Efficient Power cat designs

[catalyst]

Originally Posted by baeckmo

Well, Bob, we are curious; did you manage to get a demo trip with a decent load onboard in realistic weather conditions????

Hi

Well, yes I did. I went with an open mind, but armed with the information given by you and others, which was the idea.

I have to say that I was hugely impressed by the performance of this design.

I went with eight mates of mine who were in the area for a stag do. The weather was horrible with a good 6 blowing, gusting perhaps 7 or so, and raining.

I wanted to test the boat in a variety of different sea conditions, which in and around the Solent you can do. Inside the island with the wind as it was there was an incredibly short sharp and very steep chop running, which would have caused problems for most boats. We shot out of the harbour and just seemed to fly over the top of this, making 28Kn into the sea and wind.
I then got the skipper to slow down to 20Kn and then right back to 12Kn head to sea. At no point was there any 'slamming' from the bridge deck.
In neutral we drifted beam on to the sea and stability was impressive even with all of us idiots on the windward side!

After this we ran with the sea around to the other side of the island to get into more of an open sea state.
This was also very good with the whole vessel airborne at times! Running with a swell I noticed that some correction was required at the helm, but she never felt unsafe and always came back to me.

All in all we had a great time. I will be back for a trip on their first inboard version, due for delivery in January, to see what difference the weight and the extra stern gear makes. They estimate the vessel will be about 1.5 Ton heavier than the outboard demonstrator, but to be honest after the trip we had I don't see that being an issue.
As for the tunnel design, well I mentioned what you said and they freely admit that they have made a 'best guess'. They did not employ a Naval Architect, but then they didn't employ one for the hull either and that seems fine!
Their operation and attitude was very proffessional and honest and I would thoroughly recommend anyone who is even vaguely interested in a cat gets down there and has a go.

Regards
Bob.

[baeckmo]

Sounds better than expected, thanx for info and good luck!