M so it affords us a huge amount of space compared to a similar length monohull. An island berth would be nice but you can't have everything. 95% of motoring on one engine doing 7 Kn and burning 3.5LPH.
Now that I realise just how manoeuvrable it is we'd like to upgrade to a somewhat bigger cat. The two things we miss most are a generator and a deep freeze. I know I could retrofit on our Greenland 34 but it wouldn't be easy or ideal. We're on the lookout for a Leopard 39 or 43 or perhaps a FP Summerland 40. Might need to wait a bit though as our business has been affected by covid.

That's amazingly frugal at 7 kts.

 

[Seastoke]

Nope - P52? What make is that.

Princess.

 

[Hurricane]

Princess.

That vintage has a huge space to step onto the bathing platform from the side.
Just look at the photo.
Not much help if it is on a Med style berth but if berthed on a pontoon, it must be one of the easiest boats to get on and off.
Great vintage though.

 

[Seastoke]

That vintage has a huge space to step onto the bathing platform from the side.
Just look at the photo.
Not much help if it is on a Med style berth but if berthed on a pontoon, it must be one of the easiest boats to get on and off.
Great vintage though.

Is it a good price.

 

[GravyStain]

I must be daft as I've looked all over Ebay and can't find it!

EDIT- found it... having a look now.

 

[Bluemu]

Blumu, could you post a photo or two of your power cat please?
The cat in my avatar is also 15 m. x 4.9 m and aluminium - she has 2 x 150 hp O/B motors.

@Irish Rover on this Forum has a Fountaine Pajot power cat - he has often mentioned the significant economy of proceeding underway with just one engine running.

We were looking at the Greenland 34, then found ours - Bluenomads.blog is our pretty quiet blog and has pictures.
I have also done a little study of the fuel consumption of many of the blue-water capable powercats which is on the blog too.

Just so you know, we aren’t just on the Dark Side, we are planning on the full blackened monty: we are planning going parallel hybrid electric with a 8+ kW solar array.

 

[Alicatt]

For a dive boat we looked at a cat, it was a fishing boat, plenty of room, nice and steady, powerful diesel engines one in each side, but watching between the hulls as we approached hull speed the bow wash was hitting the underside of the central span and causing a lot of buffeting , she got to hull speed at less than 1/2 throttle and would not go any faster.
Going through the boat's documents, the builder had taken the plans from a normal mono hull boat, split it down the middle and made a cat out of it, interesting idea and a stable boat but a disaster all at the same time.

No we didn't buy it, after the sea trial we said thanks but no thanks.

 

[Bajansailor]

@Bluemu Thank you for the link to your Blog, and all the useful info and photos - your cat does look very fine.
And I love the walk in engine rooms!

 

[ontheplane]

So why aren't power cat's more popular then?

I see some about abroad in Med and so forth, very few over here?

Why?