Small Power Catamarans?

[Silas McGhee]

Why is it that small power catamaran are almost not a thing anymore? I mean this in the 15-22' range. I think the old Power Cats were cool looking boats for their size, but why the fall in popularity?

 

[bajansailor]

Re the 'old' power cats who were cool looking, do you mean cats for home builders such as the Glen-L Wild Cat?
Wildcat E_X_T Sport https://www.glen-l.com/Wildcat-E-X-T-Sport/products/30/

Richard Woods has a couple of designs for power cats under 22' -
Sailing Catamarans - Click here for Power Catamarans (8 designs) https://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/6-powercats

Bernd Kohler also has a couple of small power cat designs -
Plans & Kits - Plans by designer - Bernd Kohler - Page 1 - Duckworks Boat Builders Supply https://duckworks.com/bernd-kohler/

Here is a neat design from England -
Powercat 525 - The Multihull Centre https://www.multihullcentre.com/powercat-525-2/

Here is one from down under -
Vapor Cats Australia | VC5.0 https://vaporcats.com.au/the-range/vc-5/

And there are a few little Kevlacats -
Model Range - Kevlacat - Power Boats Australia - Queensland 4561 https://kevlacat.com.au/model-range/

 

[fallguy]

The amount of time to build a small power cat and the benefits are not in good concert; generally. Cats shine when they are wider. A small powercat at say 9’ beam barely offers anything over same monohull, but you need to build two hulls, beams, and the bridge. It is a LOT of work.

Once you start to develop some beam, cats become harder to beat. My aft deck is almost 17’ wide.

Woods 24’ Skoota addresses this with folding hulls that give you 12’ of beam, but the bdeck is still limited to trailering width I believe.

 

[WarrenM]

Why is it that small power catamaran are almost not a thing anymore? I mean this in the 15-22' range. I think the old Power Cats were cool looking boats for their size, but why the fall in popularity?

Can I suggest the cape catamaran design14’
Carbon cat
Cape Catamarans https://www.capecatamarans.com/

Or the larger supercat 29 and 38 displacement hi speed low horsepower catamarans
Sliver 29 - supercat.co.za https://supercat.co.za/sliver_29/

 

[WarrenM]

the supercat from South Africa

 

[fallguy]

View attachment 195589
the supercat from South Africa

Am I wrong or is that some wicked stern hole?

 

[Eric Zhu]

Aluminum alloy material is better

 

[comfisherman]

That range in k bay chop usually means some good old fashioned tunnel slap. If it's gonna pound might as well have mono hull space.

 

[Russell Brown]

Here's a couple of them.

 

[comfisherman]

No tunnel slap with those.

What are they powered with?

 

[C. Dog]

It might be a local trend as I still see plenty here on the east coast of Australia, though not as many as in the 80s & 90s.

 

[Russell Brown]

No tunnel slap with those.

What are they powered with?

The smaller one is a 15 hp Honda, the bigger one with a 20 hp Suzuki, which is a very efficient motor. It will go almost 18 knots, but at 14 knots it burns less than 1/2 gallon per hour. Both of these boats have a lot of miles on them.

 

[comfisherman]

Are they current production?

 

[bajansailor]

It will go almost 18 knots, but at 14 knots it burns less than 1/2 gallon per hour.

Now that is efficiency for you!
Probably about 30 miles per gallon - better than many road vehicles.

 

[WarrenM]

Am I wrong or is that some wicked stern hole?

The 38 run strong , Huls are more hispeed displacement than planning . More like a beach cat