# Seacat or Worldcat



## perryo (Nov 15, 2006)

Wich used 25' cat with a center console would you prefer and have personal experience with, Seacat or Worldcat. I want a fishing machine not a cruiser. I have been looking at both models made between 1995 and 2001. Seacats seem a little more roomy when it comes to deck space in front of the console. However, I dont know which boat has the greatest life span, durability, seaworthiness and storage space. I am interested in running 50 miles out of Port A on reasonable days with 5' seas or less. Thanks for any input.


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## Argo (May 21, 2004)

5' seas is an interesting goal for sure.

I would go with the world cat for one main reason. The profile of the bow is much higher and less likely to go plowing into a wave head on. I have been on a glacier bay twice and taken a wave over the bow HARD(it has similar bow profile to a seacat).


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## perryo (Nov 15, 2006)

WOW. Good info. I will more likely be going out in 2-4' seas. It doesnt often get much calmer than that anyway


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## shanker (Jan 15, 2006)

perryo said:


> WOW. Good info. I will more likely be going out in 2-4' seas. It doesnt often get much calmer than that anyway


umm....ive been out there when its as smooth as glass, and that happens alot in the summer


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## Pope (Jun 20, 2004)

There is a difference in the 95 sea cats from the 96s. I believe they switched from planing hulls to semi displacement in 96. Maybe it was 97 before thay sold their hull designs. Do some searches on the thehulltruth.com. I do like the world cats bow profile like Argo said.


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## Argo (May 21, 2004)

even the glacier bay has a higher profile than the seacats. My prefered boat would be a large 30' glacier bay. second choice would be 33' world cat. in the 25-27 I would go with the 25/6' glacier bay and then the 27' worldcat. worldcat is a semidisplacement hull so it planes like the seacat, glacier bay is a displacement hull and does not plane.

search around and you can find some good deals on either of those 25-27' boats for well under 50k....... kmaryp has one for sale I believe but I dont know the asking price.


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## sferg (May 26, 2004)

I have put 500+hours on a 97' Seacat, It is a planing hull. Very efficient and performs well in slop. You can trim it up and run when monohulls take a beating. If I were buying a boat, I would definitely consider a sea cat ,but I would also consider the 2660 procat which is a battle wagon also.


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## jdusek (Apr 7, 2006)

When we decided to buy a new boat we new we wanted cat hull for the room, and stability. After looking at most of the brands we went with Prokat because we wanted 36+ size cat hull and there were not really a lot of options. Also the price was right.


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## dr9shark (Aug 16, 2004)

Argo hit the nail dead on the head. Go for it. Drshark


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## CLVL (Aug 17, 2005)

This is what I know of the Seacat's history. The 25 SeaCat goes back to a hull design which was used in Hawaii and the south Pacific for about 20 years. It began life as a 24' Manta 1987 or '88, designed by Larry Potter, and built by his company Ocean Technology in Ocean Springs, MS. The 24 Manta was the first cat I ever fished from in the Biloxi Wildlife area east of New Orleans with guide Gary Taylor (Gary is still there today, Orvis-certified guide so you fly fishermen can find him by going to Orvis's site). The hull of the Manta is identical to pre 1996 SeaCats and is designed to plane. The main differences from the original MantaCat are that the liner and transom are different between the two. The Manta was a 3 piece boat - hull, deck, and cap - while the Seacat is a 2 piece boat - hull and inner liner. Otherwise the pre '96 Seacat and the Manta look like twins from the rub rail down. As Argo noted, the shear line is constant and low enough that at trolling speeds, the bow can be stuffed and water easily taken. I bought hull #1 of a 19' cat Otech made off the 24' Manta mold called the Kahala, and owned this boat for 10 years - the lineage of that boat is another discussion. 

In 1992, North American Fiberglass bought the Manta design, hired Potter for a while, and developed the 25 SeaCat model based on the same hull. The original planing hulls start at the bow with a sharp entry and vary continuously to a low angle V at the transom. The area near the corners become flat planing surfaces and meet a 90 degree hard chine on each side of the sponson. Before the sale, Potter was designing a 21' cat with a new sponson shape - now referred to as "semi-displacement"- renamed the boat "SeaCat", and made a handful which were composite, no wood, boats before the sale to NAF (guide Gary Taylor has, if it survived Katrina, hull #2 which I've fished from several times). The SL1 came out as this hull except marine plywood was in place of the foam cores which made the boat heavier, and in my opinion, not ride as well. NAF needed to get the 25 in production so it came out as the SL5 Seacat planing hull in 1993. In 1996 the hull and transom of the SL5 was redesigned to the "semi-displacement" hull, and the 23 (SL3) was added to the line-up (also semi-displacement). The redesigned hulls are rounded with small chines and the bottom resembles a U. The chines were raised and got smaller in an effort to make the boat sneeze less and throw less water. Another part of the redesign was to raise the transom to allow for more power (up to 300 HP total). This supposedly gave the boat a "better" ride to the already smooth-riding hulls, although sacrificed fuel efficiency and speed vs. the planing hull. The shear line remained the same though in the Seacat. 

In 1998 North American Fiberglass merged with LeisureCat and changed their name to International Class Catamarans (which later became World Class Catamarans - manufacturers of the World Cat.) World Class borrowed the "semi-displacement" hull from the redesigned SeaCat to incorporate it into their new World Cat. At this point, the shear line was changed giving the World Cat a higher bow, and I think better aesthetic lines. World Class sold the assets (molds) of SeaCat to Sport-Craft who made the Sport-Cat in 21, 23, and 25 lengths. The Sport-Cat is practically identical to the post 95 SeaCats. Thus, both the WorldCat, Sport-Cat, and '96-'98 SeaCats have identical (at the waterline) "semi-displacement" hulls. If you search Boat Trader, you can often see the two different designs of the SeaCat, a Sport-Cat, and many, many World Cats. The Leader cat came out in ~2000, and was designed off the semi-displacement 21' design - the tunnel height was raised 3", the boat lengthened to 22', and the shear line raised for a high bow. I think Leader was in business for a couple years, and then changed ownership in 2003 or 04 with the new company calling itself "Seacat" again. They now make 18', 20' and 22' models. The original Manta planing hulls were effectively designed out of the current production boats. The most similar production planing cat hull is the ProKat. I believe that the ProKat 26 started life as the 25 OceanStar as PK purchased the OceanStar molds after OceanStar went out of business. The OceanStars were a wet riding boat - its been a long time and PK may have improved this attribute (I know that above the rub rail the PK is a different boat). I've never ridden the 26 ProKat so can't comment.

OK, I've bored you with enough history. Credit - A poster on THT started this history which I have modified based on my personal knowledge and experiences.

To answer the original question, if I were looking at a 25' production planing cat, I would go with the 93-95 SeaCat. This design gives good fuel efficiency with higher cruising and top speeds with a little harder ride than the semi-displacement cat. It would be fine for 2'-4' seas. If you want the smoother ride of a 25' semi-displacement cat, I would buy a 1999 or later World Cat - the higher bow is a definite, seaworthy advantage over the 1996-98 SeaCat and WC improved the inner liner in 1999.

If you go to the 26' length, then there's the 26.5' World Cat to compare with the 26' Glacier Bay&#8230;&#8230;..ride both, you decide.


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## price (Mar 19, 2006)

CLVL said:


> This is what I know of the Seacat's history. The 25 SeaCat goes back to a hull design which was used in Hawaii and the south Pacific for about 20 years. It began life as a 24' Manta 1987 or '88, designed by Larry Potter, and built by his company Ocean Technology in Ocean Springs, MS. The 24 Manta was the first cat I ever fished from in the Biloxi Wildlife area east of New Orleans with guide Gary Taylor (Gary is still there today, Orvis-certified guide so you fly fishermen can find him by going to Orvis's site). The hull of the Manta is identical to pre 1996 SeaCats and is designed to plane. The main differences from the original MantaCat are that the liner and transom are different between the two. The Manta was a 3 piece boat - hull, deck, and cap - while the Seacat is a 2 piece boat - hull and inner liner. Otherwise the pre '96 Seacat and the Manta look like twins from the rub rail down. As Argo noted, the shear line is constant and low enough that at trolling speeds, the bow can be stuffed and water easily taken. I bought hull #1 of a 19' cat Otech made off the 24' Manta mold called the Kahala, and owned this boat for 10 years - the lineage of that boat is another discussion.
> 
> In 1992, North American Fiberglass bought the Manta design, hired Potter for a while, and developed the 25 SeaCat model based on the same hull. The original planing hulls start at the bow with a sharp entry and vary continuously to a low angle V at the transom. The area near the corners become flat planing surfaces and meet a 90 degree hard chine on each side of the sponson. Before the sale, Potter was designing a 21' cat with a new sponson shape - now referred to as "semi-displacement"- renamed the boat "SeaCat", and made a handful which were composite, no wood, boats before the sale to NAF (guide Gary Taylor has, if it survived Katrina, hull #2 which I've fished from several times). The SL1 came out as this hull except marine plywood was in place of the foam cores which made the boat heavier, and in my opinion, not ride as well. NAF needed to get the 25 in production so it came out as the SL5 Seacat planing hull in 1993. In 1996 the hull and transom of the SL5 was redesigned to the "semi-displacement" hull, and the 23 (SL3) was added to the line-up (also semi-displacement). The redesigned hulls are rounded with small chines and the bottom resembles a U. The chines were raised and got smaller in an effort to make the boat sneeze less and throw less water. Another part of the redesign was to raise the transom to allow for more power (up to 300 HP total). This supposedly gave the boat a "better" ride to the already smooth-riding hulls, although sacrificed fuel efficiency and speed vs. the planing hull. The shear line remained the same though in the Seacat.
> 
> ...


Great info!!!


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## gulfrunner (Aug 27, 2006)

*World Cat*

i have fished and deck hand on 246 world cat, a dry ride and no problems in 3 seasons of charters.world cat is the best cat i*ve been in 4 to 5 and 6 to 8 ft seas and the ride is dry and smooth.


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## fathom lures (Jan 27, 2007)

*kelvacat?*

not to hijack but is kelvacat in the same ballpark?

the inboard steyrs caught my eye.

Fathom


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## Calmday (Jul 7, 2005)

fathom lures said:


> not to hijack but is kelvacat in the same ballpark?
> 
> the inboard steyrs caught my eye.
> 
> Fathom


The Kelvacat is a planing hull. It is faster and more economical to run but you give a little on the ride. It's still a softer ride than a V hull.


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## BPitcher (Aug 23, 2004)

fathom lures said:


> not to hijack but is kelvacat in the same ballpark?
> 
> the inboard steyrs caught my eye.
> 
> Fathom


If you're interested in the Kevlacat, shoot mcgolfer a message. He and his boat partners own a 28.

From the times I've ridden in it, it seems like a nice boat. Lots of room, no fishboxes though. The only problem I saw is the lack of scuppers, just holes in the transom to let water drain out (and in).

Brad


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## perryo (Nov 15, 2006)

GREAT info. Thanks for all the input. I will look more into the Kevlacats also.


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## myprozac (Feb 7, 2006)

Im pretty sure kevlacats have the greatest range. 
Jeff


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## freespool (Oct 1, 2005)

Good thread. I am debating a larger boat next summer and have given a bit of thought to a World Cat. I would have to fish one first to decide. After 20 years of vee hulls it may be a difficult switch. seems like more surface area to wax.


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## manintheboat (Jun 1, 2004)

Great info by CLVL and Argo. I drive a sport cat, which is basically the same as sea cat, and I love it. The only thing I do not live is the flat shear line. When slow trolling into steep waves over 3', it is possible to take some green water over the bow. That is not very cool. The world cat is raised up front which eliminates this problem to an extent. For running in our normal chop, I am very glad to have my cat.


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