Mosquito has been nice to at least get out a lot for cheap. A lot more durable than I imagined, doesn't rock much with its two pontoons, super fuel efficient.
Lately I have been starting to dread the assembly and takedown more and more that comes with rolling it up and putting everything in for the day. So a trailer boat is sounding great. Getting faster than 10 knots also sounds nice, at least 20mph and anything more for this build is icing on top. I like the stability of the pontoons, but not so much the inherent anxiety of an inflatable.
So I've settled on a catamaran. I want to still be as fuel efficient as possible, though. So gotta stay light and probably small. And for all the offshore stuff I've come to enjoy doing, I think it's appropriate, if possible to get twin outboards. With a solid hull, I would be much more comfortable chasing pointy things like makos and swords. So it's gonna be outfitted primarily for solo trips, one fishing guest max.
So for the hull: in a perfect world, I think I would get a
Mexicat. You can find the builder on instagram under pinchifrondo or something like that. Someone caught 2 swords last year on his 14'er. He can do a kevlar composite build, which lightens things up quite a bit. Big bonus for fuel economy. He's done 8, 10, 14, 16, and a few 20'+ builds. I think a 15' would be the sweet spot for me. If I can't do mexicat for any number of reasons, a Livingston 155 would be what I set my sights on.
Engines: I've been looking at this website to compare fuel economy.
https://www.boat-fuel-economy.com/outboard-fuel-consumption-us-gallons Guy with the 14' Kevlar Mexicat put a 50hp tohatsu on it and gets 10mpg. Looking at pics of how it sits, I think that's the max weight to put on the stern. So I looked around and found either Suzuki or Mercury 25hp would match the weight of the 50 and beat the 50's fuel economy by a small but noticeable amount. 2.2 gph at cruise for both 25hp combined.
Now shaping the deck...
This is where greed has to be met with hella creativity. 15' isn't a lot of boat and I want to treat it like a 26' offshore battlewagon. I want a nice big c*ckpit, generous helm, midship for the sake of my spine, and a bow that's more accessible than the Radons and sportfishers that seem to all but put to waste the bow by making it a tight rope walk to get up there.
So I wanna put the swivel pilot seat dead center, midship. That will set the stage. Helm's dashboard will be almost the full beam's width, kind of Hawaii style but not full pilothouse. Plexiglass visor to cut the wind down though.
Console should be just narrow enough that stepping around it to the bow will be a simple two step task, railing around the bow.
Bow area would be built to be uniform with the height of the gunnel. Still haven't gotten used to bay boats without rails, standing on them while rocking around.
Being a cat, it would have two storage points on the bow in the port and starboard pontoons, so safety gear and anchor gear would most likely fill those.
Moving to the c*ckpit! Trying to keep it feeling as open as possible. Bait tank/passenger seat directly behind the pilot seat.
Bait tank doesn't need to be big. Never gonna buy a scoop, so I imagine it would only ever have a few mackerel in there, or some squid. 18x18x24 approximately outer dimension so 30 gallon usable capacity I figure.
I'm thinking have a seat back post that could slide in and out on any side of the bait tank, so that it would be a minimalistic bait tank when I'm alone, and when a passenger is on they can orient themselves any which way.
I'd like enough rod holders for a 5 rod spread, and a few more further up the gunnel for drift fishing while staying at the helm. I'd like at least one gunnel rod holder to be reinforced for fighting fish from.
I want to build the floor up in the hulls so it's uniform with the tunnel, that way there's some under-floor storage. Personal possessions, tackle box, kill box.
The fuel tank will be under the floor as well, just not sure where for weight distribution. I was originally thinking bow, but me and the helm station might be enough weight forward to put it midship or aft, like in "Kill Box 1 [or 2]" as pictured. 20 gallons would be a nice max, to get out to Clemente or Santa Barbara Isle, and touch on the banks in those areas for pelagics. Current concern is asymmetric vs symmetric fuel storage.
From pics of sorta similar Livvie builds, there wouldn't be much under-gunnel storage for rods and things if I built the floor up, but it would probably still be just enough to stick a long gaff and a dart underneath.
Before electronics, I'm optimistically looking at a $30k package. But of course why not, throw on the fancy 3kw transducers and 16" Garmin FFs and Rhodan GPS Anchors for another 10k.
Going into this, I thought, what would be a good cute cat name for a little catamaran? I like Chips.
All said and done, this build won't be happening for at least a few more years. But during the slow hours of grubhub I've had a lot of time to sketch and research and have a pretty good idea of the space I'm working with in the future.
And don't get me started on the blueprints for the 26' battlewagon....
