News and Media

The Latest Feature 16th April 2008

The 13.6m (44ft) Roger Hill – designed powercat is destined for cruising the north western coast of North America. The boat reflects the considerable boating experience of it’s Seattle-domiciled owner and the knowledge acquired in the search for his perfect boat.

The chines are designed to avoid the dreaded hull slap when at rest; the desire for more volume decided her planning hulls.

  
 

Sunchaser is destined for Seattle where waterways often have debris. Her laminates include Kevlar and she carries a spare prop and shaft as insurance against collision.

His previous boat was a 52ft mono hull; the decision to go to two hulls was based on performance and economy, overall space and volume, layout options and the ability to easily handle the boat with a small crew. Searching the US, Australia and New Zealand for possible option, he came in contact with Paul Stock of Stock Yacht Projects. After chartering a powercat for a trial, the criteria refined further – planning rather than semi-displacement because of the extra volume, and carefully designed chines to avoid the dreaded hull-slap.

After assessing several boats, they decided it would be better to build a custom boat rather than try to adapt or modify an existing cat. One of the main reasons for this was the new owner’s aversion to timber in the structure. Stock thinks this largely reflects his concerns over the possibility of rot or delamination – possibly duye to previous bad experiences with poorly detailed or executed construction.

Roger Hill normally uses some timber in his designs as part of acceptable boat-building practice. For Sunchaser, he re-engineered the specification to replace the timber with high-density foam. The waterways around Seattle and the owner’s home base near the San Juan Islands often have floating logs and so the hull laminate includes Kevlar for higher impact resistance. Sunchaser carries a spare prop and shaft just in case of a debris collision.

The typical weather around the northern cruising grounds has been a major influence on the design, layout and specification. The weather is often damp and cool, especially during autumn, winter or spring cruising and mosquito’s are not uncommon. The owner specified a sophisticated vented heating system that includes extensive window demisters in the saloon and flybridge.

  
 

Underway the heating is diesel powered, supplemented by an electric system for when the car is docked. The flybridge is completely enclosed, including rear doors to the Juliet balcony overlooking the cockpit and boarding platform clear.

Access to the flybridge is via an internal stainless steel and teak spiral staircase leading from the saloon. There isn’t a lower helm station and so the flybridge is set up to be comfortable and to accommodate everyone in the best viewing platform.

The helm seat is to port, with an adjacent two-person bench seat to starboard. Behind this is a U-shaped dinette with more seating. The table can be used for dining or swivelled to become a coffee table. To cater for the summer sunshine there is a huge sliding sunroof that gives the flybridge the feel of an open cockpit. The sliding system is based on a Harken mainsheet traveller system, giving finger-light operation.

The interior finishes are immaculate and matched by a high level of equipment specification and fit out.

The galley is aft on the starboard side of the main saloon and includes double burner gas hobs, a combination microwave/convention oven and dishwasher. The freezer and ice maker are in the cockpit, adjacent to the galley. The entertainment system is midships to port, including a retractable LCD screen flat panel TV that can swivel to face the galley, or to the saloon and dining area forward in the saloon. This leather-upholstered seating has a panoramic view through the curved glass lower windscreens.

  
 

The accommodation is in each of the hulls. The port hull is for the owners, with their berth forward but running athwartships to facilitate access from either side. There is a huge amount of storage and cupboard space, with all joinery in a warm timber veneer. While the owner doesn’t like any timber in the construction or on the exterior, he does like the traditional timber styling for trim and finish on the interior. Aft of the owners cabin is their ensuite, with the combination clothes washer/dryer accessible through a door in the shower.

The starboard hull is the guest area. The forward cabin has twin berths, rather than one double, and the guest’s separate ensuite is almost a twin of the owners.

All the mechanicals – genset, engines, watermaker, compressors and heaters – are in the hulls aft of the saloon and ensuites, behind well-insulated water tight bulkheads. This keeps the extraneous noise well away from the sleeping and entertaining areas.

For our boat review, despite an ominous forecast, the weather was perfect.

In some ways this was disappointing, as we weren’t able to assess the boat’s performance in rough water conditions. Manoeuvring out and back into the narrow Westhaven berth was a breeze with the twin 440hp Yanmars providing plenty of power and steerage. Once out on the harbour, Sunchaser quickly climbed onto a plane and we settled on around23kts at 2800rpm. Previously our Boating New Zealand colleagues, Len Gilbert and John Menzies, had conducted fuel consumption and calibration trials. While the results meet the owners requirements of a cruise speed of 25kts, designer Roger Hill feels the 27.5 per cent prop-slip is too much and local New Zealand props would have given better performance through the rev range and over 30kts top speed.

We decided to head for the outside of Motutapu for our photo session and we weaved our way through the huge gaggle of boats fishing the Rangitoto Channel. The Simrad instrumentation is extensive, including a dual station autopilot, differential GPS plotter, radar, multiple frequency sounder, wind instruments and VHR. The latter has an intercom and hailer function to communicate with the saloon or foredeck. The flybridge has a traditional wheel for steering, in my view preferable to the modern joystick. There is a remote helm station in the cockpit. This is a simple block of wood with joystick steering, throttles, autopilot remote controls and a long lead. The owner can move around the cockpit when he docks the boat single-handed. When not being used, it is stowed in a locker out of the way.

  
 

Pat Stock demonstrated the manoeuvrability of the cat, one engine slow ahead, the other slow astern, the boat rotated in its own length, presenting our photographer Mike Hunter with every profile while he sat in a fixed position. We then did a few high speed runs directly at the photo boat. Here the handling is less responsive than a mono hull, the two hulls giving greater directional stability and only a slow wide turning circle at speed. It also means less helming or correction driving in a straight line compared with a mono. After the photo shoot, we completed our circum-navigation of Rangitoto and Motutapu, comfortably handling the multitude of wakes and choppier water through the Motuihe Channel.

The big advantage of cats is the space, particularly in the cockpit and saloon. Sunchaser’s cockpit is big enough to use as a dance floor – or for some serious salmon or crab fishing in the sub-Arctic waters. The fishing equipment includes a down rigger and pot-hauler so the owner can pursue these delicacies. He even has a crab cage on his marina so he can keep the crabs alive until dinner time ashore.

Sunchaser is an impressive boat, finely detailed and customised to exactly meet the needs of her owner. While New Zealand finds it difficult to compete with the mass production craft, the market for individually customized boats is a niche that suits our boutique design and boat building skills.