Noosacat?

Renegade_Master

Renegade_Master

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I have just been aked to sell a Noosacat 2300 for the owner. Had a look over her today I must say it looks a very practical fishing boat, twin 130hp Honda fourstrokes so quiet and economical, huge cockpit, and between the engines theres a door giving access to a "fishing podium" for want of a better term, a little guardrailed platform aft.

Basic inside just a couple of berths, safe walkaround decks, and I imagine she would not rock so much when drift fishing? being twin hulled, perhaps anyone on here with experience of these can comnfirm that? I am no fisherman.

Yes pleasantly suprised I was.
 
I used to operate a 4100 series (KAD 43's, then to 300 hp on DP's) on a commercial basis for a couple of years, and found it as good as it gets in powered cats.

They are pretty much designed for hard commercial offshore work, featuring survey/coding specs. as standard fare.

Even the small versions as you have, are strongly favoured by the commercial abalone divers, living on trailers and launched off beaches with extendable drawbars.
Stability at rest, combined with excellent load carrying capacity make them the first choice with these divers.
Head sea running, with the 'wave breaker' built into the tunnel area, is the best ride (although regarded as wet), compared to monos.
A fully loaded boat (up to max. capacity and beyond) running with a big stern quartering sea, will quite possibly encourage the hull/sponson to 'dig in', but realistically these sort of loads would not be experienced by recreational users.


Cats are never going to be the prettiest craft on the water, but the sort of buyers that are committed to these vessels usually have a specific purpose in mind.

They are regarded as 'good property'.
 
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Although the Noosa is not my favourite (Give me a Glacier Bay or maybe a World Cat) what you have described and AndieMac then backed up is pretty well spot on.

Awesome "tool" when driven well and handled correctly.
Never winning any beauty contests, but in most respects "most" cats will win hands down when it comes to doing the floaty bits over a monohull.
 
Nautibusiness said:
Although the Noosa is not my favourite (Give me a Glacier Bay or maybe a World Cat) what you have described and AndieMac then backed up is pretty well spot on.

Awesome "tool" when driven well and handled correctly.
Never winning any beauty contests, but in most respects "most" cats will win hands down when it comes to doing the floaty bits over a monohull.
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A local guy has just bought a new Glacier Bay, but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. From what I remember the write ups are glowing, and cosmetically they are more of a glamour than our local offerings.

Have you seen the Kevlar-cat and the Cougar-cat range Nautibusiness?
 
AndieMac said:
A local guy has just bought a new Glacier Bay, but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. From what I remember the write ups are glowing, and cosmetically they are more of a glamour than our local offerings.

Have you seen the Kevlar-cat and the Cougar-cat range Nautibusiness?
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Cougar Cat yes, but not yet the Kevlar Cat.

That's if you mean our UK built Cougar Cat?
It looks quite substantial and chunky in a charter fishing sort of way. Not helmed one yet so can't really comment on handling. Had one alongside yesterday out in Poole Bay.
 
My personal choice of cat design

Have a look at the following web site and tell me this designer makes ugly or impractical power and sailing cats.

I was lucky enough to get to know Geoff and Lorraine when they lived and worked in Central Queensland. The finish on his boats has to be seen to be believed and the specifications and performance are a credit to his design know how.

Check out the video at the bottom of the page, go full screen to see the detail.

http://www.schionningdesigns.com.au/www/welcome.cfm



Avagoodweekend......
 
Nautibusiness said:
Cougar Cat yes, but not yet the Kevlar Cat.

That's if you mean our UK built Cougar Cat?
It looks quite substantial and chunky in a charter fishing sort of way. Not helmed one yet so can't really comment on handling. Had one alongside yesterday out in Poole Bay.
Click to expand...

I was not aware the Cougar was built in the UK, our Queensland built versions have very distinctly 'scalloped' bow sections, and have been long time players in powercat manufacturing. I did six years on an early model version (1992) carrying passengers, it did suffer from tunnel slap though in heavy head seas with a full load of pax., but great in every other way. Later versions increased the tunnel clearance to minimise this effect.

Edit: Just had a look at a UK Cougar Cat on the boats and outboards site, and it is nothing like our boats.
 
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oldsaltoz said:
Have a look at the following web site and tell me this designer makes ugly or impractical power and sailing cats.

I was lucky enough to get to know Geoff and Lorraine when they lived and worked in Central Queensland. The finish on his boats has to be seen to be believed and the specifications and performance are a credit to his design know how.

Check out the video at the bottom of the page, go full screen to see the detail.

http://www.schionningdesigns.com.au/www/welcome.cfm



Avagoodweekend......
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Come on Brian :):), no-one has used the words ugly or impractical in the descriptions so far, in fact highly practical seems to be the consensus.

On our recent trip up your way (Whitsundays Is. Qld) I saw some stunning examples of both power and sail, particuarly the Schionning breed in the Hamilton Island marina, they really are embracing the cat philosophy big time.

You have certainly got one hell of a playground up there in northern Queensland, we only got to sail on the first day (and survived), the rest of the week didn't produce enough wind to blow a candle out.
The thing that was a real winner for us was all that heat and no insects! Doors and hatches wide open day and night.

Cheers

Callum
 
Hi Callum,

Glad you had a great time, hope the damage caused by the cyclone did not hamper your enjoyment.

Insects are not a great problem unless you anchor near a mangrove, though I suspect the cyclone did remove a few million.

Also happy to hear you spotted some of the Schionning cats during your stay, as you say "stunning".

You will have a post a few pictures and run down on the places you visited.

Avagoodweekend......:)
 
oldsaltoz said:
Hi Callum,

Glad you had a great time, hope the damage caused by the cyclone did not hamper your enjoyment.

Insects are not a great problem unless you anchor near a mangrove, though I suspect the cyclone did remove a few million.

Also happy to hear you spotted some of the Schionning cats during your stay, as you say "stunning".

You will have a post a few pictures and run down on the places you visited.

Avagoodweekend......:)
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Hardly saw any damage from cyclone, just one small section of marina pontoon at Airlie, and a couple of up-rooted palms on Sth. Molle and Long Islands.
As soon as we got home, my wife spent the next few hours on the net looking for places on Hamilton Island, we loved that, and will base ourselves out of there the next time......soon we hope :)

All our pics are of the family on yachts, so won't bother posting :rolleyes:, besides it must be someone from the northern hemispheres turn...:-)
 
I think the remarks, including my own suggest that any good, well designed cat (and the Noosa fits into this category), beats a mono hands down.
But... whilst an excellent boat, there are prettier cats out there than the Noosa.
 
Well, as I inched out of Bembridge in the marked channel on the ebb last Sunday something like that with half a dozen fishing rods on the stern planed in straight across the green bits on my chart, apparently displacing no more than the diameter of the prop.
 
Nautibusiness said:
I think the remarks, including my own suggest that any good, well designed cat (and the Noosa fits into this category), beats a mono hands down.
But... whilst an excellent boat, there are prettier cats out there than the Noosa.
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Indeed not the prettiest of boats but its growing on me. Cant wait to take a client out on a sea trial :~)
 
Renegade_Master said:
Indeed not the prettiest of boats but its growing on me. Cant wait to take a client out on a sea trial :~)
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They do turn outward like a car on a turn, which takes a little getting used to, but the hulls are efficient and very stable.
You can drive them as hard as you like in a head sea, as air traps between the hulls like a cushion.
The sea rescue services/police use them out of difficult barways in impossible foul weather conditions, they, like any other boat will backflip when caught at that wrong moment when climbing up a massive wave front as its about to break, with a lot of wind behind it. They are designed to be pushed/worked hard.

Enjoy your play....:)
 
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