Aqua Marina - Budget Tunnel Hull SIB

[chipko]

Originally Posted by PapaWhiskey

So did you find it wet and twitchy with the 3.5 long shaft as I don’t want a motor heavier than 20kg?

At planing speeds in choppy/breezy conditions yes. Slightly less with the 3.5’s as slower, maxing out at 11 knots (short) and 13 knots (long). Unfortunately at under 3m long, with small dia. tubes and a rubbing strake lacking any sort of drip moulding wind blown spray comes straight back in. It’s a twitchy ride and susceptible to bow steer, losing the air cushion and semi submarining particularly going downwind/following sea.

The longer 3.5 U-Deluxe or 3.35 Aircat may be considerably better in sea keeping and the Aircat’s appear to have shallower transoms…far more sensible.

Whilst the 3.5 longshaft was an effective quick fix regarding ventilation issues I’d not recommend running one as a permanent solution…it’s just so wrong.

As a super light ship to shore tender/creek explorer running at mainly displacement speeds then eminently suitable in my opinion.

[PapaWhiskey]

Thanks chipko for taking the time to post all the photos and reports of your testing and your constructive comments which I for one have certainly found extremely useful.

I was mainly attracted by the cat C rating, light weight and low price of the Aqua Marina whilst not loosing too much space or capacity against my existing 3.2 sib/6hp Mariner which has been absolutely brilliant and capable of 18 knots solo and 15 knots loaded with the wife and dog remaining totally stable and predictable in all conditions encountered.

I do realise this lightweight low bow 2.98 is not going to have the speed, sea-keeping or dry ride qualities of my existing rig but as I'm getting on a bit, 49kg + 27kg has become increasingly difficult to move around on and off the mother ship so i'm just going to have to compromise!

Best wishes to you and yours for the new year.

[Budgie boi]

Hey there. I have an aquamarina aircat 335 with a parsun 9.8 2 stroke. Was helpful finding this forum and these posts. The aircats transom height works well. Still some ventilation but a bit of moving around with two people on board gets is sorted. Once on plane down wind sitting back a bit helps and sitting forward into the wind reduces ventilation. 3/4 throttle is 15 knots with 170kg of humans on board plus some gear and it still planes with 3 adults at 230kg. Best value boat I could find new at $1100 NZD and motor was $2200 NZD.