New Leopard Powercat

[tenniscaptain]

We sea trialed a previously owned Leopard 51 powercat and really liked it. After a lot of thought we decided on a new one. The boat is in production and will be here this February. The boat should be perfect for East coast and Bahamas cruising. Fuel efficient and seaworthy both for intracoastal and offshore. We have had cats before and are familiar with the diminishing availability of slips.

[bluenomads]

Congratulations on the decision!

What made you like the Leopard vs others?
Also what made you choose new vs old - was the used one just too worn out or something else?

[tenniscaptain]

After looking at many powercats I chose the Leopard 51. Leopard has made over 120 51's so far. Their reputation from people that have cruised on them got my interest initially. I just think comparing it to others in her class the Leopard satisfied my expectations of what a quality powercat should be. The outside gathering cockpits for people are really outstanding. The offshore comfort of the boat was excellent. I also really like the Yanmar 370 hp engines. You won't find super expensive interior amenities like what is on the multi million dollar powercats. You will find a heck of a boat for the money. We decided on a new one for a couple of reasons. The new one will be here in February so the wait is a non issue. We were able to get the exact options we want on the new one. The new boat will have full extended warranty on all equipment. Leopard gave us a good deal.

[gonesail]

let me check with my bank .. no i'm 450000.00 short

[NPCampbell]

Originally Posted by tenniscaptain

Fuel efficient and seaworthy both for intracoastal and offshore. We have had cats before and are familiar with the diminishing availability of slips.

I was comparing the Leopards to the FPs. The FPs have nice island beds with better fuel efficiency and reeeeaaally easy docking ... but that is due to IPS pods. Leopards uses a conventional shaft drive and I would probably go that direction if I were buying right now because I'm just not sold on the maintenance requirements of IPS. Gratz on your purchase.

[atlroofman]

Has the squatting problem with the leopard power cats been fixed?

As this hull is the same design as the there sailing cat is there a down side from not designing the hull for powered propulsion?

Are you going to install throttle controls and a joy stick for steering at the navagation desk for very bad weather operation ?

I see they have added larger engines to combat the underpowering of previous models.
(seems like everyone repowering an old leopard power cat is doubling the horse power)

congratulations on your purchase
In 2 years and I will be off the hard myself and on the water.

[tenniscaptain]

I will try to answer a couple of questions that some have asked. We considered the new FP 44 pc. Great interior design. It was too pricey for me. I have had pods before on boats. My biggest concern with the IPS pods is that there is no protection from any debris or groundings. They are great handling any dockside issues though. I am putting bow and stern thrusters on the Leopard. This should give me easy docking and also provide easy docking should I ever need to dock with one engine out. With pods, docking becomes a real issue if you lose an engine. The old Leopard 47 pc did have a squatting issue, not an issue with the 51pc. The 51pc was designed from the hull up to be a powercat. The sailing cats have an all together different hull and keel configuration. We do have an inside navigation helm. Here, we have throttles and autopilot controls as well as instrumentation. When we are offshore we can run the boat from inside if we want. I am trying to decide if I want to put on a cell phone booster. I have heard positive and negative about this. We will be adding a new raymarine doppler pulse radar. I am looking forward to using it. It should make identifying intentions of boats pretty simple.

[Simi 60]

You did see domino to sale right?

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/200...no-20-3223885/

[tenniscaptain]

Yes. I have seen that Domino has been for sale for a while now. I had kept up with their worldly blogs and found them most interesting. I think Domino is a great boat especially for offshore long range use. It is too bad the owner has had to keep reducing the asking price but it will be a good buy for someone. I have often seen that trying to resell a custom one off boat can be very challenging. It does not seem to matter how great the actual boat is. I think people are looking for the security of a brand named boat.

[bluenomads]

Domino is a great example of a boat made for a certain mindset/couple. There are probably a reasonably small finite set of people she's perfect for, and it's just a matter to waiting to find new owners. For example, if I had the money I would have already bought her...