Need Opinions on a good 'starter' Cat
 

I'm getting out of my previous hobby of automotive racing and planning on moving into boats. I've been researching a lot over the past few months about powerboats and want to get into a catamaran. My uncle had a hustler a few years back that we would always take out and it was a ton of fun but, I wasn't a big fan of how it rode when pushed hard. Maybe it was the way he drove it but it always felt a little unstable.

I'm looking for some opinions on what's good out there for starter cats. I don't want to spend tons and tons of money on something i'm not capible of driving to its potential. I would prefer something in the 28-34' range. I don't want to have something small getting tossed around like a rubber duck in a tub.

Furthermore, I'd love something that can accomodate sterndrives. I've built engines for years (and yes I know cars are different than boats in how they're mechanically built) but, the way I see it is that that would give me room to grow: ie start off with stock power and work my way up over time.

Any insight or ideas? thanks!

great idea, buy my boat :)
reasonable, stock poer to learn the handling of it, buildable to the higher degree for speed
1999 28' advantage sportcat with stock Merc 502's
Bravo 1's with 1.5s as well as two sets of props.

:)

Look at Spectre or Motion. A lot of boat for the money.

x1...

Have you checked on insurance yet? Cat insurance with no previous cat experience is gonna be pricey. Good luck on your search.

X2 on the Spectre or Motion route, but this statement above is the killer. A few years back I wanted a Spectre 30 with OBs and was looking at what was out there. There always seemed to be a couple in my price range. I called around for insurance and had zero luck. No one would insure me. I had no cat experience, but I did have 20yrs. boating experience.

Unstable? LOL, wait till you slide a cat into a turn for the first time. Very different feeling indeed.

+1 on the insurance too, a real eye opener!

Try to get some seat time in a cat before you buy one and def. talk to someone on the insurance end. Also at the 28' end you can get a single engine cat but I never liked them.

So how do you supposed to get the experience?:eek:

That's a great question. I didn't have performance twin experience at the time either. That may have added to it.

You pay through the nose to the few co's out there that will even write a policy on you being no CAT experience. V hulls aren't usually a problem getting a policy unless you get into really fast boats over 100mph plus. Being a Cat is the problem.