Takacat 340 Test & impressions

[PeterM]

A few of us have been looking at new SIBS recently and given the development of SIBS ( floppy floor avons, wooden deck ali deck , sausage keel , air floor, V air hull etc ) we wondered if the cat SIBs are the next step?

Huge credit to the guys at Hypro Marine in Lymington and RIBs marine in Christchurch for letting us use a new out of the box 340 and their slip & facilities. I've been fortunate to boat around here and use RIBs marine for parts, service , storage of various boats over the years. I'll be up front and say there was nothng in this for us so there is no bias or risk of an unfairly positive or negative review on here - just honest thought and impressions that other may agree or disagree with.

Initial impressions..
The Takacat comes in 2 boxes from new and unboxing let us examine all the bits as if we had just got one. In simple terms very impressive.... clearly well thought out and well made , lifelines in and out and not glue splodges or bent seams or joins. The 2 hulls are joined by one piece of PVC that then sits under the air floor.

Inflating ......
The usual of SIBs - do the tubes to shape then floor to shape then tubes to pressure and floor/ deck to pressure . Half way through this you slide the stainless tubed transom in & bolt the plates on the OB mounts to. Another sign of good design in that its an eye bolt to allow you attach an engine safety line .

Launching ......
It really was easy , its a very light boat that we inflated a few meters from the water , and simply lifted in , then did the same with the engines .

Engines & loading .......
The aim of the day was to test the boat with Tohatsu 9.8 2 stroke & Yam 9.9 stroke - both 2006 engines. The plan was try both engines at slow and fast speeds - a run down the river then out to sea and high speed . We loaded one engine on the deck with tank, bag of boaty stuff ( anchor etc ) with 2 hefty guys and still had loads of deck space to spare . I'd think easy to get 4 people on without feeling cramped - a real plus for a 3.4m boat !

More to follow .......( I don't want to loose it !) and pics speak a thousand words.... Fee free to post any questions so far .....I'll get on to handling & performance etc ...

[PeterM]

More pics

[harrison]

Looking good and awaiting next instalment.
Captain Taka ‘the cat’ looks well miffed with his crew

[Mitch]

Nice review peter,
I think I would be a bit weary of the open front, the honwave is good for a 4,5 or even force 6 what would the takacat be like in those conditions, I would hope no one would go out in those conditions but the wind & swells/tide can change very quickly & if your several miles out it can get rough by the time your back in.
Also how would it fair if the cat needs a new scratching post

[ChrisParish]

It’s the open transom that worries me. Bye Bye, iPhone. So long, radio. Nice knowing you tackle box.

[Paul B]

It’s the open transom that worries me. Bye Bye, iPhone. So long, radio. Nice knowing you tackle box.

I believe that they do a closed transom version as well, very interested in how it performs in some chop / rough water

[Martin]

Cracking review and images thus far Peter, You're looking well happy at the moment...

Though i have to say, I'm a little in the Chris Parish camp

It’s the open transom that worries me. Bye Bye, iPhone. So long, radio. Nice knowing you tackle box.

No doubt with a little careful planning and some tying items down it'll be a much improved craft.

I'm very interested in the speed and handling capability especially in the rough stuff, Reading some of your many posts and watching previous videos of you out playing, i expect those aspects of the review will follow shortly

Top stuff,

Martin

[PeterM]

Indeed re the open bow and transom. A quick comment before I get to post the next section.....

The only way we managed to get the bow under was to get crew leaning over the very front (16 stone) along with his engine (30kg) up there as well.... and then with me coming off the power.

We also tried to stuff if in the wake of some ski boats.... so quite short high wake waves... and couldn’t manage it.

When we did get the bow in by being unrealistic with the loading the deck cleared in a fraction of a second out the open transom.

However... this did take the fuel line with it.... so a shorter or properly secured fuel line would be needed compared to us just leaving it on deck.

Everything would also really need securing to the boat.... for us everything is always attached anyway so no big deal and as I mentioned you’d struggle to stuff the open bow in what I’d call normal use.

The open transom did throw up an issue we hadn’t seen..... we tend to brace our feet against the bottom of the transom... but without this we had to use the fuel tank instead....... a slip in bad weather could mean a foot through the gap..... not ideal and would just need some getting used to.

[sparerib]

Following with interest.......they do a closed transom and a closed bow version as well don't they? Along with the other comments, Id like to see it in some rough stuff? All the promo pics on the website are smooth water sun shining etc etc

[Bigcod31]

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.