Wildcat 350

[paradisenwfl]

Anyone here have experience with this catamaran?

Anyone have an opinion about this catamaran?

Thanks

[UNCIVILIZED]

belizesailor has a wildcat 35, so you might read some of his posts, & or contact him directly. There's also some information on them on other multihull forums. Though it's likely that a large %age of your questions don't just apply to that design. So if you post them, along with more info on you, your sailing plans/dreams, skill level, budget, etc. Then it gets a lot easier for us to field your queries. Whether we own the boat in question or not.
Also, peruse the multihull section a bit, as well as the forums in general. There's a lot of transferable knowledge.

[paradisenwfl]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll see what info I can gather from belizesailor.

[44'cruisingcat]

You can also read the "Bumfuzzles" blog. The early stuff.

[paradisenwfl]

I have read bumfuzzle's blog. I have also read a post from the current owner of bumfuzzle that loves the boat.

It's confusing!

[44'cruisingcat]

I thought the Fuzzles loved the boat too. Some issues with the build quality cost a bit to fix, but I thought they enjoyed the boat otherwise.

If you were looking at buying one, obviously you'd want a thorough survey, but that's true of any boat.

[paradisenwfl]

I agree ... a thorough survey would be in order. Seems to me that the Wildcat is a lot of boat for the money if you can find a well built one.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

I thought the Fuzzles loved the boat too. Some issues with the build quality cost a bit to fix, but I thought they enjoyed the boat otherwise.

If you were looking at buying one, obviously you'd want a thorough survey, but that's true of any boat.

I swapped some emails with them when they were crossing the Pacific...happy as clams surfing to 10 knots...my impression is they did like the boat.

The problems came a bit later. One thing that is mentioned in their book that never seems to get mentioned in the well hyped bad press was a significant collission with something on thier crossing...could have caused some of the issues they had (keel and delam).

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by paradisenwfl

Anyone here have experience with this catamaran?

Anyone have an opinion about this catamaran?

Thanks

We have run across a few of them in the last year. Since I read Bumfuzzle, I was interested in how they held up.

Its seems like any boat there are good and bad examples. Out of the 4 we encountered, 2 of them were complete disasters (delam decks, cracking everywhere, interior falling apart) and 2 of them looked very good with happy owners. 4 is probably not a good scientific representation, but its what we saw. Of course the really beat up ones could be due to poor maintenenace. No real way to know.

For me.. I'm not sure I could justify the risk unless it was a REALY good deal. There are just so many other cats out there that have a better pedigree!

[belizesailor]

I get asked about Wildcats a lot. So much that I have put my comments in a file. Link here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nnle81b613...20W35.txt?dl=0


There were good Wildcats built, I think moslty the earlier builds before the company really went to hell in a hand basket. They built some real crap later on.

The trick of course becomes finding a good one. An extremely thurough survey needs to be done...especially since they are now aging.

A well built one I think is a good little big boat for a very competative price.

Something that has changed significantly since I bought mine is that the used cat market has expanded greatly. Case in point, a friend of mine recently purchased a Lagoon 38 in very good condition for $160K. When I bought mine, it was almost impossible to get a late model cat for under $200K. The market has now changed...lots of good used cats now for under $200K. So, shop around.

Assuming you can find a good one, the one thing you cant fix is low bridgedeck clearance. Hardly an issue unique to the Wildcat, but no realistic way to improve upon that.

Bottom line: Ive used mine as a liveaboard, charter boat, cruising boat and its served all of these purposes well.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by paradisenwfl

Thanks for the feedback. I'll see what info I can gather from belizesailor.

Responded to your PM and posted link to my comments here.

[belizesailor]

Also, if you do get one, switch to feathing/folding props right away...the big 3 blade fixed props many were originally outfitted with are like dragging buckets around.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by travellerw

We have run across a few of them in the last year. Since I read Bumfuzzle, I was interested in how they held up.

Its seems like any boat there are good and bad examples. Out of the 4 we encountered, 2 of them were complete disasters (delam decks, cracking everywhere, interior falling apart) and 2 of them looked very good with happy owners. 4 is probably not a good scientific representation, but its what we saw. Of course the really beat up ones could be due to poor maintenenace. No real way to know.

For me.. I'm not sure I could justify the risk unless it was a REALY good deal. There are just so many other cats out there that have a better pedigree!

Though 4 is a small sample, your observations are in keeping with what Ive seen.

The risk is getting a bad one and then having to spend the difference between that and a better pedigree used cat to get her up to snuff.

Some Ive seen, including brand new ones, were so bad no amount of money would fix them...serious structural problems brand new.

Used to run a newish one in charter that I would not have gone outside the reef in. By contrast mine is built like a brick house...probably a bit heavy as a result, but solid and a good heavy weather boat.

[belizesailor]

Another factor to consider is that they built a lot of layout variations...some are less than ideal. Like a 3 cabin Jaguar 36 (essentially the same boat) a friend owns, making a big athwart ships forward cabin made the anchor locker very small...the 4 cabin like mine is the opposite...huge anchor locker...I can get completely in it and crawl around...handy for some maintenance tasks and storing extra ground tackle.

[Kimmic42]

hey we are having issues as well we can't seem to get ours to turn downwind, always wants to turn into wind and have tried everything possible to correct,

what issues are you having?