Looking for easy to build single outboard small power cat design in ply

Brand new member, long time lurker.

It's time for me to upgrade and finding a suitable used craft has proved difficult for my budget.

I really don't want to build but it looks like I may have to. I've used a 2000 model 18' McKee Craft dual console for ten years and it's getting too heavy for me to launch and recover (3000 lbs. +/- probably partially soaked), is a wet ride and pounds too much in snotty seas. I mainly run 20-40 miles offshore to fish but I also use her for shell hunting and sand bar visits with the wife and a couple friends.

I have at my disposal a single 2000 model Johnson Ocean Pro 150 that has been a wonderful workhorse, all of the accoutrements (bait tanks, hatches, fish box, seats, 80 gallon fuel tank, rails, cleats, windscreen, folding ladder, VHF, chartplotter, GPS controlled trolling motor, etc.) from a 2000 model McKee Craft 1800 DC who has also been a wonderful workhorse.

I am looking to travel with a load of 1500 pounds all up. She will need to be trailerable. She will live outside under a metal carport. I would like her to be as short as practicable - I'm thinking 18' but a cat setup with full beam carried far forward may allow me to reduce OAL.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Have you come across Richard Woods' Skoota 18?
Sailing Catamarans - Skoota 18 trailable 8ft wide daycruising or fishing http://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/6-powercats/489-skoota-18

Here he says :
"The Skoota 18 is a simple to build and trail powercatamaran. It is based on the Chat 18 sailing catamaran but with extra buoyancy aft to take a bigger engine, up to 20hp. This gives an economic cruising speed around 9-10 knots and top speed in the low teens."

Would the low teens be fast enough for you?

Or how about a 19' Livingston cat?
2015 Livingston LV19 in Portsmouth, VA https://www.smartmarineguide.com/L49986216

 

The Skoota is a nice looking and well appointed craft but I am looking for 40 mph +/-. The simpler the better as I want to spend as little time in the build as possible. The Glen L Cats (Aqua Cat hull with the sport interior layout as shown on the Wildcat E_X_T) are what I have seen available so far that may fill the bill but I'm open to any similar design.

I personally am not a fan of center consoles. Whatever I end up with will have a standard control layout.

 

As far as time and budget are concerned, you’d be far ahead to find a suitable used hull to start with.
In my experience, building any boat takes far more time and money than you plan for.
Florida is bursting at the seams with boats, I can’t think of a better place to be in the market for a recoverable hull.

 

Almost no cats in the length I require. The weight is a big issue as I am in my last years of boating as all of them are fiberglass. Practically all of them are center consoles. I would much rather find a hull but I'm not having much luck. There are a gazillion cats over 20' and a few under 16' but almost none in between.

 

There are couple of reputable companies building alloy cats in NZ. You could get a hull built and shipped to you?

Blackdog Cats and Kingfisher Cats are two examples.

I regularly go fishing with a guy who has a 5m Blackdog Cat. It's a phenomenal machine. He uses it in a really tough environment and it performs