Hey guys,
I would love if someone with experience with one of these boats could come and give me some tips and tricks on operating one.
Kingfisher minicat 450.
I have a fair bit of boating experience,
Stabicraft, Surtees, Smartwave and Extreme.
This Minicat is different tho.
Keen to have someone come aboard and help me tame its quirks.
Can anyone help me out?

At anything under 4500rpm (17knt) it feels stable/safe. Over this, starts to feel unpredictable. Like it wants to dig in and turn. This happens more in mirror calm conditions. It tends to like a little bit of chop. Crossing boat wakes is another. It feels like the wake gets stuck between the hulls, and then your just along for the ride. In a following sea, it also wants to push the bow sideways.
To combat all of this I just slow down, re group, then carry on. Most of the time slowing down and turning the direction the boat wants to go, then start again.
All this said, it’s 4.5m and I go pretty much everywhere. I have a heap of experience with mono hulls, but this is different. Maybe all it takes is to force the boat to go in the direction I want to go in. More time behind the wheel will sort it I’m sure. Would love to take someone with experience out though.

Shambles wrote: At anything under 4500rpm (17knt) it feels stable/safe. Over this, starts to feel unpredictable. Like it wants to dig in and turn. This happens more in mirror calm conditions. It tends to like a little bit of chop. Crossing boat wakes is another. It feels like the wake gets stuck between the hulls, and then your just along for the ride. In a following sea, it also wants to push the bow sideways. To combat all of this I just slow down, re group, then carry on. Most of the time slowing down and turning the direction the boat wants to go, then start again. All this said, it’s 4.5m and I go pretty much everywhere. I have a heap of experience with mono hulls, but this is different. Maybe all it takes is to force the boat to go in the direction I want to go in. More time behind the wheel will sort it I’m sure. Would love to take someone with experience out though.

that sounds like bow steering, do you have much ability to trim the motor and have you checked the engine height, when you get up on the plane, the engine cavitation plate should be just on top of the water with droplets of water running down the top of the plate.

Thanks for your reply Kandrew. I have pretty good trim control and understand where my cavitation plate should be while underway. The water exiting the tunnel is vastly different to water leaving the stern of a monohull. Do you have single engine cat experience?

I feel I run pretty rear heavy, and trim accordingly. If you’re free for a run at some stage, I’d love to take you for a blat. Open to all suggestions.

Hi Shambles - Did you ever get to grips with the minicat?. I'm currently looking at one and think it fits my purpose almost perfectly, but interested to know if you got on top of the handling quirks?.

I can recommend looking at the Fatcat as well if you are in the market for a small cat.

New here, saw this thread and thought I could offer some advice as an owner of a KF510 cat but probably a bit late is it looks like the OP has sold his 450. Maybe this will help other prospective buyers