BOATING
AMBITION Introducing the Invicta Cat 30
By Erwin Bursik
I
NNOVATING the South African boat building industry — that was the vision of two University of Pretoria Mechanical Engineering graduates who dreamt of designing an offshore sportfishing craft and then going on to build it. This was no small task for Henry Swanepoel and Ryan Dyer who both detested the “cut and paste” design method of new hull development so common in the marine industry. They wanted to use their attained theoretical knowledge and computer22 • SKI-BOAT May/June 2022
Ryan Dyer (left) with Henry Swanepoel at the helm.
aided engineering, along with mastery of the concept of fluid dynamics, to design a hull that optimises the efficiency of a craft’s wetted surface area whilst on the plane. The two youngsters undertook their initial market research during a visit to the Miami Boat Show, where they came up with the concept of developing a 30ft offshore craft with a stepped hull, powered by four motors. Ambitious in the extreme, but they achieved it! The first Invicta Cat prototype in its
