Most boat hull designs slot reasonably comfortably into descriptive categories such as displacement, deep-V or cathedral. But not the Predator 160 produced by Douglas Marine. The hull that Ray Jackson has there at Hesketh Bank Boatyard near Southport would probably best be described as a planning boat hybrid, combining a deep-V entry at the bow with a sort of a semi-cathedral arrangement underneath towards the back. For my money the Predator has more of a V-hull feel about it than a semi-cathedral.
But you can't escape the fact that there are rear side keels, albeit to a less pronounced extent in terms of both length and depth than a true semi-cathedral. The design doesn't incorporate tunnels or arches. What it has is an exaggerated square keel placed either side of a centre V. It's difficult to paint an accurate picture using words alone. The best thing I can say is take a look at the photographs. But whatever the overall terminology, the overall effect works. In fact it works exceptionally well.
When Ray rang me to say the boat was ready, he suggested we get straight down to it as the forecast for the few days after that was for rain. The sun was blasting down from a clear blue sky as I put the cameras into the car. Half an hour later at Hesketh Bank I had my windscreen wipers on. But that didn't matter so much as long as the rain brought some squally wind with it. In the weeks prior to this particular day, I had unfortunately been forced to endure a seemingly endless supply of the stuff creating havoc with the fishing. Now when I wanted a good chop on the sea to put the Predator through its paces we couldn't get any, which is typical.
However, using the two boats in conjunction we did manage to create a fair deal of chop of our own. Not ideal, but good enough to do some lateral stability checks beam on at speed, and get some feel of what it might be like taking a bit of swell directly on to the bow. No problems on either count.
Currently, the Predator 160 is British Standards rated for a maximum of 60 hp on the back. But this could very well change in the none too distant future. This has nothing to do with the physical construction of the boat. Predator has a full ¾ inch hardwood ply transom bonded in place then covered by chopped strand matting and a full layer of roving. What determines a boats outboard rating is it's ability to drive in a straight line with that engine, perform a 90 degree turn within a given number of boat lengths, then continue on in another straight line under full control along it's new course. This could well go up to 80 hp. The version we had out on test was powered by a 50 hp Mercury which to me wasn't quite enough. Don't get me wrong. It pushed the boat along nicely at a reasonable pace. But it could have done with just that bit more. Its current maximum rating of a 60 hp could very likely be just right. You can put too much power potential onto a boat, some of which rarely gets used due to unfavourable sea conditions.
In some of the high speed tight turns, even 50 hp seemed too much. Those side keels give the Predator a lot of bite allowing it to perform full turns over a very short distance with good stability and a dry ride. The boat handled these very well, but you never know how far you dare push things. Not that tight turns should be necessary on a big open sea. But it did demonstrate manoeuvrability for confined space handling such as in a marina or coming along side another boat for whatever reason. Under straight line power it also performed well. I tried displacing the weight balance within the fishing well both at high speed and at rest and it felt very stable. Perhaps not as stable as a more traditional semi-cathedral design, but probably better than a traditional deep-V, lending more validity to the hybrid label. All in all then, a potentially good fishing platform with excellent handling characteristics, though as I said earlier, it would have been 'nice' to have had it out on more of a bumpy sea.
Lets then take a look at what goes into putting the Predator 160 together. The hull when being constructed has a full layer of roving matting sandwiched between layers of chopped strand matter. The flat bottomed side keels are reinforced with hardwood ply glassed into position, and the centre keel has a 12 inches deep by 1½ inches thick piece of mahogany along its internal length for reinforcing and to support a hardwood ply floor, which when glassed over is then given a non slip finish. The floor cavity this creates can be foamed as an optional extra if requested. Strengthening is also added to other key areas of the hull and to the sides of the boat. No feed back steering is fitted as standard to a console with a watertight locker and fire extinguisher in a moulded holder. Water tight lockers are also fitted into the two side forward buoyancy tanks. However, where most boats would have a forward buoyancy tank too, the Predator has a bulkhead forwards of which is a stowage area for the wet anchor rope coming back in through the hatch. Personally I wouldn't use the hatch as I prefer to side anchor, in which case I would have additional gear stowage space up front.
Bolted sealed polycarbonate windows are fitted as standard, as are cuddy and gunnel grab rails, stern cleats, bow post and anchor roller, all made from stainless steel. The standard angling version seating arrangement is for two forward swivel seats fixed on boxed pedestals, each with a water tight locker within. This however means that the seats are fixed. To keep them dry between trips they would need to be under cover. An optional alternative is to have plastic moulded seats, or as I have in my boat, cushioned seats on tubular pedestals which allows them to be removed and stowed up front when not in use which are a no extra cost option. The optional extra's list is quite extensive and includes stainless steel cuddy top lighting bridge, bilge pump, cover and cuddy canopy. The cushioned rear seat on board the model used for this sea test would very likely not be an option too many anglers would want to take up. It was however fitted to the demonstrator version for non anglers to see and try.
