latest design news

This sailing cat is a development of the slightly larger 18.5m ‘Cat – Ion’ for a German couple who are very experienced cruising and racing sailors. It is being built in Germany at the Kneirim yard on the Keil Canal out of resin infused carbon fibre with foam cores and honeycomb cores in certain areas (not infused).

The design is slightly ‘de-tuned’ in some areas compared to its larger sisters. The centre boards will be straight symmetric sections compared to the asymmetric boards on the other bigger cats and the rudders will not be retractable or fitted with a T foil. The rig will be rotating and the mainsail reefing will be a conventional slab system compared to the boom furlers on the other cats. The change to the boards will make the boat a bit easier to sail when short handed and as the rudders are the deepest part of the boat and vulnerable to occasional grounding in shallow water not having the foil on the bottom will avoid breaking them off if they hit the bottom.

The interior layout is specific to the clients brief with the focus on a spacious owner’s area in the stbd hull and comfortable guest accommodation on the port side with a small twin berth crew cabin fwd. The boat will be fully equipped for live aboard cruising with all the required fittings and features, laundry, air conditioning, water making, pop up large TV, etc.

The sail plan is extensive. Designed to cover all the options required to sail the boat to optimal performance when cruising or racing.

Motive power is provided by 2 Yanmar 75hp sail drive units.

Let’s start with perhaps one of the more interesting ones. Over the past few years we have been developing our design skills and knowledge around these foil assisted asymmetric planing hull cats. Like most design processes it is a bit of an evolutionary situation, starting with the 17m ‘Voodoo’ and then the new 18m semi production design of which there have been 3 launched to date and two more started.

Each boat is a bit different and each needs to have the foil design optimised to specifically suit. The end result is a very high standard, luxury, live aboard power cat that can do ocean passages at an average speed around 28 to 33 knots. Something that is currently quite unique in that class and size compared to mono hull pleasure vessels offered on the market.

The new 20m design is taking that design process to the next level. The first boat out of the moulds will be a full resin infused carbon fibre and foam core laminate to minimise the weight and maximise the strength and give the best performance possible. Top speed will be 45 knots, cruising speed with the same minimal fuel burn will be from around 18 knots up to 35 knots.

The helipad is a feature for this first owner and not mandatory.

This is our first pure electric drive design. It is at an early stage of development so there is no material available yet for the media. The hull form is similar to the range of 10m composite outboard powered displacement cats we have designed that are super-efficient so it should slip along nicely and optimise the available stored energy and on-board charging capacity. The electric motors will be powered by a bank of 32 Lithium batteries to give a top speed of 20 knots. Back-up power generation on board is supplied by a 170hp diesel generator. The battery bank is not light weight but this is offset by the small electric motors and the single fossil fuel engine on board so in balance it is a reasonable trade off weight wise. The initial cost of the electric system is reasonably high but a bit like the modern electrical vehicles on our roads the long term view is required and becoming increasing main stream and acceptable. As these new systems become more efficient and cost effective we will be seeing more and more of this type of craft on the water.

This is a new high speed power cat design suitable for construction from a pre-made, pre-cut panel system and ideally suited for a lifting foil although it is not essential to have a foil, it will work well without one but not be as efficient or have as much top speed for a given amount of power. Outboards are becoming more and more powerful, more efficient, and more reliable these days with high power diesel options coming on line as well. They are being used on much larger vessels than was common and in multi-unit configurations (quad layout on cats) for very high speeds. The 12m design is well suited for the larger single units in the 300 to 400 hp range and with the foil will have a top speed of 45 knots and up. The design suits the small open fly bridge with the rigid shade bimini but would look good with a sedan top as well. The light displacement and shallow draft with the outboards is very useful for beach access and in and around reefs. The modern plumb bow maximises the waterline length and increases the planing efficiency with a greater area for the bottom loading compared to a similar length vessel with a conventional raked stem.

Readers of this magazine will have previously seen the near sister ship of this design that was beautifully built from and ATL Composites ‘Duflex’ kit by Noosa Marine for a North Queensland client. This one is going to WA and will be cruising out of Perth to all places north along that coast at times accommodating up to 10 people! This 14m is being built to survey, complying with the NSCV 2B standard using the DNV-GL rule for the composite engineering undertaken by the team at ATL Composites. It is a challenging exercise trying to maintain the speed and efficiency of its Queensland sister while also complying with those standards. Some performance loss is offset by a tougher and more versatile cruising platform that can multi task as a private yacht and a commercial vessel. The overall length and the beam are specific to the place it is berthed otherwise for this design brief we would have probably stretched it out a metre or so. The team at Noosa Marine are very experienced with building high performance cats, sail and power, and will be keeping a keen eye on the weight and optimising performance.

There is a second 14m planing cat underway in Auckland that will have a similar hull length and beam to the WA boat bit is quite different in most other aspects with a sedan top with tender storage and 465 hp pod drives. This lighter boat with minimal appendage drag will have a sparkling performance and fuel efficiency. The initial cost of the drive system is high but offsetting that is the simplicity of the installation, no steering, no exhaust system, no drive shafts, less labour. This boat is also being built from an ATL Composites kit with the owners coming from an 8.9m composite outboard power cat of our design. Cruising and fishing in the Hauraki Gulf will be its primary use.

This design is also for a previous client who built his last boat out of alloy (11.14m planing hull) which had a composite cabin top. The composite cabin top for the sedan style and the composite fly bridge option is something that we do quite often, it seems to offer a more aesthetic and cleaner look and a high standard of finish is a bit easier to achieve compared to an all alloy structure. Builders like it because it is a large part of the boat that can be built separately, either by themselves or with a sub- contractor and is easily lifted up and fitted near the final stage of the build. This design is built to survey and will be launched later in the year to take advantage of the next 2 seasons of charter worked centred around the next America’s cup in Auckland. It is also a family cruising boat and has a large fishing and recreational area at the aft end of the cockpit around the ‘island’. With the cockpit activity and the fly bridge helm it is a nice option to have the tender storage on the foredeck with its launching crane alongside. This will be a very comfortable cruising boat in any sea conditions and will have enough range at a good speed to get up to the Islands in the winter.