orange150

Hello all,
I am beginning to get very interested in large scale cats, but am having a hard time finding some good info and pictures on them. What I want is a cat that is scale looking and can take multiple engines. The three companies/boats I am looking at are Sonic Racing, the MHZ CT03 or Jolly Motor, and Express Craft MTI Cat or Supercat. One of my main questions is why are the MHZ boats so much more than the Express Craft boats? Expresscraft boats are $350 while the MHZ's are around $900 (I excluded Sonic because they seem to be smaller company and more custom). Are there any other companies that make a good looking hull that will accept two+ engines?
I think that was all my questions... so far.
Thanks!

johnnyx

i have just bought this cat from hanspeter its the ct 04 the other hulls are just glass hanspeters hulls are 70% carbon do it right do it once heres a couple of pics of mine this boat was $750 cheers john

johnnyx

just a quickie the cto3 is made by swiss model powerboat team . ch not mh$ if they are selling it its a copy and sure as hell wont be a carbon boat

Justaddwata

My Feedback: (3)

The MH$ boats are so expensive because there is a guy (lest call him Dr. Who) who is jacking the prices through the roof.

In the US there are not many options for big twin cats. Expresscraft have three large cats that are capable of twins. You could try your luck getting service from Blackhawkhobbies.com. who do a 74" copy of a Swissmodelboatteam cat.

In reality you may be better off paying a little extra for shipping and looking accross the atlantic for options. The Swiss team cats are most impressive and you are more likely to deal with someone who knows their stuff than just throwing money at Dr. Who for his woeful service..

Paul M

Let's not forget that the MH$ boats are made with epoxy resin not cheap polyester... I mean that adds 4 or 500 bucks to the value don't you think??

xxxboatworks

paul, It always crack me up when MH$ claims the epoxy is MUCH more than polyster. The difference in materials is probably 35
bucks for a large hull

orange150

So what y'all are saying is, is that the MHZ boats aren't really worth the cost? im a newb to all of this stuff.
does Swissmodel boats have a website? i tried to google it but came up empty handed.

johnnyx

www.swissmodelpowerboatteam.ch there is no price list on there but the ct04 is 850chf (swiss francs) $750 us the ct04 (newer model) is the same. the big one is 1500chf nice boats all of them. The ct03 seems to be more popular but i liked the look of the ct04 better if you need any more advise let me know

Justaddwata

My Feedback: (3)

The MH$ product is very high quality though about 2 X the price it is worth.

Add to that the excessive markup the US Dealer adds and his sorry excuse for service / delivery / and excessive shipping fees and you have a product that is not much value despite the high quality.

orange150

for the price of one of those Swiss boats plus shipping cost to get it state side would be just as much if not more than the price of one of those MHZ boats right?

School me on Express Craft; they dont look too bad but they are a lot cheaper than the rest.

xxxboatworks

I am a dealer for them and have built a few of every one of their boats. Many of the boats you see on thier web site were built by me. Let me know what you need...I am VERY familiar with the entire line. Many of the hulls are very nice (and some are not so nice).

gasfreak

My Feedback: (13)

what are the specs on the thunderbolt hull I can not find it anywhere on the site only the weight no length or beam

xxxboatworks

50" long/ 17" wide

gasfreak

My Feedback: (13)

what would you guess the speed to be with a 5 hp g26 in it

xxxboatworks

Can't really determine speed with your HP ratings. There are many other factors that affect the top speed of a boat (such as torque and max RPM's). I do know that this boat will run 60 mph with a mod Zenoah.

birel19

with a zen how does the osprey and cheeta handle, are they good hulls?[8D]

xxxboatworks

The cheetah handles very well and has proven to be race worry. The osprey is a good looking hull and makes a great rough water boat, but does not like going over 50 mph.

orange150

Still looking at cats, definatly liking the CT03 from Swiss and MHZ, I like that scale look a lot better. Express Craft boats don't seem to have that scale look as much.

So now what about Sonic from Australia? LOVE the fact that you can run quads, boats dont look bad, and $750 AUD=$579.188 U.S. There is of course always the shipping. But do any of you have much info on how the boats are?

sonicracing

What info would you like ? I have produced 4 of these so far, one of these RTR as a Quad going to the UK shortly and another Quad will be going to the USA. The third is in Canberra Australia still being built and I have the 4th which is a full carbon fiber hull.

Shipping is the big killer, a hull by itself or complete RTR is around $900 AUD in a plywood crate- not cardboard, with DHL 3 to 5 days. Its not the weight but the size that dictates the shipping price.

Web site has been down for a few days but appears to be working fine now. Plenty of videos to see.

Cheers, Danny.

Justaddwata

My Feedback: (3)

You might check with a freight broker to see if you could add the crate to a partial container. They are often looking to add light items to heavy half full containers. You will surely get a better deal than DHL (though may take 25-35 days to go by sea).

sonicracing

Sea mail........ a sore point with me at the moment, I've been waiting just on 100 days so far for over $500 USD (that's about $700 koala dollars) for some stuff I ordered that should have been sent airmail and been here 95 days ago. I don't blame the sender, it's the postal service.

Danny.

orange150

Danny,
So if I were to buy one of your hulls no matter what I bought with it the shipping cost would be the same? Interesting... and expensive, haha. I have deffinatly seen the videos on your website, they were some of the first I saw that got me hooked on the idea. Do both of your cat hulls have the single canopy design (thats the look I'm going for)? Also is there any major difference between the Genesis and Twister hulls? On your site I can't really tell on any of your pictures.

sonicracing

Shipping costs are size related, not so much weight. The same size crate can be 10 kilo's or 150 kilos and still cost the same for shipping.

Hull differences are the Twister hull a traditional V style to the sponsons and can handle rougher water conditions and is slightly bigger. The Genesis hull has more of a sprint cat design to the sponsons and are all but flat with steps. I have also done a center canopy for the Genesis hull which will use air intake vents to cover the spark plugs with. I haven't finished one off yet but here are some photos here of it on a hull and I still have to do the forward facing vents.





Cheers, Danny.