T2x

So this "insurance person" is saying that a cat accident at 80 mph will have 3 times the damage than a vee accident at 80 mph? Unless the cat is made in some God awful place like California....that's horsefeathers. But it does raise a good point...There have been some terrible Cat designs that bow steer, or are tragically overpowered...or both....made in the land of fruits and nuts that might be the cause of a lot of this insurance issue. I wonder, if you broke down these accidents by manufacturer and length, would the data make more sense?

T2x

gerritm

When you say cats can handle the rough stuff and I am talking above 3-4 footers, what length boat are you talking about? I have run with 36' and smaller cats and they tend to run slow in the rougher water and then blow by us in the calm. I have seen the 39' and above run very well in rough water. Would that be about the right size for a true rough water cat? What brands tend to run better in the rough? Different V hulls have better rough water characteristics based on brand. Cigs and Apaches seem to be the brand of choice for V's. My Fountain handles all that I am comfortable throwing at it. Seems to me size matters in V's or Cats when you talk about rough water.

RunninHotRacing163.1

Nice Delson Like a bird in flight

BLee

I had a fuse blow at 110 when I first got the Skater, thus killing the power to that side. It just settled down and came off plane. Here's me and Bruce Bullock trying to figure out which fuse it was.

stainless

as mentioned i've run a 28 skater in 10' conditions. was it fun ? Not so much. a 36-40 cat (skater mti doug wright etc.) can run just about any conditions much depends on the skill of the driver/ throttleman as far as comfort goes

T2x

A 30' Shadow/ Chris Cat would run with a 36' Cigarette in any conditions that were legal to race in, and I would imagine that a high deck 30 or 32 foot Skater would do the same. A 40' naturally aspirated, Skater got the best of a 46' triple supercharged engined, Apache in the Ocean city race mentioned earlier. ( a race in which the Coast Guard almost closed the inlet because it was so rough)

So yes size does matter...in reverse...but , of course neither of these cat designs were from the Left Coast.

T2x

Dueclaws

I've had a Chris Cat and agree with Rich about them; the Jag is even better in the rough. But, I'm not knocking Skaters: they are fantastic!

Due

TexomaPowerboater

Just a couple of weeks ago I was on the water and saw a 24 utra deck boat cruising at about 20mph trying to keep the nose up so not to take on water over the bow. It was a calm day for the apache. Obviously a skater, MTI, and others wouldn't have that problem, but not everyone drives a big skater. SO what may be true for the bigger race boats may not be for these smaller lake boats. In the 24ft range I doubt there is any cat that can match a 24 pantera in the rough.

T2x

While I agree there is no inboard cat worth a damn under about 28-30 feet in rough water...the twin outboard 24 Skaters will hold there own against the 24' Pantera, Magnum, Superboat, P&G,...etc... hulls with inboard or outboard power, and the record book proves this with multiple championships going to the Skaters over many years. IMHO there is not another cat hull of that size that would dare to tackle the water that the little Skater can run in.....

T2x

Michael1

Not disagreeing with you, if your speed reference is 80. They will gladly insure you for an 80 mph cat, and the cost would not be triple. In fact, it would be quite reasonable. They refer to those cats as "starter cats". It doesn't seem like an 80 mph cat would be worth the bother. The reference speed I gave him was 120, hence, the disparity in rates.

I agree that it would be interesting to see the breakdown by manufacturer, but I doubt there is enough accident data to come up with anything statistically significant. The marine insurance companies appear to have lumped all cats together, and broken them out only by top speed.

Michael