14.6m Composite Planing Power Cat
Light weight efficency and high speed.
The American client for this project has built several power cats to our design, planing and semi displacement. The 14.6m planing cat will be used as a fast day trip and weekender in a reasonably sheltered inland waterway and also for longer summer holiday cruising up the coast.
The design brief emphasis was on speed and stylish good looks and a layout that we had used before in a slightly smaller project for the same client, the galley ‘down’ being the most unique feature compared to other similar catamaran and mono hull vessels.
A foil was discussed to optimize the performance but discounted due to the large number of pot floats and floating obstructions in the areas of predominant use. This lead us back to our standard planing hull shape with a little more attention to the fwd chine geometry and bottom area aft of the fwd sections where these boats can have a tendency to be a bit hard riding when bouncing along in a short chop, particularly at the speeds this cat is intended to operate at.
Weight saving was prominent in the design and build process and the pre laminated, pre cut composite panel construction system optimizes the strength and weight of the structure complimented by the judicial use of carbon laminates throughout the structure of the vessel.
The twin 480 hp electronic diesels fit well into this size vessel and give a top speed in the low 30's and a very comfortable and economic cruising speed in the 20 to 25 knot range. Fuel consumption is approx. half that of a comparable size mono hull at similar speeds.
The boat was constructed in Auckland from a composite kit set supplied by ATL Composites in Australia and is fully compliant with ABYC standards.