Fountian Pajot (???) Catamaran

Whitelighter

Whitelighter

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Had a read of the review in MB&Y out of idle curiosity. Sure I thought, it got 3 cabins and a huge saloon, but its going to be very wide and very slow.

I was hugely suprised to read it does 18knts! Ok, no starship, but not bad if you are bugged by fuel economy. Secondly, she is just over 14 feet wide. Now, my boat is over 10 feet wide, so big squaddies etc etc must be at least 13 or 14 aren't they. So Marina berths should be possible.

What is more impressive is it is powered by two 75hp engines. so 150hp gets you 18knts!!!! At a more leisurely 13/14knts you are probably getting 4 mpg. Not totally ugly either.

Scary
 
Sorry to put a damper on your idea, Jez. I have a 30ft raggie cat as well as my powerboat and when I used to take it into marinas in the UK I got charged cat. rates - 50% more, at least, even though the boat is only about 13 feet wide (and with twin engines in each stern quarter, extremely easy to turn in its own length). My single engined 27 ft motorboat in Poole is 11 feet wide and very much cheaper to moor; less easy to handle in a breeze. That's why we keep the cat in Greece after sailing it to Cyprus. Things are getting better but cats are not always as welcome in British marinas as monos IMHO, and experience.
 
My cat is 29 foot by 14 foot beam and I don't get charged double or even an extra 50%. One marina talked about charging extra so I offered to pay the difference and the average beam quoted was 12 foot so they gave up. This is in the Solent as well.
 
Hello Peter, same boat, I think! (Pennyroyal of Wessex). I was charged extra in Poole, Weymouth, Dartmouth and others. You probably have more charm...
Martin T.
 
Re: Fountaine Pajot Power Cats and others

Scary? What's so scary about very fuel efficient catamaran hulls that also have excellent sea keeping?

All else being equal, re same length and speed, power catamarans will (almost) always be more economical than power monohulls - much easier to push two narrow hulls through the water (or up on to the plane) than one tubby hull.

How many 49' monohull powerboats can do 23 knots with 2 x 115 hp engines? Thats what my avatar cat on the left can do.

Monohulls would probably have a slight advantage over cats at slow speeds when the main resistance is frictional rather than wave making.

Some other power cats builders include Glacier Bay in the USA - http://www.glacierbaycats.com
African Cats - http://www.africancats.com
Noosa Cats in Oz - http://www.noosacat.com.au

While here are a couple of designers who are well respected and have some very interesting designs of all types on their web-pages :
Crowther downunder - http://www.crowther.com.au
and Morelli & Melvin in the USA - http://www.morrellimelvin.com/powerboats

In fact, there is an excellent list of power cat builders worldwide at http://www.powermultihulls.com
 
as others say, great for out and about, less kop in expensive areas where marinas are spensive like uk. I rented a 46 ft fontiane pajot saily boat and they are a bit utlilitarian decor in places. But otherwise i wd be fine at anchor or mooring on cat rahr than anything else. Those times when you strangely wake up on mono at anchor (even a big mono) don't happen on cats much if at all. Entertaining space and single-level daytime living also a good feature.
 
Re: Fountaine Pajot Power Cats and others

Just a few more thoughts..... I was on holiday in high latitudes last September and saw a few nice powercats at the SBS. The day after the show ended, I was down at Milford on Sea, sitting on the beach with some friends, watching (with binoccies) the boats sailing and motoring out past the Needles. It was blowing a good F 4 gusting 5 from the SW I guess, and the sea was rather lumpy.
Watched a couple of planing hull AWmotorB's (approx 40' LOA) heading west - maybe they had been at the Show?
Whatever, they looked like they were having a hard time of it, bashing into the chop - I dont know what speed they were doing, but they were up on the plane.
Just behind them was one of the F-P powercats - I think it was a Highlander 35 - trundling along very serenely, probably doing 12 - 14 knots I would guess - it looked (to us on shore) as if the motions on the power cat would be infinitely better than on the faster planing craft.
And I am sure that she was acheiving much better fuel economy as well.
 
My power catamaran reaches 21 knots on 2 x 50hp Evinrudes without any trouble; must remember where to put the fuel in. It's also very pleasant at anchor. No trouble in Marina's, but then its only 9'5" wide.
The main plus for me is the draft, at about 17" my home port of Christchurch isn't a problem. It's so shallow here that if other boats get stuck you get out and push.
 
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This is a Maryland 37 that we Chartered in Spain.
 
No extra charm, only mention length when asked. Only real query was in Brixham a few years back when they realised we were a cat and asked us over the vhf to alter course to another jetty. Still no extra money though. Will this change with nicely painted hulls and they think that I am richer, whilst in reality poorer due to the cost of painting ...
 
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