Tomcat 17 footer

I ordered a Tomcat 17 from South Africa recently. The boat builder removed the hull from the mould last week and sent the following pics. Boat is due to be completed by end of March and I hope to have it here by May. Somewhat of a mission to jump through import procedures but I am sure it will be worth it in the end.

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bushbeaver's picture

Posts: 159

Date Joined: 08/07/13

 That looks totally cool.

Fri, 2016-02-12 02:06

 That looks totally cool.  What's the hull price in ZAR?

Posts: 93

Date Joined: 01/03/14

160K in Rands

Fri, 2016-02-12 06:06

At 11 Rands to the Aus dollar its rather inexpensive. Plenty of other costs to consider though.

z00m's picture

Posts: 1086

Date Joined: 10/05/14

Cat

Fri, 2016-02-12 07:23

Is that the same as the 'Seacat' 510 those guys in wangara were importing before they went out of business? 

ranmar850's picture

Posts: 2702

Date Joined: 12/08/12

Are you importing the bare hull?

Fri, 2016-02-12 09:55

 Or having the rigging/seatrials done before import?

Posts: 4561

Date Joined: 01/02/10

 How is it much different to

Fri, 2016-02-12 12:43

 How is it much different to the kevlacat 5.2? Pretty legendary little cat.

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Posts: 93

Date Joined: 01/03/14

Some Answers

Fri, 2016-02-12 17:46

There are a lot of "Cat" boat manufacturers in South Africa particularly on the Eastern seaboard of KwaZulu-Natal. These include Tomcat, Yeldcat, Seacat, Sailfish, Zulucat, Z craft, Buttcat, Gamefish and quite a few more. These have evolved with similar designs but the major performance difference is in the hull design. As far as I know the Wangara outfit imported the Seacat 510 and 565 models. I have fished on older Seacat models and they are a good dry and stable craft and handle choppy conditions well. After considerable interviews with people who have fished off many of these boats I decided the Tomcat was the go.

I am getting a turnkey project imported. All rigging, motors and trailer imported as a complete unit. I have in fact sent over a 27Meg radio (the South African market uses Australian GME product but these are factory tuned to 29Meg, a Lowrance chartplotter with Australian Novionics map, a Furuno 627 and bits and pieces for the trailer to comply with Australian standards. The 17 footer is often powered with two 70HP motors to contend with the surf launching that is commonplace in South Africa. My advice has been that two 60HP four strokes will be ample so that's the way I have gone. (Suzuki)

I am not in a position to comment on the Kevlacat 5.2 other that to say this will cost 20% to 25% less than a new Kevlacat.