As a member of the WoodenBoat forums so eloquently put it in this thread, http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread. ... dcat-Cuddy
He goes further:the plans are pathetic
asthetically ugly
with that useless tug boat style gunwhale (changed)
designed for old style plystringer construction not stitch and glue
needed considerable changes
taking away useless bits and reinforcing oterareas like transom transom knees ect
when you get all the frames up and stuck together and try to skin the hull with plyyou find that you cannot bend the ply fairly around the frames and end up with a great disaster requiring the crudest nastiest dirtiest boatbuilding tofair the 2 inch dips between frames
There is also a BearCat built by Andy Smith Boatworks in the Philippines, which at least was on the water some years back.the hulls on the wildcat i think are too narrow and need to be somewhat wider -the tunnel needs to be higheras it rubs the water at anyspeed - lotsof wetted surface
mounting the engines is difficult requiring alot of thought
This picture shows the waterline; the white is obviously below the waterline. Notice how short/low the sponsons are.
Here it is on the water:
And finally one showing the stern:
There is next to no clearance between the tunnel ceiling and the water, which I suspect will cause wave slamming at any speed and at any sea conditions with the possible exception of glassy water.
There was a question on the Glen-L forums about whether the height of the sponsons could be increased to reduce the wave slamming, and the answer was "We do not recommend increasing the height of the sponsons." In other words, the boat will not be pleasant to drive.
So that leaves only one real alternative, the bateau.com CT22, which I want to tweak in ways it can't. What to do, what to do...