Searching for power cat plans

Thank you for that observation..... i thought the power cats were still a popular option in your part of the world. With that being said, I think the sea conditions you guys have around Australia are more dangerous on a good day than i would ever want to see. At least for right now. Im looking to conquer 1-2' chop in my local bay that has an average depth of 8-10' and then run off shore no more then 30miles in the worst conditions of 3' waves. Im trying to play it say while checking all the boxes on my list..... and again thanks to everyone for the guidance. I'll take all i can get........

 

Well, I think the operative word is rough. Or how rough?

I say anything over 4 feet seas and the sled is gonna start to behave like a jon boat.

Something like a Wood's 24 foot Skoota is an entirely different class of boat. It'll never go as fast as the sled, but it can run at 10 knots in 6 footers pretty sure and without pounding the people to death.

The other thing to point out is the concept of catamaran has been badly boogered by the trailerability demands of the markets. A narrow catamaran is sort of an oxymoron in many ways. Sure, you can point to pluses of a say 10' wide cat vs a 10' wide monohull, but where cats start to perform well is with wider beams.

The Sea Sled is an intriguing design, but rather than seeing Mr. E as a pure antagonist; it must have some downsides beyond Hickman's poor business skills. Then again, the Boston Whaler hull is pretty popular and not far off.

Maybe when John gets done; he can give us a fair report on how the boat does or even a video from a friends boat in a four foot chop.

 

I sure as hell will. I'll post videos until you're sick of them. Take more to record sea state and wave action with an accelerometer in frame. Give long rides to any forum member who calls in advance.
I was a combat engineer because I have an engineers mind, but I'm too physical to spend my life checking over change order documents, not because I couldn't handle calculus and analytic geometry. (I crushed them) I've done some original research in a couple fields, and invented things that were produced in the thousands. And my sweet darling Anne is a genuine scientist. Has her name on hundreds of papers. I waaaaant hard performance data.

And I don't see Mr Efficiency as an antagonist. I was frustrated because he speaks with certainty about something he is not yet certain about. I would be thrilled, overjoyed, if he showed up with an accelerometer. I'd put him up, stuff him full of incredible food, and then work him to exhaustion, capturing data.
"Just another hour, Mr E. I know you're tired, but we need another 100 passes at WOT across that freighters wake from every angle. It's for science."

 

what sort of cats have you spent time on. powercats that is. i am not having a go at you , just curious what you base your trailer cat comments on.

 

And I think that is the point.....4’ is a no go for me in my local waters. If we have 4’ chop then we have lesswatwr under my goat and we will be pounding the sea floor. Did that in my sailboat.

 

In other news, just got off the phone with Marcus Lee, up in Sitka. Grilling him about his boats, vs all the local Munson landing crafts. Sled is much much more capable in rough water. But also very dependant on trim angle. If planing with the bow up too high, so that contact with the water is midships or aft, pounding ensues. If outboards are trimmed properly so that bow stays down, compressed air cushion forms, and pounding vanishes. He says the chief experience is an awareness of huge lift, so that it always feels kind of floaty. Also confirmed, again, huge load capacity, and ability to handle all the load being on 1 side. I am impatient to see this first hand. I hope at least a few forum members will be around on the first days in the water.

 

doing more research myself.....

QUOTES FROM AL HICKMAN VERSION DESIGNER:

This is the inverted vee hull, based upon the original Albert Hickman design, but, redesigned for the Laguna by carrying the vee completely through the hull. In 1914 when Hickman first developed the hull there were no outboards and he made the transom area flat-bottomed to carry the extra weight of the engine and transmission.

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Since I own the Laguna Tiger and built it I thought I might help you out with some facts. The boat is 18' X 8' beam, weighs 520 #, runs 40 mph with 2 people on it. 90 hp Yamaha power. It's all welded aluminum as this is the first one and it would have been much less expensive to build it out of aluminum instead of having to make a plug and then a mold to build in glass. The only other option would be plywood and that would still really be just a plug as far as I am concerned. I took the boat to Corpus two weeks ago for initial testing, it was really great, much better than expected actually. With a 20 mph SE wind, we, three people, took it into CC Bay, i ran the boat at all possible angles to the waves, even to the point of turning it around at 3500 rpm in a small circle.

Resulting in NO pounding and NO spray in the boat. Albert Hickman's #1 claim was always that his "Sea Sleds" never, ever pounded in rough seas. Neither does my version, it is spooky smooth and dry. I took several area Charter Captains riding on it and to a man they said it was the best ride they had ever experienced, bar none.

While the boat that i saw pictured on this site, the TX18, that is a kit boat that has similar vee design, but, it is a flat-bottom-transom design very close to Hickman's original drawings. It will work, but, does not run well in shallow water as the engine will overheat if you try to run shallow. It has no way to feed water up to a raised engine like mine does. I had several options when thinking about my design, I could either build it flat as Hickman did, put in a tunnel as most S TX flats have, or, get creative and run the inverted vee design completely though the hull and use that as a tunnel. i decided on number three as it made the boat more unique and I liked to idea of extending the inverted vee through to try and capture even more of the air-cushion ride. It worked...If you would like more info jsut email me with a regular email address and I will forward all of the details to you.

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NO sneezing. we put a sneeze-bar under the bow to prevent that just in case. Don't know if it worked, or, if it just hasen't done it, but, it never has sneezed.

Here's a few spec's that I know to be facts from the week's testing that I have already done if it.

Length = 18'
Beam = 8'
weight = 520 lbs. bare hull weight
draft / loaded = 7"
draft w/1 person on front deck = 5.5" hull levels out with one person on the front
draft w/2 perons in front of console = 6"
draft w/3 persons scattered front to rear = 7"
hole shot = very good, instant, will get up with jack plate all the way up.
runs = very shallow, whatever it takes to feed enough water to the prop to push the boat, i would guess 4"??? The prop is up in the vee, about the bottom of the boat when running with the [jack plate] up.
Turns = like a sports car, no slippage at all, very positive, very solid feel.
ride = soft, NO pounding just as hickman advertised in 1914
dry = spooky, NO spray in the boat to-date, even trying to hit waves at crazy angles to make it spray. Spooky how dry it is.
stable = 2" of list with 600 lbs on either gunnel


Laguna tiger.....
Duckmaster, Inc. https://duckmasterboats.com/lagunatiger.html

 

Well, they do know how to write ad copy. Hopefully it's as good as he says.

 

I find references to these boats all the way back to 2008.