ABOUT US

The NAUTICAT is a venue of exceptional quality and originality, offering an experience like no other. We are based in scenic Hout Bay, an excellent location to host staff parties, birthday parties or any sort of occasion you wish to celebrate. Our friendly onboard staff is fully trained to cater for all your needs.

The Nauticat is a fully registered, twin engine, GLASS BOTTOMED steel catamaran 22 meters in length, with an eight-meter beam, offering a unique and pleasurable experience at sea as well as the best underwater viewing by far. The Nauticat accommodates 140 passengers with facilities such as inside seating for approximately 60 passengers, an open upper deck which seats about 80 passengers, and full toilet facilities. The enclosed wood panelled saloon has a fully licensed bar and is equipped with a state-of-the-art sound system for onboard parties. For one-of-a-kind, memorable events, we offer functions that cater to a minimum of 30 people and sunset cruises for 20 or more guests.

Both the open upper deck and enclosed saloon below accommodates any weather conditions for day and night cruises. Enjoy close encounters with the seals and pups of the Cape Peninsula from the upper deck, or, if preferred, watch peacefully while sipping on a drink at our fully licensed bar in the comfortable saloon below. CAPE FUR

SEALS

Cape Fur Seals have external ears and have no hair on the palms or soles of their flippers. The seal is brown in colour and appears black when wet, the pups are born black. The bulls can grow to the size of 2.5m – 300kg and the cows to the size of 1.6m – 75kg, they have also been recorded to reach the ages of 30 – 40 years.

The mother will select a small, rocky off-shore island as preferred breeding sites. When pups are born, they weigh 5-6kg, being fully furred and able to move around within a few hours, but they are unable to swim for the first 3-7 weeks of age. A few days after the birth of a pup, the mother starts looking for a partner for her to have the next pup.

The males are very territorial, one bull establishes a huram of up to 50 cows. Implantation of the embryo into the uterus is delayed for about four months so that the 8 month development leads to birth one year later.

In the water seals use their front flippers for swimming and their back flippers for steering, they are very graceful in the water but very clumsy on land. The Cape Fur Seals spend most of their lives out at sea, they eat anchovies, pilchards, octopus, rock lobster, shrimps and prawns. Seals off the South African coast consume 2 million tons of food per year, they eat 10-20% of their body weight per day.

The seals have a few enemies such as the fisherman who compete with the seals for fish, the shark is also an enemy and so is the killer whale. About 93% of the Cape Fur Seals liveon the West Coast of South Africa and the remaining 7% live on the South and South East coast. This is because of the richness of the fishing groups in the West coast.