Thinking of a power cat - anyone got one?

[MapisM]

each time we sit anchored and begin to roll, I wonder why we sold the catamaran

You must have moved from a pretty large cat to a (relatively) small monohull, if in your experience the first was much more stable than the latter, at anchor.
Not later than a few days ago, I was anchored near a Lagoon 40 something, among other boats.
A navigation wave made all the boats roll, but the jerky motion of the cat was the worse by far.
All the folks onboard had to grab something to avoid being thrown overboard.
Stability of catamarans is just a myth - the only inherent characteristic of cats being that there's no way to stabilize them.
Of course, there can be conditions where a cat is unaffected by small short ripples, which can make a comparably sized monohull roll a bit.
But on balance, whoever changes from a monohull to a cat hoping to get a vessel which is stabilized FoC is in for a major disappointment, imho.

 

[Hurricane]

You must have moved from a pretty large cat to a (relatively) small monohull, if in your experience the first was much more stable than the latter, at anchor.
Not later than a few days ago, I was anchored near a Lagoon 40 something, among other boats.
A navigation wave made all the boats roll, but the jerky motion of the cat was the worse by far.
All the folks onboard had to grab something to avoid being thrown overboard.
Stability of catamarans is just a myth - the only inherent characteristic of cats being that there's no way to stabilize them.
Of course, there can be conditions where a cat is unaffected by small short ripples, which can make a comparably sized monohull roll a bit.
But on balance, whoever changes from a monohull to a cat hoping to get a vessel which is stabilized FoC is in for a major disappointment, imho.

Actually, I disagree with you.
OK - maybe cats aren't as stable as a stabilised monohull but they are far more stable than an unstabilised monohull.
We have lots of friends with sailing cats and they are all very stable boats.

Jez
Sant Carles is a "cat friendly" marina.
In the early days (and to a lesser extent now) cats have been given special deals.
Originally, it was a cat berth for the price of a monohull.
And, as a result, SCM has attracted lots of cats (as I said above and one motor cat).
They are all berthed over on the Med style berths.
The smaller ones (<34 feet) can usually get lifted into our own boatyard.
The bigger ones use the town marina's private boatyard.
Our own boatyard has been very successful over the years and there is talk of extending it and installing a method of lifting the bigger cats.

Personally, I like the idea of cats but for me it would have to be a sailing cat.
Cats are very good if you like to stay on anchor without going into marinas.
In these cases, the Med is definitely a good place for cats - and there are lots of them about.
Most of the adventurous cats from Sant Carles stay out for several months of the year - sailing to the Baldricks and beyond but never going into marinas.

 

[Nigelpickin]

You must have moved from a pretty large cat to a (relatively) small monohull, if in your experience the first was much more stable than the latter, at anchor.
Not later than a few days ago, I was anchored near a Lagoon 40 something, among other boats.
A navigation wave made all the boats roll, but the jerky motion of the cat was the worse by far.
All the folks onboard had to grab something to avoid being thrown overboard.
Stability of catamarans is just a myth - the only inherent characteristic of cats being that there's no way to stabilize them.
Of course, there can be conditions where a cat is unaffected by small short ripples, which can make a comparably sized monohull roll a bit.
But on balance, whoever changes from a monohull to a cat hoping to get a vessel which is stabilized FoC is in for a major disappointment, imho.

This thread had managed to steer clear of any suggestions that Cats were stabilised FOC, until you brought it up...and at anchor - your point is not well made - at all....very strange....if only there was a production cat with Volvo IPS and Joystick on the market, that would send you over the edge!

Comfort at anchor is very much a selling point, as is deck space, interior volume and long legs and close quarter control.
Dock fees, lifting, certain associated costs and low comfort in head sea certainly are some of the negatives.

Agree with Hurricane - there are some great marina deals around for Catamarans, I’m currently paying £30 per day all inc for my square footage as a visitor....double berth.

 

[MapisM]

LOL, hey, I just say it as I see it - I'm not a seller of monohulls of any kind!
And I did mention in my previous post that cats can be more stable than monohulls, didn't I?
But in my experience, that's only true in the conditions where it matters less, i.e. when the sea motion makes a monohull roll gently - leaving aside the fact than monohulls can be stabilized, which is obviously true but is only a side show, in this context.

Leaving aside also the recent example of an otherwise very calm anchorage disturbed by a navigation wave, one of the worst ride I ever had in my life has been onboard a large diving powercat. 60 feet or so, and very beamy.
We went out in a very long ocean swell, and the motion was ok.
But as soon as we went round a cape and met some fresh and shorter waves, all hell broke loose.

After those who were able to put the tanks on jumped in the water PDQ, the helmsman had to reach a sheltered beach and leave there 3 divers who threw up anything they had in their stomachs.
The helmsman went back to the beach to collect those 3 folks after the dive, but only one of them accepted to come back with us, and they had to arrange a 4wd to go pick up the other two.
I'm not even starting to describe how much fun (NOT!) had those of us who jumped in the water, when climbing back onboard after the dive... :ambivalence:

 

[AndieMac]

You must have moved from a pretty large cat to a (relatively) small monohull, if in your experience the first was much more stable than the latter, at anchor.
Not later than a few days ago, I was anchored near a Lagoon 40 something, among other boats.
A navigation wave made all the boats roll, but the jerky motion of the cat was the worse by far.
All the folks onboard had to grab something to avoid being thrown overboard.
Stability of catamarans is just a myth - the only inherent characteristic of cats being that there's no way to stabilize them.
Of course, there can be conditions where a cat is unaffected by small short ripples, which can make a comparably sized monohull roll a bit.
But on balance, whoever changes from a monohull to a cat hoping to get a vessel which is stabilized FoC is in for a major disappointment, imho.

I agree with you MM, if the cat is being held head to weather into the wind with a swell rolling around a headland and catching it in a beam roll, you are in for some very savage action as the hulls try to "bounce" the boat back to stability.
With the wind and short waves coming directly ahead, the cat will sit very well.

 

[John100156]

Jez
My next berth neighbour when in Torquay had a Fountaine Pajot Cumberland 44, called Lady Kristiana. She really was a fantastic boat. Ian and his wife did corporate entertainment trips up the Dart and crewed charter - probably moved on by now, their website is no longer active:

www.ladykristiana.com ​

let me know if you're interested and I will try to dig out Ian's email address.....

 

[Nigelpickin]

 

[Whitelighter]

Yep they are lovely.

Cant probably stretch to one though hoping the 40 might be at Boot

 

[Nigelpickin]

Yep they are lovely.

Cant probably stretch to one though hoping the 40 might be at Boot

Yes they aren’t cheap - looks like it’s close to 800k loaded and taxed, is that about right?

I was a bit surprised by the beam, it’s 2m narrower than our cat and thus the saloon does appear a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but that could be the camera...

Very nice boat for a long summer cruise tho

 

[Whitelighter]

I soecced one up to €839k plus tax but I didn’t hold back on the options:

That includes fixed HT, hilo, full tropical AC, Laundry Room fit out.
That is what prompted my previous post on options - some are just ludicrously priced. The MY40 is about €700k to our spec, but with similar caveats.

The Bavaria is about €700k but quite a bit bigger and the ‘cheap’ option is a Bali 4.3 at about €620k.

In reality the sensible choice is a FP Cumberland 46 from 2006 onwards. These got a significant furniture upgrade and look a lot nicer than the earlier boats. Big issue is availability (there just aren’t many) and that the boat didn’t have a hilo, though I’m going to speak to a few manufacturers and see is something similar to the MY40/44 one could becretro fitted.

A nice 07/08/09 Cumberland 46 is about €400k inc vat. The 47LC was the latest version but I’m actually not so keen on the ultra modern interior plus the only ones for sale are €700k plus

With the MY44 at €800k+ the other option is a Queensland 55, but again that’s IF you can find one

 

[Boat2016]

Jez
My next berth neighbour when in Torquay had a Fountaine Pajot Cumberland 44, called Lady Kristiana. She really was a fantastic boat. Ian and his wife did corporate entertainment trips up the Dart and crewed charter - probably moved on by now, their website is no longer active:

www.ladykristiana.com ​

let me know if you're interested and I will try to dig out Ian's email address.....

I met him a few years ago while stopping off in Torquay and had a tour of the boat, he said it was a lot cheaper to run and much more stable when at anchor than the Princess he previously owned, I would guess this was about 10 years ago.