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Salt Water/ Offshore/ Rough Conditions. Catamaran Coaches?

Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 5:58 am
by saltywindandsea
Hi all,

New member here. It's great to have a chance to see everyone's opinions and knowledge show on so many topics.

I've done a fair bit of research and would like to hear from some people with experience:

The boat I am looking for will be used in rough, choppy, salty water. It will have the crap pounded out of it on a daily basis with wind commonly over 25kts. By "choppy" I mean- if it's less than 2' (trough to peak) we consider it a relatively calm day. 4'-5' is not rare.

I finally (and reluctantly) ruled out getting an aluminum tritoon, although I So! Much! Wanted! to get some nice, slick performance-hulled beauty to burn around in- all the ones I looked at seemed to have too much fancy stuff up top and not enough meat below. I've read the horror stories of corrosion despite the anodes, the bottom paint, and the rinsing after each use. And I learned about the shoebox-like aerodynamics of a fenced pontoon boat trying to maneuver around in strong wind.

Has anybody here had any experience with any fiberglass/epoxy boatmakers, along the lines of Catamaran Coaches out of Bradenton, Florida? They appear to make tritoons (oops, sorry JC, "triple pontoons"), except out of glass instead of tin cans; I contacted them and received useful replies with good information.

But I would like to hear from someone who's either bought or ridden in one. Please share what you've learned about the following:
1) Appearance close-up
2) Horsepower needed (significantly more than aluminum, due to more weight?)
3) Hull Design: Are all three hulls mini-V's? How easily do they plane, how do they bank into turns, is the center pontoon much larger? No strakes i guess?
4) Rough Conditions Performance. I'd love to hear from someone who's battled some chop or strong conditions.
5) Build Quality. (Rails, finish, captains console, etc)

Also if you have a tin-toon and have thrashed about in some waves, I'd be happy to hear from you too.

I'm going pontoon if I can, because for my work i need a lot of deck space, people need to be able to get in and out of the water easily, and I hate crawling over piles of people and loose equipment on Zodiacs. Also I'm in a remote location and need to be able to beach the boat or repair it myself.

Thank you all! I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Matt-0

Re: Salt Water/ Offshore/ Rough Conditions. Catamaran Coaches?

Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 6:29 am
by zoom650
Have you looked at a nice power cat? Glacier Bay or World Cat come to mind. Boarding ladders between the twin engines make water access a breeze. They'll do anything else you specified. I've not been on one, but been passed by many blowing through 4-6 footers in the pass.

As for running larger waves with a decent period, I accidentally launched my Harris off of one and landed a bit too hard. I didn't like the sound one of the pontoons made when it landed. Now, for playing around in a heavy chop bay, my boat did just fine.

Re: Salt Water/ Offshore/ Rough Conditions. Catamaran Coaches?

Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 6:45 am
by COTTS4x4
Maybe the new Freeman 37 could do the trick?

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I've seen the catamaran coaches and have friends with World Cats that absolutely love them. Just remember, its only money. :lol3

Re: Salt Water/ Offshore/ Rough Conditions. Catamaran Coaches?

Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 10:50 pm
by saltywindandsea
The Freeman 37! "Say, that's a nice boat..."

Thanks guys, I've checked out some of those boats/powercats you mentioned. All with their pluses and minuses. I'll continue reading up.

Michael did your Harris make a sound like the pontoon was coming loose, or like it was damaged (dented or bent)?

Here's a photo of the type of boat most people are on in this area of the world... wood, heavy, high bow, very slow...

Have fun out there
around_mui_ne_20121115_1743634110.jpg
around_mui_ne_20121115_1743634110.jpg (33.86 KiB) Viewed 6703 times

Re: Salt Water/ Offshore/ Rough Conditions. Catamaran Coaches?

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 9:05 am
by zoom650
Imagine taking a baseball bat and striking an empty 55 gallon drum. Loud enough it sure got my attention. Even with chambered pontoons, I'm not comfortable pushing that far unless I get a factory rep to assure me. Its fun to ride waves but difficult without an occasional hard landing.

No dents as far as I can tell. All the welds held. I was probably more startled than anything else.

I do have the rough water package which is more strength to the front fence, rather than to pontoon, I think. We have busted through enough waves and chop to me to add some Dri Deck under the console and changing station to keep bags dryer.
saltywindandsea wrote:Michael did your Harris make a sound like the pontoon was coming loose, or like it was damaged (dented or bent)?

Re: Salt Water/ Offshore/ Rough Conditions. Catamaran Coaches?

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 9:14 pm
by RcgTexas
Most any brand named powercat will do the trick. I operated some in Hawaii and they performed well. NO BOAT is perfect for all conditions but a power cat will serve you well in chop and confused seas. The beauty of them is that you only need the power to go the speed you want. The faster you go the higher they ride but consequently the rougher they ride. MHO The most comfortable boat I operated only had two 90 hp outboards on it.

Re: Salt Water/ Offshore/ Rough Conditions. Catamaran Coaches?

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 2:56 pm
by constantin
hi, I can share my experience with CCI, after I paid more than $200.000 for a boat built by CCI ( Catamaran Coaches Inc.)
Here is the letter I send to John Christensen the owner.
Open letter to John, at CCI
You left a message on my answering machine, cursing and calling me names, because I posted a picture
with something you did wrong on my boat that almost cost me and my son our life.
Any person with a little bit of decency or moral standards would have called and ask what can he do to correct the situation.
But you John, as you did in the past, called and cursed, call me names and threaten with retaliation, for
daring to reveal your gross and careless mistake.
The let me tell the whole truth about my experience with you in building a $200,000 plus boat.
You claim to supervise every step of the building yet you managed to build it too tall to be towed
at 14’10”
You install the motors in such way that the starboard motor was getting flooded by the spray from the
port motor and yet you ask me to come back and pay for you to install a flange to deflect the water.
You cheated me with the propellers charged me for original Suzuki and replaced them with some knockoffs, rusting garbage, propellers.
Your gas gages did not work, I had to replace them myself, the hydraulic tabs do not work, toilet is leaking, the hatch to go above to the upper station was opening only half way because you installed the wrong size hatch lifters, and your explanation was that “it is safer that way”, the fresh water tank connections are leaking, the gel coat is so thin in some places that you can see the fiberglass.
I remember you training a new inexperienced employee, on one of the hulls spraying the gel coat in the mold, to find out if he knew how to do it.
Who does that on a 200,000 dollars boat?
Oh ,I know who, Catamaran Coaches owner John!
You installed the wood bunks on the trailer you build using ¾” screws, and they fail damaging my boat’s center hull.
You charged me for three 125 gal fuel tanks, but you made all three of them 115 gal. each.
You delivered my boat with the deck stained and so filthy and full of chipped and scratched spots.
Every time I brought it to your attention you promised to fix them before the boat is completed, but you never did.
There is so much more I can list, but I get too disgusted to do it.
And when I said all this to you on your website you threatened to show me how you deal with people who dare to spick out and, call my home using foul language, and cursing.
Well I guess it was to be expected from a dishonest, social garbage, but I did not expected from you
NOW I know that was my mistake, it turns out that you are a sorry little man, who likes to brag about how rich he is, and lies a lot about what is going to do for the customer.
Nothing will change my opinion now that you are a dishonest, no morals, kind of creature.
And about your phone, cursing, name calling, threatening messages, I’m saving them just in case one day one of your customers may want to listen.
And if anyone gives me their e-mail address, I can send to you the audio of the message left on my phone by him because I "had the nerve" to tell him on his website about the bad things going on with the custom boat he built for me.
The boat rides nice, but there was so much I had to do to it to really be able to use it without problems, that given the option I will never built one with them again.