Originally Posted by krazyfisher
My Cat has one motor and IMHO no mono under 20' will beat it's ride and most can't get near it. And i have owned in been in plenty.
My Cat has one motor and IMHO no mono under 20' will beat it's ride and most can't get near it. And i have owned in been in plenty.
So is the general rule 3 ft?? 4ft??
If compairing boats 17ft cat 20ft mono?20ft cat 23ft mono?
or is it weigh as cats have more weight? 1ton vs 1ton.
this is a real question not having a go.
Eamon: I have recently bought a longboat (Goodwin) and use it out of Townsville, the ride is great and would not hesitate to go out in 20 knots. You must be prepared to get wet though.
I was considering a cat for a while, the main negative for me was the weight to tow and the fuel burn associated with 2 engines. I have seen the way the 5.6m sharkcat that the Townsville Cruising Yacht club use as the start boat operates in chop and yesterday (15-20 knots) it was out in the bay and handled it fine, not many trailers in the car park yesterday...
Probably not far off, 5m Cat is going to outperform or at least match most mono's up to 6m IMHO.
In the 6.5m and over size I think they start to get closer but having said that the old 23' Harris Cat I had had no peers in its day. Over 5m Cats are usually heavier inch for inch too.
A 5m Webster outperforming a 6m mono - I gotta MORE beer now. What's It got 90 odd H.P. and 30 odd MPH wringing it's neck? What exactly do you define as performance?
these threads always make me piss meself laughing.
anyone who could slightly compare a noosacat to a pile of tin is off their faces.
it truely amazes me how the people believe that their monos are even remotely comparible.
any mono under 7m in length is just not up to a cat in the 5.2-5.5m range.
my next door neighbour builds bluewater boats and they are great but to compare them in anyway to a cat is ridiculous.
but the real argument is can we all afford the best or do we settle for a little bit less and make do with our monos,yes we do.
its the same with anything really,does a hilux do what a landcruiser does-no
does a commo do what a bmw does-no
does an etec do what a four stroke yami does - NO.
believe the advertisement hype as much as you like but their is no doubt that cats rule the trailerboat seas.
by the way,if anyone can honestly say that they dont get envious when they see a nice big nc/kc carving up the chop while theyre out in the big blue whilst rocking an rolling in their monos [me included] then they are few cans short of a six pack.
Back to the original question, I've got a theory about cats and your FNQ chop.
Its well known that cats don't love it on the nose, and they don't love it beam to. They dip their noses when not powered up, and they take a lot of fine tuning to drive well.
They are extremely stable, carry more weight and chew through most other sea states with a better degree of comfort than a similar length mono.
That's because of a number of reasons.
1. They generally aren't really a planing vessel, so they don't lose much waterline length when they are up and running. Hence a more stable ride and less for/aft movement.
2. They have effectively double the dynamic lift from the hull bottoms ( a 5m cat will have 8-9 m of hull bottom) and lifting strakes.
3. They can carry a higher centre of gravity, which is good because they are high anyway.
4. Their righting moment begins the second one sponson (hull, call it what you like) starts to dip.
Here's the rub.
In short sharp beam on seas (sound familiar?), whilst running through troughs, the outboard bouyancy of the windward hull will accentuate heeling as it rides up the oncoming swell. The combined weight of the hull and deck of the boat is forced onto the leeward hull, forcing it deeper into the water and massively increasing it's wetted surface which in some instances causes the cat to 'trip'. That's the theory - it's sudden and it's violent when it happens.
The other annoying trait cats have is their terrible manners in turns.
Cat owners (like any other boat owner) learn to drive around the above weak points - trim motors before turning, tack into a head sea etc etc. And that's why people say you need to go for a drive with a real cat driver - You can't just jump in one and drive it and expect not to get scared. The action of a cat in short sharp beam on sea is mostly o.k., then for no reason at all the windward side flies up in the air and your passenger is in your friggin lap - unpreffered. Swinging the wheel over like a mono in a bit of chop could also end up in a white knuckle experience for all on board.
Would I own one - Yes - why not.
Do I think they are the be all and end all? No friggin way.
Hey you don't have to agree with me, I did say IMHO. But I can tell you that my 5m Webster rides as soft or softer than many monos I have been in or owned, including 575 CC Explorer, 520C Signature, 580SF Haines, 565L Haines, Haines 600R and I am not even going to mention the lesser lights that don't go anywhere near stacking up.
And it don't lean into a sea either no matter what wind or sea direction unlike ALL the boats I have named above. So ride and directional stabiliy rate fairly high for me on the performance scale.
Can only tell it like I see it from my own experiences, not forcing anyone to agree with me.
Well IMHO opinion you are faarked in the head.
Rash
Lets see
Noosa no, Mooloolaba no, Kingscliff no, Ballina no, Clarence river no, Macleay river no, anywhere in South Australia no, Worldwide umm! No. I am not a cat hater but do not believe that VMR'S or Government dept's get to choose their own boats. To confuse ride quality with safety is ridiculous. The fact that they are stable, have twin motors, built to survey and have positve flotation are fantastic and have made them an easy choice in the past but are not qualities exclusive to cat's. To suggest they are safer than a Mono that is built in survey is ridiculous. Looking at rescue vessels worldwide in rough water situations very, very few are cats.
Rash
interesting claims there sea-rash.
i,ll start by saying that you better start believing that the vmr put in preferences for cats?budget restraints in some qaurters doesnt allow this however.
the list of reasons why cats are safer then monos is too long to list so i wont bother but maybe you might have to have a bit of a think about what your saying?
while your trying to come up with something maybe you should speak to some ex vmr skippers[ausfish have some ] and see what they think??
cant wait for your reply?
ya go away fishing for a couple of day and miss your favorite topic...typical!!!Any way it was worth it , and Fly1 has said all that needs to be said!
Ian
Alcohol doesn't agree with me, but i sure do enjoy the argument!!!
Hi
Why don't we all take a chill pill and have a liedown for a while.
What say we give the poster of the thread a little consideration here??
He has asked a straight forward question and to put it in its perspective,both monos and cats have their good and bad points.
For anyone to suggest that cats are NOT SUITED to FNQ waters is ABSOLUTE CRAP.Nasty chop is a condition that we have all encountered and the ability of the boat to handle the prevailing conditions is on a lot of occasions governed by the experience of the skipper.
Hinchy
And in my IMHO you would know little about boats in general, obviously.
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