Takacat 340 Test & impressions

[chris moody]

I'll be collecting my Takacat next month. My plan is to put any loose gear in a flexible bucket and a dry bag

Love the report, thinking of getting one but still reading. Has anyone tried fitting a mesh net accross the transom to catch any gear that accidently slides to the back.

[PeterM]

Slow speed .

Being a cat means the handling is very different to the usual SIB/RIB handling , but at slow speed ( up tp 6knts) the boat track very well indeed. The twin hulls do create a double wake ( one from each) that looks a little different.

We were able to stand up easily and move around easily thanks to the very large flat floor - in fact it feels much bigger than an equivalent 3.4 SIB as the deck is totally flat & runs all the way to the bow. However this did reinforce that things ( bags etc) do move about easily on the deck compared to a traditional v hull SIB. the feeling is more of being 'on' the boat than 'in' it as the deck in reality does sit at almost the midpoint of the tubes/hulls rather than at the bottom as is traditional.

Given our intended use we did comment that for a slower speed / lower powered river or lake boat it really would work very well , super stable , lots of deck space and for a 3.4m boat we felt you could get 4 adults on board without the feeling of being crammed in like you would with a similar sized SIB.

In shallow water drive on both OBs the water pick-up was on the verge of only just being deep enough to pick up water- I think down to the buoyancy of the tubes compared to a V hull SIB - one to be aware of, but for me the impeller was always thoroughly 'wet' so no risk of damage.

Beaching.

What can I say - in one word ' Stunning!' so easy to simply run up a beach knowing the hulls have heavy duty protection on the under side and then stroll off the bow . No clambering or putting feet out - its as easy as stepping down a kerb - for anyone with mobility ( hip, leg etc ) issues it would be a real plus.

One thing that did become apparent was that as there is no 'hull' at the bow in the water as such the first part of the boat to touch the beach was the skeg - even with the engines in shallow water mode. Not a personal problem for me as its always a super slow manoeuvre with the engine off a few feet out, but one to watch if you are used to beaching the bow of a boat first.

High speed engine running

This is where things started to get interesting and actually re-inforced some of the online research we had done before hand . I'll split this into 2 sections - Yamaha 9.9 & Tohatsu 9.8.

Yamaha

We realised from research that things may not be as routine as we thought compared to a normal SIB . And quite quickly the Yamaha backed this up. In one word - Ventilation ! For clarity ventilation is when a prop pulls in air from the surface and this air allows the prop to 'spin up' in the air - meaning you loose thrust & the revs quickly pick up - almost to max RPM sometimes.
This isn't to be confused with 'Cavitation' - when the prop spins up to a point where ( to do with pressures and boiling points of water as pressure changes) bubbles form - giving much the same effect as ventilation.

These two are very very commonly confused when talking about engine heights etc - but are very different Mostly in SIBs you get the wobbly floor allowing a big air bubble to come out the back of the boat into the prop - giving ventilation as it runs in air from the bubble.

Anyhow - the Yamaha ventilated .. badly ... to the point where power had to be applied very carefully and almost feathered on to get the boat running . Even then once up & running the engine would still ventilate to the point it almost became comical/ unusable in the way we wanted to use it. We tried every combination of load and trim - and always the same effect

I am running an 8.5 x 8.5 prop ( 8.5 inch diameter & 8.5 inch pitch) on the Yamaha and it just didn't work ( As comparison this engine was quicker than traditional SIBS we had been using with 9.8 tohatsu !

We had read up that some engines/ props needed tweaking to work 'properly' and the Yamaha prop clearly showed this - by all accounts some prop changes/ tweaks can fix this (cupping the blades seems to be way to go by all accounts.

Tohatsu

We soon realised this was going to be totally different animal . Some minor ventilation that was equivalent to a traditional SIB and we were off . The boat literally came alive with this engine ! Up & going with little bow lift to give a very stable ride . We tried load combinations and trim and worked out that the boat seems to like a healthy amount of trim out which allowed air under the deck. While this took some getting used to after an hour we we felt very confident in knowing when to come off the power to allow the bow to drop a little to avoid the ZAPCAT esq bow lifting scenarios. Having been talking with Chris M it seems the boat has typical cat handling which would take some getting used to (more on that on another post ! )

Turns can be done with almost no need to come off the power ( if you are that way inclined) and its clear why there are full length lifeline inside & out of each hull to hang on to ! ) and waves can be jumped easily enough if you want . It almost felt that the quicker we went the more the boat 'worked' - the air under the deck helping to soften the bounces with more of a 'skitter' across the waves between the two hulls, than a traditional slap from a V hull.

The Tohatsu was running a 7.5 pitch prop ( unknown diameter at time of writing) but on comparison the the Yam prop seemed to have a far bigger blade area and a little cupping of the back edge of the blades - clearly just working better for this boat than the Yam !


In summary you can use the standard Tohatsu with no issue the Yam you cant , but reports are that Suzuki work fine , but I cant say for sure !

Since our initial test I know one was bought at the time for use with the tohatsu , Chris ordered his and another has been bought to be used with a 15 Mercury 2 stroke ( this being the max HP on the 3.4.... again another post to follow re this .....suffice to say the outcome was predictable considering the owner and proves that lifejackets & killcords work ! Nothing bad but finding the limit of a boat can be done if you are that way inclined ! )

Overall Impressions

These boats are well thought out , well designed and built quality bits of kit .

They offer very good deck space ,very stable platforms for fishing or river work ,easy boarding and good performance compared to a V hull SIB of the same size.

Ideally try one with the engine you want to use - its far cheaper to beg / borrow/ buy a prop than to buy a boat and not be able to use it.

The cat handling takes a little getting used to - but in a few hours you realise that it is huge fun.

Don't be tempted to trim in - they will bow steer as they have 2 hulls in the water and they really do 'work' with air able to get under the hull.

100% attach everything to the boat & in dry bags - there is no transom to stop things coming out the back ( and shorten and lines to stop them floating out of the back!)

Hopefully this helps - but if you do get the chance to go a boatshow do speak to the guys at Hypro/ RIBS marine . Mention you have seen my review after our test and they will know you are not just a tyre kicker, but an actual keen SIBer.

I'd stress these are only MY impressions after a few hours of use. Since our test 2 good friends with lots of RIB & SIB experience have been out again - the addition of a tiller extension has helped improve the Tohatsu even more, the 15 Merc was almost to much power for the 3.4 in terms of getting away from a standing start, but once going was very quick indeed.

[chris moody]

A great second part to the review, I'm really looking forward to picking mine up after the boat show.

Trust Matt H to find the limits of the Takacat's handling straight away. How many lifejacket re-arming kits does he get through in a year? For those that don't know Matt H, he pushes boats to their absolute limit, and beyond. He is like the boating version of a jet test pilot.

[Paul B]

Cracking review Peter, and looking forward to having a try in Chris’s one next May, maybe even stick my 15hp Suzuki on the transom

[PeterM]

Give it a go with the 15 Paul. Be very interested to hear your thoughts as to handling and feel.

[neil h]

Haha, I assumed it was MattH you were talking about