Power Cats demystified (please)

[Joweyenb]

Hi - new to the forum, not new to boating! Thank you for helping me in my journey! The journey: I’m in market to buy a power catamaran in the 44ft to 51ft range, and have put aside a budget of roughly $800k to $1M to do so. We live in South Florida (Fort Lauderdale / Miami) and intended use is USA East Coast, Bahamas (incl Exumas) and likely some other Caribbean Islands within range. Dock space is not an issue for us. As this requires crossing the Gulf Stream and some blue water crossing between islands, the usage is not just coastal or ICW. We are conservative in picking our crossing days, but you can’t plan every weather event, so we do care significantly about seaworthiness. Other factors we care about: range, comfort, owner’s version, quality of fit & finish, and contemporary / clean look and feel (requirement of the wife!) After extensive research we narrowed down our list to: (in no particular order):

- Fountaine Pajot MY44
- Leopard 51
- Hudson 48
- NautiTech 47
- Iliad 50
- Aquila 44 (but heard not too seaworthy)

Here are our specific questions:
- Any other boat worth looking at, taking above usage / priorities / budget.
- Any on this list you would be concerned about?
- Any of the above more seaworthy than others. Again, we would never be “hundreds of miles” away from harbors, but does include Gulf Stream crossings and blue water island crossings in Caribbean
- I get mixed information about catamaran safety / handling in rough seas. Fact or fiction? Would that be unique to power cats, as I see many sailing catamarans (like Leopards in the 46ft range) handle well in big seas (and have no monohull keel either).
- We really want to stay away from ex-charter power cats, which eliminates 90% of the inventory on the used market. They tend to be beaten up and frankly, some of these charter companies are questionable in their practices. Are we right in avoiding former charter cats?

Sorry for all the questions as a newbie. Hoping to spark a nice discussion with fellow power cat lovers. There really is no dedicated forum on the web it seems, focusing on the crazy power cat crowd. Thanks again!

 

[ljk]

About 10 years ago we were considering power cat v. mono hull. We chartered a 32 ft PDQ out o Fort Myers. After a lot of running in the intercoastal, and being thrown all over the command bridge by the boat lurching in only 2 to 3 foot wakes, we decided we would never own a catamaran.

I know, the boats you are looking at are a giant step above the 32 footer we chartered. If I were you, I would charter a similar vessel to the ones you are looking at and see how she behaves!

 

[GH41]

Hi - new to the forum, not new to boating! Thank you for helping me in my journey! The journey: I’m in market to buy a power catamaran in the 44ft to 51ft range, and have put aside a budget of roughly $800k to $1M to do so. We live in South Florida (Fort Lauderdale / Miami) and intended use is USA East Coast, Bahamas (incl Exumas) and likely some other Caribbean Islands within range. Dock space is not an issue for us. As this requires crossing the Gulf Stream and some blue water crossing between islands, the usage is not just coastal or ICW. We are conservative in picking our crossing days, but you can’t plan every weather event, so we do care significantly about seaworthiness. Other factors we care about: range, comfort, owner’s version, quality of fit & finish, and contemporary / clean look and feel (requirement of the wife!) After extensive research we narrowed down our list to: (in no particular order):

- Fountaine Pajot MY44
- Leopard 51
- Hudson 48
- NautiTech 47
- Iliad 50
- Aquila 44 (but heard not too seaworthy)

Here are our specific questions:
- Any other boat worth looking at, taking above usage / priorities / budget.
- Any on this list you would be concerned about?
- Any of the above more seaworthy than others. Again, we would never be “hundreds of miles” away from harbors, but does include Gulf Stream crossings and blue water island crossings in Caribbean
- I get mixed information about catamaran safety / handling in rough seas. Fact or fiction? Would that be unique to power cats, as I see many sailing catamarans (like Leopards in the 46ft range) handle well in big seas (and have no monohull keel either).
- We really want to stay away from ex-charter power cats, which eliminates 90% of the inventory on the used market. They tend to be beaten up and frankly, some of these charter companies are questionable in their practices. Are we right in avoiding former charter cats?

Sorry for all the questions as a newbie. Hoping to spark a nice discussion with fellow power cat lovers. There really is no dedicated forum on the web it seems, focusing on the crazy power cat crowd. Thanks again!

If I could I would have this boat. It was built for a purpose. They did it and it's time to move on. Read to short bio before looking at the pictures. Most would put a second head in. https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2009/malcolm-tennant-domino-20-3495698/

 

[Comodave]

Welcome aboard. The one thing that would stop us from having a cat is that they all have builtin seating. With our bad backs that doesn’t work for us. We have to have a boat that has the room for 2 recliners. If we want to sit and read the builtin seating is only comfortable for about half an hour. On the other habd our recliners are comfortable all day or evening. But some people can be comfortable on builtin seating, just not us. Good luck in your search.

 

[Joweyenb]

@GH41 ... Domino is a legend in long distance self contained cruising! We have been following her adventures! Amazing journey. She’s not exactly what we are looking for, but genuinely hoping someone with passion, knowledge and love will take over the Domino legacy!

 

[seltzer]

Horizon power cats may be worth looking at if you are willing to open up the check book as they are over your quoted budget

 

[Joweyenb]

Yeah amazing how expensive Horizon cats are. There’s a 2014 Horizon 52 PC (Their smallest model) for sale in Florida for a whopping $1.6M. Crazy.

 

[MurrayM]

Hi - new to the forum, not new to boating! Thank you for helping me in my journey! The journey...

Funny you should say Journey:

 

[Gabe n Em]

We've got a pdq 32 and we're pretty happy with it. Definitely a different ride though. The pdq mv 41 gets good reviews although we've never seen it ourselves. It might be a little small for your list but I figured I'd put it out there. PDQ built by a pretty clean, modern boat.

 

[KnotYet]

If I could I would have this boat. It was built for a purpose. They did it and it's time to move on. Read to short bio before looking at the pictures. Most would put a second head in. https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2009/malcolm-tennant-domino-20-3495698/

An excellent example of having your cake and eating it, too!

 

[Joweyenb]

Could we agree that key quality measures for power cats are, in no particular order

- Stability, measured by beam to length ratio and width of the hulls
- weight / material used
- load carrying capacity
- bridge deck clearance
- width between the bulls
- weight distribution (centered)
- no heavy bow / bathtub bow
- fuel efficiency
- quality of comfort

Any other measures? If we think above is fairly decent benchmark, it’s tough to find objective comparison charts across the key market in the 40 to 52 ft segment. I’m trying to put together a chart myself that I will post here, cobbling together my research.

 

[mcarthur]

We have done a few pages that may help:
- production powercat choices (part 1 and part 2)
- a study on fuel consumption
- brief thoughts on engine size
- capsizing (or not).

It's a starting point...

 

[mcarthur]

Could we agree that key quality measures for power cats are, in no particular order

- Stability, measured by beam to length ratio and width of the hulls
- weight / material used
- load carrying capacity
- bridge deck clearance
- width between the bulls
- weight distribution (centered)
- no heavy bow / bathtub bow
- fuel efficiency
- quality of comfort

Stability - not an issue really (see my blog post on capsizing). Essentially you're either caught out really really badly with breaking waves of more than your overall beam in height, in which case no one is sure. Otherwise the boat will probably be ok. In general it hasn't much to do with beam-to-length or draft, and more to do with pure overall beam and centre of weight/weight at height.

Weight is a good one, like any cat.

Load carrying is a good criteria, but really hard to find out.

We could probably put bridgedeck clearance under amenity (like load carrying, width between the hulls, quality of comfort. There are very few boats that have broken apart due to bridgedeck failure, and even few for powercats that don't have the mast compression issues. So bridgedeck is more about comfort/annoyance than danger of breaking apart.

Oh I'd love some data on weight distribution! Including on our boat given each time we haul the the scales aren't working.

Fuel efficiency - see our study .

 

[mvweebles]

Yeah amazing how expensive Horizon cats are. There’s a 2014 Horizon 52 PC (Their smallest model) for sale in Florida for a whopping $1.6M. Crazy.

A good friend of mine has a Horizon PC52. I've spent several hundred miles on it from the Tampa area to The Keys and up to Pensacola area. He finds the ride in small chop surprisingly uncomfortable, especially beam-seas which he avoids. It's not a particularly shallow draft boat at around 4-foot draft with minimally protected props. Carries 700 gallons of diesel - range is a tad over 700nms at 8-kts (325 nms at 18-kts) so plan accordingly. The layout is great for Bahamas - nice galley that flows to the aft deck. Easy to pass long days at anchor.

He loves the boat, but I suspect that if it were plucked-off the earth for some reason, he'd replace with a new KK50 Open (monohull). He prefers the motion of a stabilized monohull and the range of a trawler. His PC52 has a 28-foot bridge clearance due to radar tower so plans bridge openings accordingly.

PC52 is a beautiful boat as you'd expect for the price tag. Horizon seems to have a lot of brand loyalty so buyers tend to trade-up within the brand. My hunch is used PC52s are selling well as their owners try-out Cats and seek a used model that is immediately available while they wait for their larger cat to be built. Rich peoples' problems.

Peter

 

[Joweyenb]

Blue Nomad blogs rock! Thanks for all the blogs and fuel efficiency study. Similar to you, and as a mathematician, i have found it merely impossible (and frustrating) to find reliable independent fuel efficiency data online. Depending on source of information and other influencing factors, correlations can be completely flipped. MacArthur, thank you for the capsizing blog. It actually provided me some peace of mind.