From the superior vantage point, at the windmills near Nai Harn Beach, the 36-foot power catamaran – with its high fly-bridge and distinctive solar array atop its biminy – was easy to spot in the sparkling waters below.
We drove down and parked at the beach to await the vessel’s Captain, Peter Lee, who arrived to shore in his dinghy moments later to pick up me and my son.
When you visit a marine engineer’s boat, a good starting point for good conversation is in the specs and numbers.
The Honky Cat (inspired from the famous song by Elton John) is equipped with two Mercury Optimax outboard motors, which enable the five-tonne vessel to reach up to 25-knots, Peter notes.
With such power, you’d think it would need to guzzle up an awful lot of fuel to get anywhere at a reasonable speed – not, necessarily.
Peter explains the advantage of the uber-efficient engines that he imported from America.
“A traditional two-stroke [engine] draws fuel through the crank case; via either injection or carburators. So the fuel goes past the crank shaft, into the ports on the side of the cylinders. At the same time that the port is open to take fuel charge, the exhaust port opens, so you end up losing a lot of fuel.”
Peter says that as much as 30 per cent of the fuel is wasted when a two-stroke is running optimally at 3,000 revs, but even a tick over that could result in as much as 70pc losses.
“With a Mercury Optimax, the engine draws air through the crank case, but it doesn’t inject the fuel until the piston has gone past the ports, and it injects it right on top of the stroke – five times,” Peter’s eyes light up. He’s in his zone.
Bottom line, “No fuel is lost in the process, whatsoever!”
So, with a fuel capacity of two times 90 gallons, and cruising at 20 knots, the Honky Cat has a range of about 120 nautical miles, and triple that if trawling at only 8 knots.
But the real beauty of such a boat is you don’t always need to be on the move to
enjoy its benefits.
Stationary, it facilitates its own private paradise when simply anchored off Ya Nui Beach, or any other picturesque beach that offers breath taking vistas of – not from – our rustic gem.
“I could never consider living on shore full time,” confesses Peter, who made his foray into the marine world through the Royal Navy of Great Britain, initially as a weapons specialist before going on to study and specialize in marine engineering.
If he’s not working onshore, directing the building of Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) through his main business – Andaman Boat Company – then you can bet he’s out to sea, living the ideal, minimalistic life on his boat, catching dinner, if not out on a leisurely dive or water skiing trip.
Surely the Honky Cat would have cost him upwards of B10 million, but I’m shocked to learn that he’s put into it what the average 30 square metre shoebox condo in Phuket goes for these days – less than B2 million.
“Stepper built the hull for a customer, who backed out. So they had the hull stored for about six months, and wanted to move it. They initially asked B3 million for the hull. I bid B800,000 but ended up getting it for B900,000.”
The hull came ready with some stainless steel framework on the deck, but Peter did all the rest of the custom work, using mostly local labour and materials – the wooden deck flooring, the simple yet practical cabin layout, helm and navigations systems and even the fibreglass bimini which is lined with Divinycell, a special foam insulator material.
But the main thing I came aboard to check out was the fully-operational photovoltaic solar system.
The Honky Cat is equipped with both inverted AC mains and DC auxiliary supply, and Peter rarely needs to run a petrol generator, though can easily plug one in to power everything if he needs to.
On top of the bimini he’s got 4 x 100 Watt ultra-thin flexi PV panels. These charge a 24V, 100Ah battery pack (two 12V 100Ah batteries wired in series), or the equivalent of about two and half kilowatt-hours of energy on demand when at full charge.
“It’s a mistake to go for very big battery packs. For one, they weigh a lot and you need to be carrying them around. And, if a cell goes out, can be very costly to fix, 120Ah is the most you want to go,” he advises.
Peter’s humble power capacity is sufficient to energize most of his life-support systems – lighting, pumping, navigation, anchoring, antifouling and even a fridge.
“According to its rating, the fridge consumes about 30 watts average [Thai fridges are rated on annual estimated energy consumption], but it has a much higher start-up current. So you need a good inverter – at least 500W,” he notes.
But he still plans for more upgrades.
“I might add another 200W to the PV array, and expand the battery pack … Bear in mind, I’ve got massive charge capacity when the engines are running … On a planing boat, weight is crucial.”
We must have been on the boat – talking and drinking in between some swimming – for a good three hours, as the sun was starting to set. But it seemed as if we’d just boarded. Surely, I’d died and gone to heaven.
It wasn’t just me – Peter confirms that he often loses track of time when he’s out here – absorbing the sight of the fiery sun melt into the sparkling Andaman.
But as satisfying as it all is, this is far from the final “legacy project” for Peter, whose got grand plans in store.
A fully solar-powered boat is the next big project, he reveals. And he’s confident it could be built pretty easily, right here in Phuket.
A good chat for another sunset in heaven, perhaps. Watch this space.