Couple of point's...., again not taking sides here.

My street dead ends in the Intra Coastal. If I want to run from here to Melbourne on a Sunday afternoon @ 50 - 60 in it's typical 2' chop w/the occasional 3' wakes thrown in to keep you occupied, and my choice is between my 24' Sonic (60 being tops for a cruising speed) and a 24' Skater,annnddddd.........I have (some newbies too) friends with me, we'd take the Skater. Be a blast of a trip and everyone would have fun.
If it were hard core friends we'd take the Sonic. Would be a white knuckle ride that they could appreciate and make the effort worth it.
If we're doing the trip to the Lake Erie islands and back (or Grand Bahama) we take the Sonic.
I really see it the same as the small boats. 20' or 50' is the same w/conditions being relatively equal.
Miami to Key Largo on the outside w/a 40' 50' boat ???? Same scenario.
W/mild chop I'd take the Vee, have a freagn blast on the way and any newb's on board would hate me and never ride w/me again ;) On the cat......., they'd all be talking about it for the next month.

Had a friends dad call me a while back asking about this exact subject but w/the small boats as I have owned both. This was a 100 mph, 20' vee bottom guy looking at a tunnel. Told him if his focus was a safe, high speed run in decent conditions (and not scaring the bejesus out of the Mrs) get the tunnel. If his focus was the challenge of making a vee bottom dance, keep what he had. Given his parameters he switched to the tunnel and loved it.
His son did the exact same thing and hated it! Having the tunnel after the vee bored him (as it did me) and he missed the challenge of driving the vee.

Apples to Oranges and no correct answer.

Cats are not safe...Just ask Reggie

This is an odd thread, definitely has my raDarr going off. New member, asks a very open ended question about two totally different style boats and then disappears. Normally Darr counters with a very specific one liner like "What about a Doug Wright?" and then he gets outed. The OP hasn' t been back in almost a week and this thead is still getting longer.

LOL, good guess on the speed, but he was WOT and trimmed out, 80-90 mph would be more accurate. I don't care what you are in, you work the sticks like that while turning you are going to be in trouble.

My close friend has a 32 skater that rocks, and I admit that boat feels very safe, mostly on the fact that can't sway side to side or chine walk. However, even he will agree that it is a false sense of security. In the hands of an experienced pilot I don't think it matters honestly.

Do I want a cat that can blow by v-hulls loop around and do it again? Every time he does it to me yes! But I love my cabin, full head, sleeping in the boat, storage, sunpad and room. He has a 47 trip v-hull as well, uses the cat for poker runs and such. I am considering a cat for a second boat as well.

To me a high performance v-bottom is a turbo porsche cayenne and a true high performance cat is a ferrari. His skater is all business, just like the ferrari, the cayenne is not the most sensabile ride either, but more usefull than the ferrari.

The sit down v-hulls with no sun pad or cabin are a waste IMO. If you are going to make that sacrifice get a cat.

LOL, a quick search of his screen name shows he is in the process of re-stringing a 1981 Formula 302. Now he has guys fighting over which million dollar boat is a better choice for him. I don't think that was his intention, however still comical.

Although I have driven & rode in a few bigger cats like nortech's & spectre's most of my seat time is in my 26 American Offshore. we do most of our boating & live on lake Ponchartrain which can get very nasty real quick. My wife & I both love the cat ride & speed but we just bought a 28 Donzi. We bought the Donzi so we can relax more about the ride home. The lake is 24 by almost 40 miles & almost every trip is calm on the way & rough on the way back. The cat is a blast in rough water to a point if you know what your doing, but when the rollers get big enough it's no fun. If I boated on a smaller lake I would prefer the cat hands down!! We will run the Donzi for a year or so & decide whether to get a bigger cat or maybe a bigger V, until then this cat is for sale.

That's not true. I had no problem insuring my cat after a 15 year leave of absence from boating. And it's the same cost as my V.

I am always curious about this debate...I have a 25 checkmate and would love to have a 28-30 ft skater with eggbeaters....As far as speed for the hull differences...it seems like a lot of the v hull fast boats spin out..not trying to drum up a fight there are way too many people who know more than me here, just thinking if i really want to get to 90mph plus, i should get a cat due to they seem to react better to speed than stepped vhulls...how do cats turn as opposed to stepped v hulls? just askin, not trying to start a debate

How many people died in cats at the key west races last year? Now him many died in v's in that same one week racing event?

To make a statement that an armature is safer in a cat is insane. Wrong trim on a cat means going over or driving the nose to the bottom of the lake in most cases. More people are spinning out v hulls than cats simply cause there are more v hulls out there, a lot more. Btw turn too fast in a cat and they usually flip over like a car :D

What maybe true for a 1985 chris car does not apply to a modern cat. Most are triple what a v hull would cost, if you can insure them at all