Power Cat Design Help

[heseltib]

Hi,
I am designing a 30ft leisure power catamaran based on a Class3/S racing tunnel hull. I am proposing for there to be bed within the boat, but I would love to hear from users abd owners of power boats about the sort of features you would expect, would like and even ones you dislike! As yet there is no price target for the boat, but it is important for it to be competitive against the higher end powerboats like the Fearless range. Any help would be greatly appreciatedb
Thanks
Barney

P.S. apologies for any typos, my laptop died and i am writing this from my phone.

[Ad Hoc]

"...but it is important for it to be competitive against the higher end powerboats.."

Then you need to identify what they do and what you want to do better or different...

[heseltib]

Would you prefer then that I listed features that current boats have and you can give me a brief comment on each one, more like a survey? I would more than happy to do so.

[Ad Hoc]

Well, what you need to do is to satisfy YOURSELF. So, list down the "things" the other designs do...and then what they don't do. Then when laid out, you may see a niche, or a trend or whatever. But, until you write down the basics of each boat and what they do and importantly,for the cost , you wont know what you're aiming at! You need a direction..and it doesn't start with designing fancy hulls or rushing off to choose and nice sounding engine etc. The objectives need to be identified first, then that gives you something to aim at.

As a crude example...say all the boats do 40knots and $50k. Could you design the same but doing 50knots for same price or cheaper?....if you don't know, you do a small design study to establish the feasibility. The obvious being the mass and hence the power requirements. If the power required selects an engine that makes the cost way over $50k..the answer is no, so you must start again...it is iterative.

Good luck

[Jimboat]

heseltib - there are many different designs of 30ft recreational power cats on the market, and some originated from racing successes. Tunnel hull design technology has advanced significantly in past years, so there are many ideas that you can employ to achieve performance. As others have suggested, you may need to determine your major objectives of your design, as the ultimate compromises of the design process are very dependent on the features and performance expectations.

[heseltib]

Thankyou all for your help. I have decided that the outrageous top speed that the racing boats can achieve would be far too much for a leisure boat and that, even with a huge amount of suspension in the seat, the pain of crashing down in choppy waters would detract far too much from the fun that people would be expecting. I currently have readings suggesting my design for the raceboat could achieve upwards of 120mph depending on my engine choice.