'It's like a knife': Locally built boat attracts international interest

Times & Transcript : January 25, 2020

Bigger, faster and more efficient. That’s how Michel Pachiaudo describes the new boat his company creates in Dalhousie.

Pachiaudo is the vice-president of Pro Cat, which manufactures a working catamaran fabricated from composite.

“It’s like a knife”, said Pachiaudo at the Fish Canada Workboat trade show, which takes place at the Moncton Coliseum Friday and Saturday. “It goes on the water and it cuts the water.”

The boat is capable of speeds up to 38 knots and can be either 32 or 36-feet long and is 16-feet wide.

“It is a multitask platform that is wider than other boats”, said Pachiaudo. “That means more desck space and you can carry more payload.”

The Pro Cat is designed mainly for use by the coastal fisheries in the Maritimes and New England, he said, but as many other possible applications.

Pachiaudo said the catamaran can be used as a ferry for up to 50 people, as a coast guard patrol ship, a fire boat, a troop carrier for the military or even as a medicare unit.

“Medicare is important for third world countries,” said Pachiaudo. “You can put a dentist and a doctor office on it.”

Pachiaudo said there has been interest in the boat from potential customers all over the world including the United States, South and Central America, Africa and the Middle East.

Pachiaudo said the boat uses about 30 percent less fuel than similar boats, and that its two outboard engines are better for seasonal fisheries.

“When you are a seasonal fisherman, a lobster fisherman, and you have an inboard engine, it’s a nightmare to remove,” said Pachiaudo.

“It can take one or two months to replace the engine. With an engine like (on the Pro Cat), it’s half a day and you’re working.”

He said they received around 35 letters of interest following an appearance at a recent trade show in Maine, and 15 to 20 letters after a show in New Orleans.

The hope is to turn those letters of interest into orders and begin mass-producing the boats on an assembly line in Dalhousie where there is a port adapted for exports. Pachiaudo said a boat can be manufactured and delivered to a customer within a couple of months.

The price of the Pro Cat is $420,000 with the outboard motors or $520,000 with a diesel engine. Pachiaudo said that is more or less in line with other working boats similar in size.

Pachiaudo and Magguy Thibodeau, president and CEO of Pro Cat, said they will take the demo on display this weekend at the Coliseum to different harbours on the east coast so fishermen can compare it to other boats.

“The technology is a new technology, and we would like people to recognize this and follow us,” said Thibodeau.

The Fish Canada Workboat Show take place Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Coliseum.