2022 Invincible 33 Catamaran

Overview

I used to dis on catamarans. The early designs were soft-riding but wobbled over the seas like a drunken sailor. That’s all different with Invincible’s Morrelli and Melvin hull designs.

The hull-style name is a mouthful. A “hybrid semi-asymmetrical hull” applies the best characteristics of an asymmetrical catamaran with the stable-at-rest and soft-riding behavior of symmetrical cats. Yep, it’s a mouthful. To visualize an asymmetrical catamaran hull, imagine a V-bottom boat sliced longitudinally from stem to stern. Separate those two halves and you have a symmetrical cat with vertical inboard side walls and tapered outside side walls. A symmetrical cat has identical sponsons, tapered equally inboard and outboard. Blending the two styles provides turn-hugging inboard sponson side walls with wave-deflecting outside side walls. As a result, the boat makes sharp turns without awkward outboard heeling, and even in quartering seas, the sponsons stand firm in the slop. In fact, a catamaran design like this runs better in moderate chop, as if the sponsons know they have a job to do and go right to it. Top off the performance package with double steps, which break surface tension and release the hull from the water as bubble streams are introduced under the hull.

So, the ride is smooth in rough water, stable when trolling at displacement speeds, and it resists rolling in beam seas—all part of a proven formula for passenger comfort and serious fishing.

Engines

The 33 can be equipped with up to 900 hp, making a pair of Mercury Racing 450R engines top the horsepower heap. With the dual Verado 400s, we made nearly 62 mph with a 6.6-second hole shot, and a quick 11 seconds to 30 mph. I would expect nearly comparable results from Mercury’s newer V-8 300 hp platform.

Interior and Accessories

The helm station comes from Invincible’s 36, and the three-wide station seating from the 35 cat. The centered helm keeps the skipper’s mates at each elbow. The leaning-post seat is bolstered for three comfortable seating or leaning stations. A step below the helm adds comfort while standing or seated. The station itself offers massive room for dual 20-inch (or larger) screens—in our case, a 9-inch VesselView, an Icom VHF and a Fusion stereo controller. The hardtop stretches wide and aft of the leaning post, keeping the helm glare-free.

Inside the helm, there is ample room for a plumbed head, but the bonus besides storage is spacious access to the back of the instrument panel for maintenance and easy access to batteries, switches and breakers—best of all, they are logically and artfully wired.

But the 33 shines when you stop to fish.

Start with dual livewells. An oval well with a clear acrylic lid in the transom is 65 gallons, pressurized and fed from a sea chest in the starboard sponson with three pumps. There’s also a larger 65-gallon livewell belowdecks in the starboard sponson, so live-baiters can carry and coddle hundreds of baits.

The fighting cockpit is impressively spacious, taking full advantage of the 10-foot-3-inch beam. To port of the transom livewell is a pair of drawers ideal for tackle, ropes, or wash and wax supplies.

A 33 cat is ideal in size for many needs but rare as hens’ teeth on the market. Insetta makes a 35-foot cat with asymmetrical hulls. Sighting down the centerline beneath, you’ll see the vertical sponson walls, but if it’s in the water, you can’t see the hydrofoil spanning from sponson to sponson. The purpose is to give lift, reduce drag, and add stability and comfort to the on-plane ride. Topside, its beam is 5 inches wider at 10 feet, 8 inches, and though the length and beam are larger than the Invincible, somehow Invincible makes the cockpit feel larger.

The center console comes from Invincible’s 35 cat, giving the three-wide seating at the helm and mezzanine. Yet it nests in the deck, preserving wide walkways fore and aft while providing the amenities of the larger vessel.

The mezzanine seat (back of the leaning post) is three-wide, and the seating angle is designed to lean back even when the boat is on plane. Pull the seatback down, releasing the magnetic catches, and three compartments hold four more rigging drawers, three utility boxes and a tool stowage area. Not enough storage? No problem. Cabinets on the port and starboard sides of the leaning-post seat hold utility boxes, drawers and leader hangers.

Four larger fish boxes in the floor can alternatively be used for fenders. They pump out with durable “gulper” pumps instead of temperamental macerators. Two large dry lockers flank the anchor locker at the bow.

And the final jewel in the Invincible’s spaciously featured fishing and touring machine? A dual lounge sits forward of the helm, with thick cushions, deep bolsters, armrests and handy cup holders. Beneath it? You guessed it—an insulated coffin box that can be opened up for a fish box, divided for preserving iced food, or just used as dry storage.

Invincible’s great ride and spacious deck make it a formidable fishing machine, but one that casual cruisers will be eager to enjoy for long hours on the water.

How We Tested

• Engines: Dual Mercury 400 Verados
• Drive/Prop: Mercury Enertia Eco 16″ x 18″ stainless-steel propset
• Gear Ratio: 1.75:1 Fuel Load: 50 gal. Water on Board: 0 gal. Crew Weight: 600 lb.

High Points

• Forty-seven rod holders arrayed in gunwales, the transom, and the leaning post and center console.
• Mezzanine seating converts to a tackle station with spacious storage, including compartments to port and starboard of the leaning post.
• Foredeck houses an anchor locker flanked by two large storage compartments for fenders.

Low Points

• Wraparound bow seating would be a nice option for added comfort.
• Side boarding door would be a nice addition to this design.

Pricing and Specs

Speed, Efficiency, Operation