Poor man’s cat

[harrison]

Hi Harrison, greetings from Switzerland . Thank you for sharing your experience with Air Cat. Can you share if the. Oat came with the Declaration of Conformity? Did you get the import declaration as well? Here in a Switzerland both are requisite to get the registration. Thanks in advance for your time. Cheers!

Oops! Tell a lie, a Declaration of Conformity was included but no Import Declaration I’m afraid.

[Fishingribs]

Thanks for letting me know, I will give it a try then. I think the import I can get from the delivery company.

Cheers

[G4Stirl26]

Hi Harrison/all,

Been following the Aqua Marina pages with interest. Have been thinking (and still am) about an Elling or Takacat but weight of the former and price of the latter are negatives. The Aqua Marina covers both! I’m looking for something primarily or fishing from, mostly solo but occasionally two up, and like the Aircat (although nowhere has in stock atm) but the closed bow model looks very similar to the True Kit Discovery which is their recommended fishing craft. I’d be looking at the largest of either of the Aqua Marina models and have a 3.5hp 2 Stoke for pottering around and a 9.8hp Tohatsu 2 stroke for going further afield and/fun!

Basic question, would either of these AM craft work from your experience? Appreciate some fettling will be required but that is part of the fun…not phased as I drove landrovers for years!

Thanks in anticipation.

[harrison]

Hmmm! difficult. Not sure what to advise here?

Don’t reckon it’s fair to compare any of the Aqua Marina fleet to TrueKit, Takacat or Elling boats, and to be fair, they’re only half/quarter cost!

Finally got ours working with a bit of fettling and now little to no ventilation in chop. Different heights for different motors but getting a solid 14/15 knots from an 8hp 27kg Chinese 4-stroke running stock prop. Not that great but due more to motor than boat.

To be honest, although great fun, reckon these little cat’s are probably more suited to small motors at displacement speeds. Once planing you’re in for an exciting twitchy ride in anything more than glass smooth water. With small dia. tubes and no drip moulding to the rubbing strake it’s a fairly wet ride in any wind and chop. Better performance in a head sea into wind when the air cushion works well to keep bows up. Going downwind slower to plane and rather susceptible to a bit of bow steering/semi submarining in choppy conditions. Razor sharp reflexes required but great fun nonetheless.

Great value no frills little boat and ideally suited to a beach based fun runabout. Wouldn’t recommend as your only/main boat for more serious use, and no way as competent as say the Elling.

Had great fun getting ours to work, but realistically after a bit more seakeeping, so will probably sell on soon.

[G4Stirl26]

Thank you Harrison, really useful to have first hand feedback.

[mike_o]

Harrison, thank you for a nice write-up on the Air Cat. I was about to purchase the Air Cat 335 Catamaran ("open bow") as my first boat. I intend to use it for beach fun and possibly some fishing on calm waters/days. 1-2 persons (total of 150kg / 330lbs) on board.

Originally I intended to put a new 10hp, 4stroke, short leg Honda on it, but the extra 4-5 ponies seems to be of little value in real life. Maybe a lighter 6hp would be better?