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1 It s a fascinating boat, this NoosaCat 1850, with a special link toF&B magazine. The forerunner ofthis craft, the Noosa Cat 520 wasactually our cover girl on the veryfirst issue of F&B we ever published. Back then (in 1994) Noosa Cat chiefWayne Hennig had just completed thetooling for the boat that was to becomeone of the biggest selling models in theNoosa Cat the time, the Noosa Cat 520 hadconventional transom outboard wells,but later in the mid 1990 s this grew toinclude a podded transom that in turnextended the life of the boat - the 560 -for another couple of years as itincreased the waterline length of , in 2001, we have the verylatest model incorporating the so-called pods into the hull itself. Hennig hascreated a very snappy looking craftindeed that is now entitled to be calledan 1850 model as distinct from 520 asit was when it was some 400 mmshorter on the the changes do not stop with theincorporation of the new transom.

2 Ofgreat importance to cat aficionados isthe continued development of thesponson or hull shapes in this craft. Italready incorporates the now standardnacelle arrangement in the centre of themouth of the cat hulls, but importantly,this new model features the latestthinking as far as strake, chine and keelshape is most obvious change is the53 When we talk about setting benchmarks for ride andperformance, discussion invariably turns to the issues ofwhat is soft ride and how can it be measured in anobjective fashion? At issue is the perennial debate as towhether a monohull can ride as softly as a cat. Thisboat, the reworked Noosa Cat 560 goes a long way toproviding the & BoatownerFisherman & Boatowner FIELD TEST NNNN oooooooossssaaaaCCCC aaaatttt ssssNNNN eeeewwww1111888855550000 CCCC uuuuddddddddyyyyCopyright SEA Media Pty Ltd (F&B#65 - 5/2001) from