[PCW] Power Cats in the Pacific Northwest

[Candy & Gary]

I'd be interested in knowing (and I'm sure the rest of the forum too) 
on how your cat handles the big North West weather and seas.
What are the practical limitations etc.

thanks Jonah.

Hmmm.  Not THAT Jonah I hope....   ( just jokin' with ya man)

As I have written here before, my PDQ is blessed with particularly 
slender hulls, which makes it a little more prone to harmonic hobby 
horse pitching than almost any other boat, even a tunnel hull power 
cat.  So, I learned right away to change angle of attack to the wave 
train or change my speed to find a happier boat motion when that 
condition crops up.  I turn into and cross big wakes at a thirty to 
forty five degree angle for similar reasons.  There is virtually no 
pendular harmonic rolling -- the kind exemplified by a round bottomed 
monohull in a beam sea.  A goodly swell on the beam does of course raise 
one hull before reaching the other, but that motion is particularly slow 
and gracefull.  For example offshore the far northwest tip of 
Washington, heading north enroute the Straits of Juan de Fuca we had 
been taking strong winds and seas in the six to fifteen foot range on 
the port bow all the way up from Astoria.  Toward the end of this 
northerly leg a goodly swell from the west set in, presenting twenty 
footers at about sixteen seconds right on our port beam.  It looked 
really scary, seeing what appeared to be a wall of water I couldn't see 
the top of rushing toward the boat.  It was great fun to find that they 
produced very little actual roll motion, mostly we felt the vertical 
displacement as the big waves moved under the boat, and the wall of 
water was then seen moving away from us on the other side.  I wouldn't 
like to be in those swells close inshore where they get really steep and 
could flip anybody a$$ over teakettle, but that's why I take my offshore 
passages out far from land, shoal bottoms and crab trap floats rather 
than in close ashore as some do.  We rounded the turn around Tatoosh 
Island and heading east with these big guys behind us was no problem 
either.  The period of these big ocean swells is nowhere near the 
harmonic to my boat's motion, particularly with my boat speed added in, 
so hobby horse pitching wasn't an issue.  I have never worked out how to 
keep surfing very long on the downside of these waves as the wave 
inevitably moves beyond me and I loose anything I gained going down 
while struggling back up the next wave.  Heading into such wave systems 
gives a considerable pitching motion just as the boat follows the 
coutour of the water surface, but it takes a much faster wind driven sea 
or chop to get the ol' hobby horse going. 

The Pacific Northwest is world famous for rough water and weather, and 
that reputation is well earned.  Not so obvious to the outsider perhaps 
is that these dangerous conditions happen in predictable places and at 
generally predictable times.  Most of us understand and deeply respect 
the risks, and we find it is pretty easy to avoid those bad conditions.  
The Columbia River bar is frequently a fierce destroyer of boats and 
men.  It can also be fine and calm.  We watch the weather very carefully 
and we study the tide/current tables.  We chat with the Coast Guard and 
others, and in short, we plan to be there only when the conditions are 
to our liking. 

As with any boat, fuel comsumption goes way up in bouncy water and head 
winds.  The power cat. particularly shines here too, as I have much 
greater range of choice.  I can go faster than my monohull displacement 
trawler buddies while just approaching their fuel consumption, and I can 
approach the planing speeds of my speed freak friends and their planing 
boats without being anywhere near as thirsty.  Or I can slow way down 
and have fantastic range while still enjoying a comfortable ride.  I 
have a much greater option of fast vs. slow/cheap/extended range.  That 
effect produces an even greater difference in sheltered waters. 

The Pacific Northwest has oodles of more or less sheltered water, the 
Columbia/Willamette/Snake River system, Puget Sound, the San Juans, the 
fabulous Canadian waters behind Vancouver Island, the Inside Passage, 
etc. etc.; and the power catamaran particularly shines here with an 
otherwise completely unavailable medely of very shoal draft, high fuel 
efficiency, stable boat motion, ease of maneuvering and all the rest.  
Excluding kayaks perhaps, we can go where just about any other kind of 
boat can go, and some additional places are ours alone.

 We also have very moderate marine dominated weather, although it is 
correspondingly wet and cloudy much of the time.  My PDQ, with it's 
bright, comfy, roomy interior and ability to stay cozy inside for 
everything but line and anchor handling makes these sheltered waters 
available year round.  I erred in only getting the heat pump/AC system 
that works fine in all but the extreme conditions.  In the depths of 
winter when I want heat the most and the water temp. is below 45 
degrees, no heat can be pumped out of the cold water into my boat.  
Likewise, in the heat of summer, in a shallow harbor the water 
temperature can go high enough that the AC is hardly able to pump heat 
out of the boat and into the water.  I should have gotten (and am having 
retrofitted) a diesel heater system (I like the Hurricane from ITR) and 
I am fixing better ventilation and fitting window awnings to keep the 
sunshine from turning my boat into such a solar heated furnace. 

In short, I feel that the Pacific Northwest is the best place for me to 
be and I also feel independently that my PDQ is the best boat for my 
kind of boating.  No surprise that I feel that the PDQ, and power 
catamarans in general are the best boat for this region.  The only 
downside is that there are only now a couple of west coast produced 
power cats becomming available, and those are firmly in the high speed, 
high power tunnel hull style -- while my favorite, (the PDQ of course) 
costs a bunch extra to get to the left coast. 

Gotta get back to work again,

Gary Bell