Mares cats?
 

I need all of the info you can tell me about the Mares 38. I know all about them buying sonic and where the molds came from. I don't know anything about the performance or function of the boat itself. What numbers does it run with stock power? What kind of ride is it? How is the quality of the hull?

Thanks in advance.

I have a 44 MTI, SUV version,cabin, bed, head, will seat 8, have had 12 people comforably, that will still run 130+ for sale!

I have a pretty good feeling your MTI is well out of my price range. Beautiful boat though.

I remember when that one was for sale.

I can put you in touch with the owner if you like.

They run around 90 with stock power. Big cabin and cockpit

Lenny
 

call Lenny at Sonic

not for a real estate guro such as yourself.......

I know a guy in Indiana w/ a 98 Mares w/700's for sale. I've seen the boat in person and it looks good. The pics don't really do it justice. I'm sure the owner is ready to move on it, give him a call. Its in the OSO classified section.

I looked at that one. It is one kick a$$ ride but he is about $20000 out of my relm. I hate to beat someone up on such a beautiful ride like I've gotten beat up on mine. If he's ready to dump it let me know.

Duke, what kind of numbers does that boat run?


Thanks

Great build quality...stable, heavy-water comfort...big, deep cockpit / cabin.
11'3" beam
9,000 lb. displacement

Everyone keeps saying they're slow but 90 with stock power isn't that slow. If stock power is 90, what does the one in Indiana run w/ twin 700's?

post a picture of one of these rigs......i have never heard of them

I had the opportunity to ride in one with 525 Mercs and Bravo drives and the boat was awful.... The boat porpoises like crazy and I could not correct it regardless of the trim. I also thought the finish on the boat was marginal at best. The boat looks good from far but its far from good.....

here's a few

I have been on one with 525s....They need more power..They are lucky to see 85+ with those motors. Though they say it will hit 90+. It develops a hop around 75+ and never comes out of it with the 525's probably would if it had more power. Nice cockpit space, great cabin. I like it but i think it needs the new 700 or more to be a good running. Either have to stay below 75-80ish or go well above 85. I have been told that it should go faster with 525 but i know it hasn't seen better than 87 ish with low fuel... That being said i like them alot and think if powered right they would be a good boat. just have annoying hop at 80ishs speeds..

Daytona, thanks for the info. Do you think 700's will push it into the 90's?

Stultz,
Not sure on the speed w/ the 700's. I haven't talked with him since he installed them. I know he had 502's originally and I think the boat ran high 70's. Not sure if he is ready to really unload it, however I do know its got LOW hours on those motors.

I've got a lot of boats to look at but his is definitely on my mind. Thanks for the info.

By the way, did that boat used to be in Texas on lake Travis?

I would think 700's would be a good combo for that boat. I would think it could see above 90's probably closer to 100's with the 700's. It is just right on that point of having enough air under it at 87 ish...but not there yet hince the hop or porpise. Though i do know that is with no tabs and drives at 0... the owner says he never touches the trim...he did say if he added trim it didn't seem to change anything. I still feel like it just doesn't have enough power with 525's to get it up over the porpise speed. I was told by other people with a large cat (nortech) that theirs had a porpise from 80ish to 90 and they either had to go over 90 or under 80...So i think the mares has the same issue. Still I like the boat..it has a lot of things i like, nice cabin, swim platform, good cockpit area. My first choice would be one of the 44 or 42 mti's with the cabins (if i had the money) but the mares seem to be cheaper, though i have never seen one with bigger power. Maybe sonic will change that.

The parent Co of Mares and Sonic is in Hudson NH CSI inc its like Kenworth and Peterbuilt being owned by Paccar Inc..
Sonic did not buy Mares CSI bought sonic for the brick and mortor and started building cats there..CSI also just bought a local Jag dealer up here..

What about a tab in between the drives, tunnel tab, and a pair of 6 or 700's.

Would a tunnel tab force the air in and get rid of the hop?

OK....where did this design originate?

Or...where are the molds from?

Wade, what are you up to??

The are from New Zealand. Here is a link to the company history webpage.
http://www.marespowercats.com/about/history.html

If you boat in water than canbe very rough and snotty, It seems like this cat will give you the best ride. Ir you want all out speed, you had better keep looking.

Using a tunnel tab above like 50mph is only for people with a great deal of cat driving experience. A good way to stuff the boat fast IMO. More power or slow down is a better solution.

thats one function, the other is to help pack air in the tunnel then the boat is at speed

Not a bad looking boat. The hull just doesnt look like it works right. Maybe to much weight in the bow with the cabin. Their are two running around here in our area. If speed isnt a issue, and you can pick the boat up right, mabe you will be happy. Better check insurance. Cats are crazy to insure, it be a shame to pay all that money for insurance to go 85-90 mph.

I am building some 850s to install in mine this winter along with Arneson drives. I'm curious if anyone has put power in one of these before?

There is one in Portorose-Slovenia with 850 hp engines and they will install more powerful engines because it doesn't go as the owner wants.

My buddy had the orange Mares cat with the wild paint scheme on it for a while. He had 850hp blower motors in it and it ran around 110mph. He did have to do some work to the bottom of the boat to make it run better. He had Imco SCX's on it as well because the bravos kept breaking. He had a hard time getting it to plane out if he had a lot of people on the boat. Once it got up and running it was good. They are a big heavy cat. They ride good but like everyone said definitely not the fastest.

I have a 3600 Nor-Tech Cat with Eddie Young 925's running Arneson ASD-7M's since 2010 and have never had an issue with them. They are great drives and work great.

How do those engines run?

I've had my issues at the beginning but they've been pretty good for the last five or six years.

The boat just has stock 525 EFIs in it right now and with 7 people onboard and half tanks the boat jumped right on plane. I did try my labbed 30s and the second the bow came down the props blew out, but I'm sure that was because the diffuser was completely removed. I wonder if he had his X dimension raised. I've been looking at the bottom all week and I have to say it's pretty darn straight... I wonder what he ended up having them do to it.

So say said tunnel requires 85mph to pack enough air.. ie create enough pressure to lift said boat.... If you use a tunnel tab you are essentially increasing said pressure so this should create more lift at said speed... IE if you set tab to reduce the exit side by 20% this would theoretically increase the pressure in the tunnel thus creating lift. I don't think this would cause a boat to be prone to stuffing the nose except when the boat was moving fast enough to pack air already and then tunnel tab could possibly cause too much pressure.. but even then in order for the bow to go down the transom would instantly be opening thus decreasing the pressure.. It's not like a tab that is in direct contact with the water and thus always creating transom lift.... It seems like a large tunnel tab would be an asset on almost any catamaran.... My dad used to tell me all kinds of stories about Pete and issues with Skaters and all the different ways they would fix them... and the most common issue was porpoising ... But he can't ever remember them using a tunnel tab... Hopefully there is enough of a community here that we can share some actual results.