Most Times I Prefer a Cat

by Lenny Rudow

Cat Advantage 7: Experienced boaters prefer cats

In offshore powerboat racing, where catamarans go faster than V-hulls with equal amounts of power, EXPERIENCED BOATERS PREFER CATS. Or, in the ferry industry, where virtually all new high speed ferries are catamarans, EXPERIENCED BOATERS PREFER CATS.

I hate to sound like I'm tooting my own horn but I've been on boats since I was two years old; I've owned boats since I was a teenager; I tested boats for Boating Magazine for well over a decade and in doing so sea trialed literally thousands of fishing boats between 12' and 80'. So I think I can comfortably place myself in the category of "experienced" boaters. And yes, I personally prefer cats in many circumstances. Maybe even most.

The author has put over 200 hours of running time on 14 different models of powercats, including all of those pictured here. Does that count as "experienced?" We'll let you decide!

The bottom line is that I have a bad back, thanks to all those years of bouncing around on boats. Most of them were monohulls, and I've felt the bam-slap-crack of a fiberglass smacking a wave at high speed countless times. In 1996 I had my first full season with a cat, an 18' Nautico "project" boat which we used as a test-bed for new products and systems being reviewed by the magazine. Amazed at how little that boat hurt my back, I ran another cat project boat through the seasons of 1997 and 1998, all the while still spending plenty of time on monohulls both for Boating and on my own personal boat. In '99, it was back to a monohull. And in 2000 I bought a new boat of my own—my first cat. When we were boat shopping, at one point I told my wife I didn't think I'd even own a monohull again. I was wrong: I have two today for waterfowling, which monohulls are better for, thanks to a multitude of reasons like load bearing capabilities, construction materials, and design. But when it comes to boats between 18' and 35' used for fishing in open waters, when it comes to running through rough seas, when it comes to drift fishing, when it comes to trolling the canyons, when it come to dockside handling, when it comes to getting a single multi-purpose boat in this size range, this is one experienced boater who prefers catamarans to monohulls-period.