I just purchased a Tomcat. Couple of questions, Does anyone have a manual on the boats ? Factory was not able to come up with one. Mine is a 2006 model. Also , has anyone ever actually installed a kicker motor between the twins and used it to cruise and fish at low speeds? Several reasons for my interest. Economical slow speed cruise ,as well as fishing. I have friends that cruise in a 6-7 knot sailboat that we would like to cruise with and that would seem to be a good way to do it. Would lessen hours on the big motors by doing this. I have a Honda and a Yamaha 10 hp High thrust motor and thought of using one of them. Interested in anyone that has actually done it and their results. Thanks
Bought a Tomcat couple of queations
- Thread starter tinbender
- Start date
Tinbender:
I have a factory manuel for a 2008 Tomcat. I plan on taking her out next weekend, so I will grab it off the boat and make a copy. I would say it is at or around 40 pages.
If you want to send you mailing address to rstinger@cox.net I will be happy to do this.
No experience on the kicker. I have twin Honda 135's. I will sometimes troll with one motor running and take turns between port and starboard motors.
You will no doubt decide fairly quickly that this is the best boat that you ever owned.
I have a factory manuel for a 2008 Tomcat. I plan on taking her out next weekend, so I will grab it off the boat and make a copy. I would say it is at or around 40 pages.
If you want to send you mailing address to rstinger@cox.net I will be happy to do this.
No experience on the kicker. I have twin Honda 135's. I will sometimes troll with one motor running and take turns between port and starboard motors.
You will no doubt decide fairly quickly that this is the best boat that you ever owned.
An example with a kicker would the would be Tom Cat 30/Chilkat 30. In charter work in AK they had kickers installed. The boat's beam is close to 12' however.
I made a portable bracket for a 3.5 hp Mercury 2 stoke. It fit on the dive ladder mount. However, it would not be strong enough for a 10 hp.
This also mounted on the railing as a place to store the motor in the cockpit:
The best option would be to bolt one of the swim step mounts in the center of the outboard bracket:
Similar to above, I have one on my Caracelle cat on the swim step, which is basically a piece of HDP with aluminum brackets which bolt thru the HDP holder and the swim step..sorry no photos. These used to be readily available, but I cannot find them currently.
You could make your bracket slide over the ladder mount, plus bolt thru the top of the motor bracket--might have to be custom made, but any good machine shop could make on.
When I was cruising with the Tom Cat, with trawler friends, I would go at planing speed, and then anchor until they caught up...
I made a portable bracket for a 3.5 hp Mercury 2 stoke. It fit on the dive ladder mount. However, it would not be strong enough for a 10 hp.
This also mounted on the railing as a place to store the motor in the cockpit:
The best option would be to bolt one of the swim step mounts in the center of the outboard bracket:
Similar to above, I have one on my Caracelle cat on the swim step, which is basically a piece of HDP with aluminum brackets which bolt thru the HDP holder and the swim step..sorry no photos. These used to be readily available, but I cannot find them currently.
You could make your bracket slide over the ladder mount, plus bolt thru the top of the motor bracket--might have to be custom made, but any good machine shop could make on.
When I was cruising with the Tom Cat, with trawler friends, I would go at planing speed, and then anchor until they caught up...
gulfcoast john
New member
Tinbender,
Congrads on your new ride!
The average boater only adds 150-200 engine hours per year (pretty sad, huh?). Assuming your main engines are out of warranty, can you guess how many annual engine hours you’ll be adding? Would the extra hours be significant to the next buyer of a 2006 boat? Most engines ‘rust out before they wear out.’
Having a method for a person overboard to re-board without assistance is a great safety feature (or maybe required, I’m not sure). If you store the Armstrong dive ladder pointing upwards while underway, a MOB can reach it from the water, reverse the position to a dive ladder, and climb back aboard without any help. The floatation in the ladder makes it a bit tougher, but we’ve both practiced and can do it easily. You would lose this option if you mounted a kicker in that area. You’d want to find an alternative MOB boarding option. Using the cowling tilt switch to raise the lower leg to the point where you could sit on it, and then majestically rise out of the water and somehow clamber over the kicker does not sound graceful enough for me to be interested.
Other downsides are loss of room storing a kicker and its’ separate gas container as well as dangers of refueling in the boat. Gas may continue to be cheap, and you could buy a lot of gas by selling the two kickers.
We use the method rstinge1 describes for minimum-wake displacement cruising at 3.5-8 MPH with one engine down and off. For doing 8 MPH on 10 MPH-limit canals you can keep the wake on the levee side. Credit to Discovery crew, who described this to minimize fuel needs between long legs on a vast SE Alaska cruise. We get over 6 MPG this way, depending of course on engine, props, loading etc. Yamaha reports same numbers (6.7 mpg @ 1,000rpm with twin F150’s on a Worldcat 27...likely even better at 650 vs 1,000 RPM).
My Yamaha tech is fine with long days under 1800 RPM, as long as I ‘open it up to WOT before coming back in the marina.’
So to answer your query, I have not installed a kicker but offer some reasons not to unless the single engine idle alternative doesn’t make you crazy happy like it does me. I’m sure the kicker option would be even more efficient despite the potential minor downsides.
Half the fun of boating and cruising is finding and customizing what works best for you and your crew! You don’t have to find that in your first season with your boat, but still max out your ‘adventure before dementia.’
81 degrees and sunny today, but in just 6 weeks the days start getting longer!
Cheers!
John
Congrads on your new ride!
The average boater only adds 150-200 engine hours per year (pretty sad, huh?). Assuming your main engines are out of warranty, can you guess how many annual engine hours you’ll be adding? Would the extra hours be significant to the next buyer of a 2006 boat? Most engines ‘rust out before they wear out.’
Having a method for a person overboard to re-board without assistance is a great safety feature (or maybe required, I’m not sure). If you store the Armstrong dive ladder pointing upwards while underway, a MOB can reach it from the water, reverse the position to a dive ladder, and climb back aboard without any help. The floatation in the ladder makes it a bit tougher, but we’ve both practiced and can do it easily. You would lose this option if you mounted a kicker in that area. You’d want to find an alternative MOB boarding option. Using the cowling tilt switch to raise the lower leg to the point where you could sit on it, and then majestically rise out of the water and somehow clamber over the kicker does not sound graceful enough for me to be interested.
Other downsides are loss of room storing a kicker and its’ separate gas container as well as dangers of refueling in the boat. Gas may continue to be cheap, and you could buy a lot of gas by selling the two kickers.
We use the method rstinge1 describes for minimum-wake displacement cruising at 3.5-8 MPH with one engine down and off. For doing 8 MPH on 10 MPH-limit canals you can keep the wake on the levee side. Credit to Discovery crew, who described this to minimize fuel needs between long legs on a vast SE Alaska cruise. We get over 6 MPG this way, depending of course on engine, props, loading etc. Yamaha reports same numbers (6.7 mpg @ 1,000rpm with twin F150’s on a Worldcat 27...likely even better at 650 vs 1,000 RPM).
My Yamaha tech is fine with long days under 1800 RPM, as long as I ‘open it up to WOT before coming back in the marina.’
So to answer your query, I have not installed a kicker but offer some reasons not to unless the single engine idle alternative doesn’t make you crazy happy like it does me. I’m sure the kicker option would be even more efficient despite the potential minor downsides.
Half the fun of boating and cruising is finding and customizing what works best for you and your crew! You don’t have to find that in your first season with your boat, but still max out your ‘adventure before dementia.’
81 degrees and sunny today, but in just 6 weeks the days start getting longer!
Cheers!
John
John,
I think you are a bit high on the "average number of hours a boat is used a year". Generally accepted is 50 hours a year for motor run time. In some areas it is way more than what you quoted. I hope it is for C Brats.. But our 2007 only had about 300 hours on it when we bought it 3 years ago (almost 600 now)
I agree that there are certainly negatives to the addition of a kicker in the center. I don't know if you have tried the "motor lift"--but in practicality it does not work out as well as it seems.
There are multiple other options for a ladder or boarding--but best to stay inside of the boat!
I think you are a bit high on the "average number of hours a boat is used a year". Generally accepted is 50 hours a year for motor run time. In some areas it is way more than what you quoted. I hope it is for C Brats.. But our 2007 only had about 300 hours on it when we bought it 3 years ago (almost 600 now)
I agree that there are certainly negatives to the addition of a kicker in the center. I don't know if you have tried the "motor lift"--but in practicality it does not work out as well as it seems.
There are multiple other options for a ladder or boarding--but best to stay inside of the boat!
Well sooner or later I will try the kicker between the mains. Had already planned on ladder on one side or the other of the main engines for boarding. Was hoping someone had already done it. I am a hands on guy , and have built 8 aluminum boats. One of them , I had what I thought was a brilliant idea that as far as i knew no one had done. When I reported back my findings to the group ,one of the guys said, "Oh yeah we tried that years ago. Didn't work like we expected. "So now I ask before jumping in if anyone has actually done it. Fabricating the bracket is a simple project for me. Thanks for every ones input. I will report back with how it works out with photos when I do it. Will be a while before I get to it. Thanks