Yes why not - I am guessing reason is two fold - kontiki is more complex so costs more (and they are already pretty expensive) and more to go wrong (some users have problem with baits catching in shore thing mechanism and not deploying) - 2/they cannot sell you another kontiki when it is lost! 

I guess it is only a matter of time till someone develops a combination as losing kontiki is a real problem in some places.

Sounds like good advice   and a good idea use lighter traces to hooks and sinkers - lot cheaper and simpler, however one benefit promoted of shore thing is quicker pull out through surf on West Coast beaches I would have thought that would be a good idea?

I recently purchased a Shorething and have tried it behind a seahorse (non GPS)46lb thrust torpedo.

I am having great difficulty getting the rig to run straight. The deviation is so severe that the rig ends up beaching itself about 300m down to the right. This occurs even with 4 clicks of rudder to the left. I have never used more than 2 clicks of rudder, even on the west coast.

I have tried it with 5m and 15m ropes between the shorething and the torpedo, the 15m ropes shows a very slight improvement but the rig still heads for the beach. 

I am not new to torpedo fishing and know how to get my gear to go straight. On the day of testing we were on Tokerau beach with 1/2 a metre of swell.

After speaking to Pauls fishing systems. I tried the rig without the plastic cowling installed around the hook holder. This showed a large improvement and we did manage to get the rig to go roughly straight.

The problem with this setup is that you have to be very careful while launching to avoid contact with the hooks and the beach, it becomes a 2 person operation to launch. This is not exactly ideal.

So at the moment my conclusion is that with the cowling installed it is impossible to set the shoerthing with a non GPS torpedo, I wish I had known this prior to purchase. The interesting anomaly to this is that Pauls fishing systems has assured me that there are many other people using the shorething with a non GPS torpedo, I would love to hear from one of them on how they mange this.

I even sent the Shorething back to Pauls fishing systems for checking, no fault was found.

We also had issues with the hooks not deploying after the time was up, the flat release bar jammed in the up position and did not release the weights. This happened twice in a row, very frustrating after finally getting the gear to go straight. The timer release pin actually went right past the release slot both times. On close inspection the flat bar seems to stick slightly as it tries to release, I am not sure if it is binding on the timer rod or the pivot bolt. I will pull the release flap off and polish all surfaces and see if that improves things.