Specialists in performance catamarans.
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Below are examples and information on some of the projects we have tackled and completed at Supercat.
This is a once-off 67 foot catamaran designed and built for long distance pleasure cruises.
The emphasis has been on comfort, performance and fuel efficiency.
The boat is powered by a pair of 100Hp inboard engines and has the facilities to carry aboard all the toys for an amazing holiday, e.g. 4 wheeler quad bike, runabout tender, diving gear etc etc.
It is expected to achieve 20 knots comfortably.
The emphasis of this project has been R&D (Research and Development),
with a variety of construction, manufacturing and finishing processes
leading to knowledge gained, which can be passed on to production models.
Having launched the 67 foot boat, Sea Chant, in August 2017, we used and tested the boat as a powerboat for a number of months.
The boat achieved our expectations.
In 2018, we proceeded with the build of the carbon mast and stepped the mast using the tackle on the boat.
Most of the hardware used for the mast was manufactured in house and the basic shells of the carbon mast were formed around a plywood male plug.
Two extensive sailing trips have been undertaken, each of a few months duration, one in 2018, and one in 2019.
The worst conditions encountered was 60knots of wind, with 9m waves, with the boat having no failures.
All the many varied processes experimented with have proven to be very successful.
One of the experiments, was around electricity power generation on the boat (when sailing and running on autopilot, a lot of power is consumed when the main engines are not running.)
We experimented with solar panels and wind turbines which in our opinion were not successful.
We settled on the installation of power generators fixed to the propellor shafts, which generated on average, 40 Amps each while sailing.
For power on stay overs, when the boat is stationary, we found an installation of two Honda eu2.2i general purpose generators, modified for the exhaust and additional sound insulation and only consuming 3 liters of petrol per day (for 6hrs of running) to be super quiet and they worked extremely well.
The boat also sailed very well.
For example, achieving 17,5knots in 15knots of beam reach wind, and exceeding 20knots in downwind sailing.
Supercat prides itself in being able to say that when it comes to the various aspects of boating, any goals that are set, are achieved.
Here, wanting to achieve and learn more about performance power boating, this hull was designed and developed as the ultimate racing machine.
Running in the junior powerboat racing category (<250cc i.e. 15Hp , open class), one of Supercat’s very own achieved gold at most race meetings and broke the South African Water speed record for its class, very nearly doubling the existing record!
Having built more than 1000 planing hulls such as the boats shown, Supercat has evolved into building displacement catamarans, because it is felt that the displacement concept is the way of the future, with performance, economical fuel / running costs, comfort and fishability all being features of the concept.
It was thus decided to sell the moulds and tooling for the planing hulls early in 2006, so as to generate needed factory space to establish new displacement hull production lines.
UPDATE: SEE 590 MULTISPORT
