Powercat trawlers vs traditional Trawlers

AusCan said:

I'm guessing you meant power boats though. Still at zero there.
( if you don't count the one I bailed out of before capsizing)

Click to expand...

Sailboats too but the subject of this thread is cats with cruising intentions. A 28 cat has been mentioned as a subject boat so how about cruising style boats 25 feet and above?

Let's also eliminate coast guard or any other kind of training in specially prepared boats. We are talking about cruisers of a size we forum members would own and use.

Seriously now - I think cats get a bad rap just becouse of the non-traditional looks. We look for excuses to knock them. I've heard "If they turtle they stay that way" so many times.
In a wild storm, I don't think many of our boats would survive a roll even if they righted themselves. With so much glass to be knocked out, the boat would be flooded, with a good chance of the engine failing.
A cat will capsize if the seas are big enough, at least in an upside down Cat, it's likely to remain afloat for some time.

I spent a few weeks cruising on a buddy's Lagoon 44 catamaran, and I loved the layout, the speed, the seaworthiness, even though I still think it is butt ugly.
I wouldn't buy a cat, not for any practical reasons, but probably because I played with toy tugboats as a toddler.

deckofficer said:

This is a bit like deja vu for me in the hot rod circles. I declared on those forums that I wanted what I call the Swiss Army knife of hot rods. A car that could corner better than a Corvette, have straight line acceleration that exceeds super car status, give a comfortable ride with the engine having impeccable street manners (no snarling, barking, cammed up, knuckle dragging engine) with a nice idle, and mid 20's mpg.

The results of thinking outside the box produced a hot rod that does in fact do it all. High 10 second 1/4 mile, corners like a Lotus Super 7, a sweet purring engine and cushy ride, and on trips I broke 30 mpg. And I do take long trips.

So, I'm all for navel designers that think outside the box and support their efforts and don't care about the "image", I want my Swiss Army knife of the maritime flavor now.

This is the ride described above, and be rest assured I don't care what people think of how it looks, it does what I wanted.

Click to expand...

Looks like the kit car sold by Speedway Motors.

skidgear said:

Looks like the kit car sold by Speedway Motors.

Click to expand...

Bite your tongue. The nose and grill only.







On left, "store bought", on right "roll your own".






A final note since my plate is readable you can do a CA DMV search and find out it is registered as a 1923 Ford Model T, as the hand built frame started with 2 1/2" of an original frame with the original VIN.

skidgear said:

Looks like the kit car sold by Speedway Motors.

Click to expand...

People with some knowledge of the breed are the ones I have the most fun with at car shows. I'll be sitting with a group of other owners as the spectators comment on our rides, not knowing who owns which ride. The most common of these comments are "must be powered by a 2.3 L Pinto four banger". They don't notice the hood and engine side covers are aluminum, not steel, and they miss the bulge that was massaged into both side panels to allow clearance for the Ram's Horn exhaust manifold. I then ask if they would like to see what was done to that Pinto 4 banger and lift and lock my hinged hood to reveal this.........


526 hp @ 5700, 556 lb/ft @ 4400, a tad bit more than I could get out of a Pinto engine. And this is a 1790 lb ride with a 5 speed stick.

skidgear said:

Kit car.

Click to expand...

The track nose and grill insert and the glass tub were purchased, the side covers, hood, and rear deck lid fabricated from aluminum sheet, the frame built and then where it is exposed was covered with aluminum sheets. The rear end is from a Jag sedan with inboard disc brakes, the fuel tank also hand fabricated. At what point is it a kit car? If it was it would be registered as such and the year of build.

skidgear, why did you pull your post that I quoted above?

Geez, I wish they would give better instructions on this "kit car".

Sorry for the massive thread drift. I did say "....and be rest assured I don't care what people think of how it looks, it does what I wanted." but skidgear found the right buttons to push. skidgear, how about sharing one of your automotive creations?

Back to your regular scheduled broadcasting. Powercat trawlers vs traditional Trawlers

I deleted the post within several minutes as I hoped to preclude having the trawler site flooded with yet another string of car photos.

That's what the "Off Topic Forum" is for.

And flood is what I did, sorry about that. But why the "kit car" jab? It was purpose built as a sleeper, knowing folks who see the small nose shell and narrow engine bay panels would assume another 4 cylinder Track-T, with a tiny radiator that could only dissipate the heat produced by a low hp engine. The radiator is a 3 core married to a 2 core by sharing the same tanks. Even with that surface area to the air, did you notice the fabricated aluminum fan shroud to pull as much air as possible through it? Even went to the trouble to route exhaust underneath so as to keep the sleeper image going.

All this to fool know-it-all's like skidgear at the car shows. Looks like I've hooked another one.

BTW, I made only one post (#30) that related to people that think outside the box in maritime designs and used my car as outside the box example, and all the static I took on the automotive forums until I finished it. Never brought it up again, but skidgear did, twice, and I set the record straight.

When you design and build a boat you will have a certain passion in defending it. I can identify to a small degree what Reuben must be feeling when some of you have dissed his build. When you buy a boat and disrespect a boat from another builder, that is just petty. Build it and then you have good reasons to defend it.

deckofficer said:

It was purpose built as a sleeper, ... Even went to the trouble to route exhaust underneath so as to keep the sleeper image going.

All this to fool know-it-all's ... Looks like I've hooked another one.

Click to expand...

Hmmmm, so all that effort and money just to "fool" people you don't even know? Isn't that kind of, well, odd?

It seems like if you did it to improve your skills or experiment, or to obtain something that wasn't available any other way it would be kind of cool but as an exercise in deception of strangers ... now that is really outside any box most folks want to be in.

RickB,

It is a personal creation, that's all. My apologizes to the OP of the thread (TonyL), but lets get real. When this forum is lucky enough to have Reuben Trane (rjtrane) as a member who designs and builds boats with a lot of creative thought and thousands of hours of research, and members take uninformed shots at his boats, that is what winds my spring. I know if pleasure boating wasn't so damn conservative, designs like Reuben's would be allowing us to enter the 21st century of boating, but instead we have debates over how the bridge windows should slant.

Instead of drifting the thread, I started one here.. http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s6/solar-boating-10035.html#post154371

Now, this is one cool cat.

deckofficer said:

I know if pleasure boating wasn't so damn conservative, designs like Reuben's would be allowing us to enter the 21st century of boating,

Click to expand...

Some of us boating in the PNW (or say North of San Francisco) fail to see the logic of electric/solar powered boats in our realm because of - INSUFFICIENT SUN !! Not to mention we enjoy lugging along tons of stuff.

No doubt R Trane is a very bright guy with some serious thoughts, we've never questioned that. Pleasure boating conservative, hah - if we were conservative we'd be investing in munis.

Multi hull construction (especially power cats) seems to be far more accepted internationally than it is in the USA. I wonder sometimes why that is?

Anecdotal of course, international fuel costs have traditionally been higher than the USA... Anyone suspect a correlation considering how fuel cost as a percentage of total ownership cost is always said to be so minor.

Craig,

I would say that is a probable correlation combined with higher usage of boats. 60+ mpg diesel cars have always had a strong market everyplace other than the US.

I personaly don't like cats and tri's;

Space they have, a friend of me builded this GRP Tri years agoo in Bulgaria. In the center hull you can park at least 6 kit cars..............

Dutchman meu amigo, eu costumava trabalhar no Brasil. Offshore oil exploration and drilling for Petrobras.

deckofficer said:

Dutchman meu amigo, eu costumava trabalhar no Brasil. Offshore oil exploration and drilling for Petrobras.

Click to expand...

My core bussiness is Seismic Exploration as a CEO.

As a native "Dutch" speaking person, i prefere to keep it in English out here. Hear enough Portogees the whole day.

My 2 Centavos

Fair enough. Being a merchant mariner I've worked with a lot of Dutch deckofficers. One of my former Dutch colleagues stood up in a Dutch court about 3 years ago to testify on behalf of Laura Dekker's seamanship when the Dutch government wasn't allowing her to depart on her solo circumnavigation at the age of 13. She had to get a bigger boat and was 14 when allowed to sail off.

This thread is certainly veering in interesting directions.

deckofficer said:

Bite your tongue. The nose and grill only.







On left, "store bought", on right "roll your own".






A final note since my plate is readable you can do a CA DMV search and find out it is registered as a 1923 Ford Model T, as the hand built frame started with 2 1/2" of an original frame with the original VIN.

Click to expand...

What's that? No Prius or Smart Car?

deckofficer;153976 I then mounted the engine and transmission so low in the frame rails that I had to fabricate an oil pan to give me enough ground clearance.[URL="http://s1236.photobucket.com/user/deckofficer/media/Day%20tripping/DSC013201014x760.jpg.html" said:

[/URL]

Click to expand...

Sounds to me like a dry sump would have been the way to go.

Bob

Moonstruck said:

What's that? No Prius or Smart Car?

Click to expand...

I do have an electric Smart car and an electric Cushman stakebed truck.


BobH, a dry sump would have been the way to go if I had room for the tank.

Tri-Hull Power Cruiser

Reiziger - any more info on that tri-hull, "Escape?" I like the idea of a main center hull with outboard amas for stability. The main advantage over a cat is one set of machinery to drive the boat keeping costs down - the exception being the Aspen. Anything you can share on "Escape" will be appreciated.

Here's a photo of a tri-hull DSe we designed several years ago - I am currently thinking this is a good way to go for an energy-efficient cruiser.

I believe the trimarans are burdened w less extra weight of structure necessary to hold the hulls together. This is one of the most overwhelming disadvantages of multi-hulls in my opinion.

The "Escape" probably would have her prop out of the water often in rough stuff.

manyboats said:

I believe the trimarans are burdened w less extra weight of structure necessary to hold the hulls together. This is one of the most overwhelming disadvantages of multi-hulls in my opinion.

The "Escape" probably would have her prop out of the water often in rough stuff.

Click to expand...

This subject has, of course been discussed in other threads. That said, Palmer Johnson has the best design approach that I've seen thus far...very small outrigger sponsons aft with cabin structure built out over them. No reason it wouldn't scale down.

http://www.palmerjohnson.com/#!ss-highlights/c235x

This subject thread got a little hi-jacked off of boat subjects, so I started a new one on Powercat Trawlers

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/powercat-trawlers-11299.html#post174025