Single engine cats

[Matt_F]

Hi everyone,

The majority of my experience has been in mono hulls. However, about a year ago I had the oportunity to drive a 6m Cairns custom craft cat. We de numerous trips to the outer reef over a 2 week period in varying conditions and I was very impressed by both the ride and stability. However, the bigest drawback to me (apart from the waves slaping on the tunnel at anchor) was the cost of running and maintaining twin engines. So my question for the cat lovers is, what are the pros and cons of a single engine cat? Obviousely twin engins provides added safety, but do single engine cats perform differently?

Cheers,
Matt

[Crocodile]

My 4.3m Webster Twinfisher performs perfectly on one engine.
No cavitation, even in full-lock high-speed turns.
For and aft trim control is good.
Whatever you do, have a test run before making up your mind.

[SnapHead101]

I've heard some interesting things re CCC cats. Was this one that had a hydrofoil between the two hulls? Did it bang into a headsea and what sort of waves were you in.
Re you question , noosa cat make a 23 ft single engined cat, only bad thing I've heard is the cruise speed is only around 18 knots. The problem with single engines on cats is stopping propellor cavitation.

[Noelm]

one engine does work on a Cat designed to be like that, but you just cannot beat twins, not for safety, just for straight out performance and the sound of twin outboards in sync is something you will never forget, trust me on that one.

[youngfisho]

noosa cat make both an 18 foot centre console cat and the 23 footer or 2600 series is the old 23 foot hull with a diesel stern drive 200 to 230 hp. The 18 footer is designed around the old 5m sportsman hull with a single pod and underside designed to run on one motor. I think the cruise speed of the 23 footer would depend heavily on what prop/motor you had. A friend of my fathers runs a volvo/duo prop combination and does 18 knots, but i have heard of other 23 footers running more at 22knots and 25 knots cruise, with top speeds of 30+ knots.

The 18 footer can be powered with as little as a 90 two stroke with WOT speeds of 33 knots and cruise around 22 knots max engine size is 130hp. But there is the added option of twins for that hull.

Read the article on the single engined cat on the noosa cat website

andrew

[Noelm]

the 18' noosa centre Console is only 17' and a "small" 17 at that, I wish they had the old 18' sharkcat in centre console config, I would be more than interested in that, I looked all over for an 18 centre Console a few years ago, there is some around, most are just sitting in backyards and never used.

[cormorant]

Like all things cat it must be clarified whether we are talking new or old cats and not compare the two unless that is your purchase choice.

New cats with new motors don't necessarily have the issues or old as technology in hulls and outboards have moved on. A lot of cats are still using old designs that haven't updated moulds etc but they do look nice and fresh and clean but underlying issues still exist they are just masked by motors etc .
Many people are told these are cat traits - no they are just old designs.

Years ago single engine cats were a big problem.
They were heavy
Big outboards were heavyand produced power at high revs.
Huge torque required to plane them and then no extra revs to speed them up in the water as you only had 1 gear and no variable pitch so low speed cruise.
Fuel capacity was limited because of weight.
A single outboard didn't produce enough power
Outboards didn't have long enough legs so were drowned/ misted etc etc
Cavitation
airation
Loss of connection with prop in water
No trim
Hulls walked a lot

[deek]

A mate of mine had a 18' Sharkcat with a 470 Mercruiser, it cavitated like crazy.
Cheers
Deek

[23-sharkcat]

The single engined cats are to have the 4" extension on the legs but I do not see to many of them with this.

[Matt_F]

All very interesting guys....

The answer snaphead is no. The banging on the tunnel was at anchor not under way. I was very impresed with the ride. We were using the boat at Lizard island. Some days it was blowing a good 20knots and it handled the sea well. Beam on and head on. I beat the 50 ft riviara back from the cod hole one afternoon in a dirty SE'er. I was talking to the skipper of the riviera at the marlin bar that night and he was impreased by our speed (a bit over 20 knots), and the ride was quite good. Very wet, but that isn't a problem inside the cabin.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[trueblue]

There was a builder up in Lucinda or there abouts doing a single engined alloy cat. Can't remember any more than that other than name started with a 'V'. Talking to locals up there about 8 years ago they went like scalded cats - pardoning the pun...

cheers

Mick

[Smithy]

Mick,

you aren't thinking about Borger cats are you? The same as Saurian has. They do them in a single engine. A cat man I know (best mates of Fred Temminck the ex. Kevlacat owner) on the Sunshine Coast has one about about 5m with a 140 Suzuki 4 Stroke in a side console configuration. He swears by it. I think there are pictures of it on the Borger site. It is black and yellow.

My experience of single engine cats are a 4.3 and 4.6m Webster. They go fine. I always wondered what it would be like if you could fit tabs to say a 5.2m Webster cuddy with a single 115 4 stroke to see how it went.

On the Hysu cats, went out in a 5m CCC centre console a couple of months ago with twin 50 2 strokes. Was a sweet little boat. I think it is design that really works. We were in a short, sharp, 25knot Westerly not far out and I thought here goes, we are going to dip the nose under all day idling into them sounding around. The front is more like a big punt though with a box cut out of it for the tunnel so it had great bouyancy in the nose compared to some other cats I have been in. Sure we got wet when travelling, it was a centre console after all and in those conditions but it was pretty impressive and I would have expected to be a lot wetter. The foil does work if it is setup right and it loved a bucketful of out trim. It is a better, safer handling boat than a 6.5 CCC centre cab another mate has where the foil has been cut off and moved back. He is in the process of moving it back to its original position. You can see the 5m one in that video I put up on Youtube called boats in the Gutter 04 or something. It was originally Ivan Jensen's old boat Jade.

Having also been in a 5.2 Sailfish and 6.5m Sailfish which are also alloy boats you can still not get away from that alloy sound and they just seem to have a certain motion or sound or feel about them that all alloy boats have compared to glass.

[Dunco]

Yea trueblue he still makes them but I was only talking to a guys last week who bought one. He said the main feature was the flatness of the two hulls. he could still get around in 0.3m with the motor tilted up. Can't rememeber the name either. Any one from Ingham?????

[trueblue]

Mick,

you aren't thinking about Borger cats are you? The same as Saurian has. They do them in a single engine. A cat man I know (best mates of Fred Temminck the ex. Kevlacat owner) on the Sunshine Coast has one about about 5m with a 140 Suzuki 4 Stroke in a side console configuration. He swears by it. I think there are pictures of it on the Borger site. It is black and yellow.
.

Yes Rob, thats them. When I was working up in the mines living in Townsville, there were lots of blokes that came from near where paul Borger made them. These fellas swore by them.

Cheers

Mick

[Fish Guts]

the 18' noosa centre Console is only 17' and a "small" 17 at that, I wish they had the old 18' sharkcat in centre console config, I would be more than interested in that, I looked all over for an 18 centre Console a few years ago, there is some around, most are just sitting in backyards and never used.


thought you might be interested. theres a 18ft noosa cat centre console for sale on boat point at the moment

[Mister]

No single engine cat under 20 foot works, no single engine cat over 23 foot works