2009 BOATS OF THE YEAR
Maine Cat: P-47 Moxie MAINE CAT reveled in the 2008 completion of Moxie, the first production-built Maine Cat P-47. The fuel-efficient catamaran is now in residence in the Bahamas, along with 2 other Maine Cat models that are available for bareboat charter. (See page 74 for a complete profile of Moxie.) Hull no. 2 of the Maine Cat P-47, Sweet Spot, launched in December. The boat is equipped for cruising the Northwest Passage to Alaska from its homeport of Port Townsend, Washington. The boat has a diesel-fired hydronic central heating system, a dehumidification system, dual-transducer sonar package, and an electrically operated sunroof over the helm. A great many construction projects were under way at the Bremen shop this winter: 3 P-47s, two of which are flybridge configurations; a Maine Cat 41 sailing cat; and completion of the Maine Cat P-38 power cat prototype for a customer in Virginia. The crew welcomed a cabinetmaker and a ship’s joiner, who are busy at work in a new 1,500-sq.ft. mezzanine, complete with a “dust-free” varnish room. www.mecat.com; 207-529-6500.
Billy Black(3)
Billy Black
MAINE BUILT BOATS was established in 2005 to strengthen and expand Maine’s boatbuilding industry. The organization is creating a unified brand that presents Maine as a worldwide leader in boatbuilding quality, technology, and craftsmanship. Approximately 450 Maine companies, representing 5,000 workers, are tied to the boatbuilding industry. www.mainebuiltboats.org; 207-899-7570.
MOXIE MAINE CAT by Ben Ellison
T
HE LARGEST AND MOST FUEL-EFFICIENT production powerboat introduced last year in Maine—or most anywhere else—might just be Moxie, the new Maine Cat P47, but it didn’t get much attention. Maine Cat’s proprietors, Dick and Lynne Vermeulen, who have built 98 sailing catamarans ranging from 22 to 41 feet since 1993, are used to that. The multihull is still a weird concept to many, especially in Maine, and, besides, the Vermeulens and their building crew of 20 work way down Route 32 in Bremen, many country miles from the state’s boatbuilding hotspots. So I’m here to shout to my fellow Maineiac boat nuts: Open your eyes, people, and take a good gander at concept Moxie! The P47 is unlike all of the other power catamaran designs that have been gaining popularity (outside New England). For starters it looks a heck of lot better, at least to my eye, and that eye favors a uncluttered, well-proportioned downeast style. Even the flying bridge model looks good, at least in drawings, and I may not be alone in that opinion, as hulls no. 5 and no. 6, to be launched later this year, will be built to that design. Perhaps more importantly, the P47 adheres strictly to tenets of the small but passionate school of high length-to-beam power cat design: each 46'6" hull sporting a maximum waterline beam of just 42 inches. Upside down the boat looks like two
Maritime Marine 23 Patriot MARITIME MARINE completed a 6-boat
order for the State of Virginia’s Game and Inland Fisheries Department. The 23 Patriot models were built to commercial specifications and outfitted with a complex array of communications, safety, and rescue equipment. The Augusta company built a larger, semi-custom 23 Patriot rigged for offshore sport fishing for a customer in Rockport, Massachusetts. In progress was the building of a 25' Voyager with twin outboards for Maryland’s Department of Environmental Protection; it will be used to respond to oil
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The pilothouse—spacious in proportion to the boat’s length—spans the two hulls. MAINE BOATS, HOMES & HARBORS
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February / March 2010
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Issue 108
BOATS OF THE YEAR 2009 giant kayaks. Maintaining that 13.5-to-1 ratio was not easy during the design process, but it definitely paid off. The P47 prototype began as the P38 but had already been stretched to 42 feet by the time I got a ride on it in late 2007. That particular design sliced through Muscongus Bay beautifully, with hardly any wake or bow lift at many comfortable speeds. Still, Dick Vermeulen kept testing various hull and wheel modifications, and ultimately decided to build a 47-foot production hull mold from scratch. This hull has just the shape and buoyancy he thought right for good engine access and the ability to carry 9,000 pounds of people and gear while keeping the bridge hull almost three feet off the water—an important factor for ocean-going power cats, especially fast ones. Slicing through waves is one thing, pounding them with a flattish center underhull is quite another, especially at speed. And Moxie’s 23 knots at wide-open throttle is darn fast, given that only 360 horsepower are pushing 15 tons of boat. Moxie’s delivery south was telling. Vermeulen reports that the boat went from Bremen, Maine, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with Chesapeake side trips, at an average speed of 15.8 knots, and used just 890 gallons of diesel over 115 hours of running time. At 8 knots, Moxie’s twin engines use just 1.6 gallons per hour, but Vermeulen says his design is generally so soft-riding and quiet at speed that it’s difficult
In profile, Moxie is as refined as the best monohull powerboat.
to slow down. In fact, he thinks the new tier-three Volvo diesels slated to go into the four P47s now being built will give them even faster and more fuel-efficient cruising-speed choices. It took a tremendous amount of moxie for the Vermeulens to switch from sail to power (they can’t build both without a major shop expansion), but they brought along solid experience in making a catamaran hull feel like a commodious abode, and in picking and installing first-class cruising systems. You can check this out for yourself by visiting Bremen or, better yet, by chartering Moxie at its Hopetown, Abaco, Bahamas, winter base (charter information is available at Maine Cat’s website, www.mainecatcharters.com). N SPECIFICATIONS / MAINE CAT P47 LOA: 47'3" LWL: 44'6" Beam: 18' Draft: 3' Displ.: 29,900 lbs. Power: Yanmar 180-hp diesels Fuel: 400 gal. Water: 20 gal. Waste: 40 gal.
Speed: Max.-23 knots,
cruise-15 knots Cruise Range: 770 nm
spills in the shallow waters of Chesapeake Bay. www.maritimeboats.com; 207-620-7999. The main focus at MARSHALL MARINE was the cockpit redesign of the 18-foot Sanderling catboat. The 47-year-old design was updated to include a molded fiberglass cockpit to increase comfort and reduce maintenance. Among the changes: the supporting structure, sole, and seats are now gelcoated fiberglass construction, the seats are wider and canted back, and the self-bailers drain directly through the sole instead of into the centerboard trunk. The South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, company built 9 of the new model, as well as 3 15-foot Sandpipers and 1 Marshall 22. www.marshallcat.com; 508-994-0414. At year’s end, the crew at the North Falmouth, Massachusetts, shop of DAMIAN MCLAUGHLIN, JR., was halfway through the building of a shoal-draft yawl designed by Bruce Kirby. The 39' canal boat—an interim construction project over the last 4 years— was close to completion. Designed for the canals of France, the boat has nothing against American waterways, and will venture domestically on the Hudson River, Erie Canal, Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence River, Richelieu River, and Lake Champlain. www.dmcboats.com; 508-563-3075. J.C. MINOTT BOAT, a one-man shop in DoverFoxcroft, finished a 16' cedar-on-oak lapstrake boat, and reported that the boat “rows fast, is very steady, and performed well on some pretty squally days.” It was built for Minott’s personal use, but he would build another one right now should someone ask. Repairs were made to a Whitehall during a spring trip to the Nemours Mansion in Delaware, followed by annual spring work on the pinky Summertime. All the frame butts of a 1954 Penn Yan Captivator were replaced, with the new ones laminated and scarfed in place with new half frames along the length of the bottom, which was then refastened. Jonathan commented, “It would have been a good job for the flexible young person I used to be.” Repairs were also made to a 1938 Old Town sponson boat, two 25' Kennebec Canoe Company canoes for Camp Kieve/Wavus, a 1960 Ellis Rangeley, a 17' circa1930 E.M. White closed-sponson boat, a 1960 Old Town salmon boat, and a 1959 Old Town 25' canoe for Lasell College in Boston. From the water-on-the-inside department, a 4' x 6' water tank to irrigate a customer’s garden was under construction. www.maineboats.com/mainecoastal-directory/jc-minott-boat; 207-564-7612.
Designer: Dick Vermeulen Builder: Maine Cat, P.O. Box 205,
Bremen, ME 04551. 207-529-6500; www.mecat.com MJM Yachts 40z MJM YACHTS told us they have launched 105
www.maineboats.com
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