nigelhudson
Well-Known Member
I don't post here very often but I thought that some of you denizens of the Dark Side might be interested in the craft that I was working on in Holland last week. The owner is a Turkish-born orthodontist with German citizenship living and working in the Netherlands and the cat is his pride and joy. Attached are three external shots which demonstrate that beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.
As the owner's English was marginally better than my Turkish, German and Dutch combined I was able to extract only a few details.........
The cat is constructed of aluminium and is powered by two Yanmar engines of 350hp (I think) driving Hamilton water jets. He claims that she is very fast but was unable to specify any figures. The marina manager told me that so much stuff had been added to it that the performance had been compromised. I don't suppose that the 80kg of decking that I added helped but I think that the granite-topped cockpit table was more of an affectation.
As a dedicated raggie the thing that concerned me was the total absence of manual controls. The owner boasted about the 4 computers but a back-up plotter is not going to compensate for general loss of electrics or the engine or steering controls going t*ts-up. Having once been almost run-down by an out-of-control Broom where the engine controls had gone from analogue to binary (full-on or off) I'm sceptical of electronic controls! Anyway for the gadget-conscious I attach a picture of the control position.
The owner intends to take the vessel to the Med by way of Spain. I would not like to travel across the Bay of Biscay in it, especially as the liferaft cradle is only held on by 3 off 6mm machine screws!
As the owner's English was marginally better than my Turkish, German and Dutch combined I was able to extract only a few details.........
The cat is constructed of aluminium and is powered by two Yanmar engines of 350hp (I think) driving Hamilton water jets. He claims that she is very fast but was unable to specify any figures. The marina manager told me that so much stuff had been added to it that the performance had been compromised. I don't suppose that the 80kg of decking that I added helped but I think that the granite-topped cockpit table was more of an affectation.
As a dedicated raggie the thing that concerned me was the total absence of manual controls. The owner boasted about the 4 computers but a back-up plotter is not going to compensate for general loss of electrics or the engine or steering controls going t*ts-up. Having once been almost run-down by an out-of-control Broom where the engine controls had gone from analogue to binary (full-on or off) I'm sceptical of electronic controls! Anyway for the gadget-conscious I attach a picture of the control position.
The owner intends to take the vessel to the Med by way of Spain. I would not like to travel across the Bay of Biscay in it, especially as the liferaft cradle is only held on by 3 off 6mm machine screws!
