Re: Scary Cat
You Might Of Noticed The Big Strakes N The Front Of The Coastal Cat,thats What Keeps The Bow Up,kc 2400 Dont Have Any,get The Centre Of Gravity To Far Foward And You Get The Death Roll,which It Sounds Like Is The Problem Here.its Also Dissapointing That Sm That Are The Dealer Are Giving Him The Stuff Around I Know For A Fact They Make 20 Grand On That New Boat Package
A couple of weeks ago i was going from raby bay to horse shoe bay and a riviera cruise went buy heading to fraser,there were about 30 big rivs so from spit beacon to horse shoe bay was just slop but not real big probably only about a meter and i was sitting along side a power cat we were both doing 26 knots cutting accross a following sea and i was watching that cat bury its nose also i watched this for about 5 mins and couldnt beleive how badly this boat handled,i have never driven a cat so dont know if this was driver error or not but that was the same boat we were going to buy and after we saw that im glad we didnt.
this will never end, the Cat lovers will have a come back for every negative, the mono lovers will also have a comback as well, I consider myself to be very lucky, I have owned and operated monos and cats for more years than I care to remember and my feeling is, that for every negative in a cat there are two positives, so I guess you can see what I have now, and unless you are doing something really 'soft" following sea is one of a cats best features.
Hi Mark
I had the same problem as your friend , before Christmas I upgrade from a 6m Seastorm to a second hand KC 2400 with 115 Yamaha ( petrol drinkers) ,on one of my maiden trips I scared my wife so bad she would no longer go out with me in open waters or in sheltered waters when the breeze was up , What happened , We were traveling 20kn plus heading in into Boyne island with NNE 15 to 20 nt sea when the boat dropped down one side of a wave so hard to the port the starboard motor lost grip and cavitate and then just as quick the wave picked us up and we fell in to the hole on the other side by that time I pulled back on the throttles and stopped to make shore every one was still on board it happen so quick that there was no time to respond I can remember thinking “ shit they go along way over with out rolling” , from that time on I was very cautious in any following sea , mind you my son was with on that day and continued going fishing with a gate amount of fear in any following sea .
When we got home from our fishing holiday , I was not impressed so I posted my concern on this form and got much the same response as you which did help me to not think so badly of the cat, but it didn’t help the wife she did not like it .
So what I did was I put the boat in at Horizon shores for a couple of weeks and headed for the pin every chance I got to gained some confidence and experience no fishing just playing , this did help I think because a couple of weeks later I was in worse conditions than Tannum (NNE 20 kn plus off 1770) , I was pushing along at 22 kn and the boat was cruising when the bloody thing did the same thing again this time I scared a whole new crew (and they weren’t a bad crew either) but didn’t scare me as much .
What concerned me was the motors losing grip, I think this helped to make the boat feel like it was going over feather than it would of if the motor was still in the water, so when I put a couple of new 140 Suzuki’s on we put them in the water a little more than the Yamahas and so far I have not had any concerns going across the pin bar, although I haven’t been out in anything much more than 15 kn to know how the boat will handle in heavy seas.
Anyway the son will still come fishing off the pin and he is happy if I let him drive and the wife is back on board and has come out over the pin ( she must now trust me?) the 1770 crew are asking to go again so things are improving.
The more I dive it the more I like to drive it .
I think once your friend has mastered the boat he will gain confidents of the crew and than there will be no more white knuckles.
Anthony
Just out of curiosity...
If KC went to the trouble of x-raying the hull ( I think some sort of ultrasound is more likely), what did they say?
IF the problem is truly how it is driven, did they not offer to demonstrate that by water testing it with you on board?
Just seems curious.
Cheers,
Owen
The whole world's mad save thee & me (but I'm not too sure about thee)
....What happened , We were traveling 20kn plus heading in into Boyne island with NNE 15 to 20 nt sea when the boat dropped down one side of a wave so hard to the port the starboard motor lost grip and cavitate and then just as quick the wave picked us up and we fell in to the hole on the other side by that time I pulled back on the throttles and stopped to make shore every one was still on board it happen so quick that there was no time to respond I can remember thinking “ shit they go along way over with out rolling” , from that time on I was very cautious in any following sea
Yes
non counter motors, unless trimed properly a hull that will want to roll to port, a sea that wants to lift the stb stern and there's generally a hole under the port bow
yeehaaa
Rather different to a true following sea but it's all in the trim (port down sometimes way down this is the main driving engine, stb up but not enough to break) and be very mindfull that little boats fall into big holes.
Then again nobody has yet convinved me a 2400 with 140's is balanced anyway
Regards, Kerry.
Originally Posted by Kerry
Yes
non counter motors, unless trimed properly a hull that will want to roll to port, a sea that wants to lift the stb stern and there's generally a hole under the port bow
yeehaaa
Rather different to a true following sea but it's all in the trim (port down sometimes way down this is the main driving engine, stb up but not enough to break) and be very mindfull that little boats fall into big holes.
Regards, Kerry.
Thanks for that Kerry!! Made alot of sense and was a usefull bit of info for me
Ian
take the time and learn to drive it. it will take 30-50hrs to become familiar with your cat and learn its handling traits. in a true following sea behind you you will never dig both hulls in at once, but side on or on the rear quarter if you feel one side start to dig in then just turn into it and it will pick it up instantly. It can feel unnerving but you will get used to it and the speed you can maintain will shock you. I recently returned from the shelf in a 20kt plus side wind and passed so many mono's of larger size that were broaching etc. we had a couple of instances where it would start to dig in but just steered out of it. also since i have fitted Suzuki 4 strokes it actually handles better which did surprise me. I t has much more lift and power but with heavier motors (this is in a 660 Noosacat) drive to the conditions but get used to it first, i will use steering rather than adjusting throttles indiviually to pick up a dipping hull
Like you im a relatively new owner of a cat since fully restoring a 7.7m 89mod shark cat. I have had it on the water now since last november. Having mono hulls all my boating years. whilst restoring the gutted old cat i'd brought ,all i could think of was this legendary ride you here about from so many different angles of the boating world. I remember my first few rides once this cat had hit the water in moderate conditions i felt a little disappointed that it basicly wasn't the jump behind the wheel, drive easy ride i'd expected specially trying to drive it like a monohull. Some really eary feelings as it drove down a wave like a bus driving down an imbankment not surfing it like i was use to. After a while i stopped fighting the hulls and just let them do as they wished. once i tried this our ride got better i found i could travel quicker more comfortably trimming the bow up and traveling nothing under about 15 to 18 knots so air built up in the tunnel cushioning the landings in most cases that wave that used to rattle us isnt even felt now. Letting the cat tack from one hull to the other is perfectly natural and i agree those one sponsen dig ins on the bottom of a wave in a following sea still occasionally scares the shit out of me.I Have only 110hrs up behind the wheel of a cat and now i feel totally safe and can travel at upwards of 25kn through most conditions. I alter my coarse to get maximum comfort ride and that is usually cutting diagonally across the sea keeping in mind i need to keep enough speed to create lift in the tunnel to acheive a soft ride. You will get use to knowing when your cat is going to dig in and you'll naturaly know how to react to it give it time. I reckon now i have found my legendary ride i'd heard all about and rekon to anyone once you go a cat you'll never go back!
Sorry but this doesn't make sence to me, please explain?...if you trim the port enging down/in, that will bring the port pontoon down. Wouldn't you want to do the opposite to level out the boat as it will be the port side that will be dropping down the wave, assuming your are tracking across a following sea which is coming onto your starboard side.
most cats (especially with pods) will react diagonally to trim, (if you get what I mean) the starboard motor trimmed out/up will lift the port bow, kinda funny huh! I think it has something to do with the boat being sort of square and the motors on each 'corner" it is also one of the reasons newcomers get all crossed up in driving one.
As noelm said trimming port down definately lifts that side, only once i started playing with the trim did it truely make sense
Ian
Trimming down/in the port engine lifts the port hull. Trimming up/out the stb engine drops/lowers the stb hull. With a balanced boat, non counter props and equal trim a cat will favour lying over on the port hull and can be levelled with either engine depending on the conditions, it's just that it's normally the port engine that goes down (lifts the port hull) as the stb engine has less trim to move . Depending on the conditions one can do all sorts of things with twins like this.
Even when drifting through the tilt/trim of each engine and steering you can make a cat drift anyway you want.
Last edited by Kerry; 23-05-2007 at 02:59 PM.
just to add, once you have got the hang of the diagonal trim thing, if you have the swell/sea/chop whatever on a stern quarter, if trimmed right, you can as fast as you like (within reason) and have NO worry of any of this "digging in/broaching" nonesense that non cat owners seem to see as being such a big issue, trim in ALL boats, mono or cat is important to get the best out of them, but they are different and thats all there is to it, one of the worst of all cats with a quarter sea and not trimmed right is what most people believe is the best of all cats, the old 23 footer, I have spent thousands of hours in one of those carrying loads that would make a 23 foot mono crap its pants, and in capapble hands, they are real goers, but in a learners hands they can be a whole different "kettle of fish"
Re: Scary Cat
Hi guys,just got a 18ft shark cat only been out a couple of times,Im glad you guys sorted out the trim situation in the last couple of posts as i was getting a bit confused,when I took th boat out for a test run the previous owner showed me a few things you should and shouldn't do,the main one pulling up too quick she wants to bury the nose and from what ive been reading this is a common problem with 18ft sharkcats,I was wandering would a little more bouancy up front(say in the first third) in the hull fix this problem or would it just throw the balance of the boat out,look forward to hearing from some experts,Thanks.
Last edited by Diablo; 23-05-2007 at 06:35 PM.
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