30' C-Dory Catamaran/Black Feather

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Gratitude

New member
It appears that the original molds for the 30' C-Dory catamarans are being used again in production.

http://www.blackfeatherboats.com/

I have been in contact with the president Gregor Welpton.
and they have some impressive gallons per hour fuel burns. He wrote:

With Honda 225's we are seeing through several boats a fuel consumption
of 9 gallons per hour @ 4200 rpm - giving a cruise of 29 - 30 knots.
This seems to be the real sweet spot for the boat.
With Suzuki 250's we are seeing a burn of 10.5 at 4300 giving a cruise
of 32-34 knots depending on loading. This data comes from 3 separate
charter vessels this summer each with over 500 hours run time. When run above the cruise, fuel consumption does climb dramatically -
although I don't have any solid data for burn at full throttle. 30 knots
seems fast enough for most.
By the way - these burn rates are for engines combined - not per.

Gregor

I would be curious to know how these fuel burn rates compare with both the TomCat.

Thanks,
Jim
 
I have been keeping my eye on this boat for some time. One of our members worked as a fishing guide out of the Juneau area last summer and one of the boats in their fleet was a ChillKat. THIS THREAD has a little information (unfortunately, not good) on the company and the boat.

Please keep us posted on what you find out!

Warren
 
hey there, I ran around some in hull #1. I liked it, thought it rode and handled well and made a helluva great fishing platform. I don't know what to make of those fuel figures as the fuel monitor would generally read about the same as the speed, ie, 19knt- 19gpm, 23 kts-23gpm and the gallons squirted in the tank every three days kind of backed those numbers up. this boat had a pair of 250-225? yamaha's. maybe I should have ran it 30knts and saved some fuel, or maybe I should have raised the kicker or brought in the sea anchor :)

I think most of the grumbling about the CK was due to two things, it was hull #1 and there where some birthing issues and also in the fleet where a pair of very heavy 34' Baja Cruiser cats...naturally the lighter weight CK isn't going to ride as nice as the bigger cat which it was compared to

here is a link to the original C-Dory 30' performance specs
http://web.archive.org/web/199812061356 ... phperf.htm
 
I got a chance to look at the ChilKat 30 at the Juneau Boat Show this year. The boat on display was rigged as a charter or sport fishing vessel, but they are listing options for a cruiser version.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take one out (yet). They cost significantly more than a Tomcat, but they're being built locally in SE Alaska. I'm not sure how many they produce each year.
 
Hi all,

I saw a 30 Black Feather cat at Craig this summer. I have lots of photos, which I will post latter this winter when I have some time.

The boat was in used by a fishing lodge to take out charter fishermen. It had twin 225 Hondas, one of which was getting a new lower unit at about 200 hours. The mechanics changed the lower unit right in the water at the dock. The boat was a walk around charter fishing model, and seemed well made.
 
I would tend to believe the origional C Dory Tom Cat preformance numbers, rather than current claims. The Tom Cat 255 gets from 2 to 2.3 miles a gallon at max effeciency planing speeds. The boats have simlar hulls--the Chilkat has higher tunnel clearance, wider spacing of the hulls and wider beam, plus it weighs more.

I also considered it--but it is not easily trailerable--that is it requires a permit. I think they are great boats, and hope to see a cruising model next summer....
 
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