Tomcat 17 footer
Submitted by aussiejoe on Thu, 2016-02-11 19:08
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.
Image Upload:
bushbeaver
Posts: 159
Date Joined: 08/07/13
That looks totally cool.
That looks totally cool. What's the hull price in ZAR?
aussiejoe
Posts: 93
Date Joined: 01/03/14
160K in Rands
At 11 Rands to the Aus dollar its rather inexpensive. Plenty of other costs to consider though.
z00m
Posts: 1086
Date Joined: 10/05/14
Cat
Is that the same as the 'Seacat' 510 those guys in wangara were importing before they went out of business?
ranmar850
Posts: 2702
Date Joined: 12/08/12
Are you importing the bare hull?
Or having the rigging/seatrials done before import?
dodgy
Posts: 4578
Date Joined: 01/02/10
How is it much different to
How is it much different to the kevlacat 5.2? Pretty legendary little cat.
Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
aussiejoe
Posts: 93
Date Joined: 01/03/14
Some Answers
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.