Building High Performance Catamarans – Q and A
 

Hey everyone,

We are Hellkats Powerboats, a custom catamaran builder based in Miami. We design and build high performance go-fast pleasure boats from the ground up, including our 32 and 30 cats, and a 40 center console built for everything from Poker Runs to fishing.

This thread is a Q and A. Whether you are an experienced boater, thinking of building your first performance cat, or just interested in the engineering side of the process, ask us anything.

Here are a few topics we are happy to talk about:

- Performance catamaran hull design

- Outboard vs inboard setups

- Carbon fiber vs fiberglass

- Balancing speed, safety, and comfort

- Behind the scenes of custom boat building

- Lessons we have learned from building and running Hellkats boats

- We will reply to every question. No sales pitch. Just sharing knowledge and experience.


Post your questions below!

Heavy inboard cat... spin in or out ?

LMFAO!! Everyone knows a heavy cat with inboard power you spin them "in to win" 😅🤣😂 maybe if he had more information like what color is your boat?🤔

the answer to "in or out" is yes. when I was building race boats I rerigged both "the spirit of puerto rico" and "reliefband", both were '40 Skaters with setback fuel tanks and were built two hulls apart from each other. both boats were twin to each other with the same super cat Mercury power and 6's. same balance, engine location etc. Spirit ran the best turning out at 2.5" above the bottom and was terrible turning in. Reliefband ran the best turning in at 3.25" above the bottom and ran ok turning out but handled better and accelerated better turning in. again these two boats were as identical as you could get in a Super Cat but reacted very different with drive height and rotation so the answer is the boat wants what the boat wants and any one who tells you that you must do this or that with out having tried it on your particular boat is full of you know what. the only way you will know it to test it every possible way and see what it likes.

i have found turning in makes them roll to the outside in corners turning out keep them flatter in the corners these new tator chip long, low profile, light outboard cats i have no idea if its the same

Myrick agrees with Bob on turning IN to eliminate hop but most turn out hence my interest.

https://teaguecustommarine.com/teagu...-mPRbDLFR0QT1A

I suppose with the new power I SHOULD leave it turned OUT as is and try IN at a later date but Myrick recommends I switch them now. That guy knows his stuff and since I`m twidling my thumbs waiting on engines I think I`ll just turn them IN now.

Hey, I recognize that article!! :479:

Quite the ingaging discussion with Hellcat Powerboats

Could be they are waiting for an actual question. Even I know you need more info than the couple of "grunts" you offered. Quite frankly, I'm surprised you didn't go on and on about all the things you are adding, changing and spending on your boat? Most of us would have IF we really wanted this companies help or opinion but it feels like you are looking for something else. I took a quick look at their site and it looks like they only work with outboards and I assume that they ride and handle differently than a "heavy inboard cat" so this whole interaction is probably moot.

Sounds like it's more of a self promotion post than anything substantial