Cat Boat Excursions Offers Fun on the Rivers Near Beaver

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Cat Boat Excursions are a Unique Boat Tour

A tour with Cat Boat Excursions starts at their marina just outside of Beaver in Bridgewater, PA. After a quick set of instructions on how the boat operates (plus all applicable safety measures, of course), you are out on the water with a passenger.

The tour itself has a few distinctive elements.

First, leaving the marina down the Beaver River is essentially an entirely wake-free zone due to the large concentration of docks found along the water. This part of the tour makes for a great training ground to learn the nuances of the craft while heading out at a fairly slow pace to the Ohio River.

When we made our way out to the Ohio River, things got interesting in a hurry. As the river was not busy during our outing, we were told to try to do a large figure eight as fast as we could go to get used to handling the craft at faster speeds.

What a rush that one was!

After a successful figure eight, we made our way downriver at a fairly high speed to make our way to the main destination of the tour- Raccoon Creek.

As we approached Raccoon Creek, we throttled back to a slow speed to ensure we could navigate around the shallow waters and other obstacles found within (such as a downed tree here or there).

While you do not make it down the creek far enough to reach the state park of the same name (which is much further south), we really enjoyed this intimate experience out in nature, where we saw excellent August wildflowers and cool rock formations. If you're luckier than us, we're told you may even see deer, herons, and more.

After making your way down the creek, you reverse course and head back to the Ohio River, where you punch it back to high speed towards the Beaver River. Once back at the confluence, we were told that we had a bit of time left on the tour via walkie-talkie and that we could zoom around between the three appropriately placed bridges in the center of the river body.

This was, admittedly, one of our favorite parts as we got to zoom around to our heart's content for about 15 minutes, with our tour leader snapping photos and videos of us as we passed by. All in all, we were pleasantly surprised by just how fast these little boats could go, and with a relatively quiet day of boat traffic, we really had a lot of fun in this section of the tour.

But, all good things come to an end, and we slowly made our way back to the docks along the Beaver River to end our fun two-hour tour out on the water.

Things to Know About Riding in Cat Boats

As this is a different kind of boat tour, we thought it'd be helpful to provide some tips for those who are looking to go out on a tour.

First, it is worth mentioning that those who are piloting must be 18 with a valid driver's license (a boating license not required for the small craft), while passengers can be as young as eight years old as long as they are a minimum of 45 inches tall and 50 pounds (for adults, there is also a max weight limit of 250 pounds per person). But as these terms can change, please reconfirm prior to booking.

One person must pilot the craft, whereas the passenger does not have access to the controls- so be sure to think about who you want to be the captain during the outing!

From there, operating the cat boats is quite easy. Your guide will give you a quick lesson while docked, but the boats are controlled by two levers- one on each side of the driver. The lever on the right controls going forward or reverse, whereas the lever on the left controls steering left and right. When maintaining a constant speed, we felt like we let the lever on the right stay in a single position, and then just moved the left-hand lever forward and back ever-so-slightly for gradual turns/adjustments, and practically all the way down for tighter turns.

It really is easy to steer these boats, and I was fairly comfortable within a few minutes despite having no appreciable boating experience.

Next up, these boats can go much faster than you may think, and top out at around 20-25 mph. You will likely have the opportunity to test out going at top speed, if you want, and we had a chance to zoom around the Ohio River at both the start and end of the tour when other boats weren't around, which was quite fun. That said, we don't recommend wearing a hat or any loose clothing, and I'd be remiss if I did not say that my hat flew off my head when banking fast once, and we had to scoop it out of the river. Whoops!

Likewise, as these boats are more or less motorized pontoon rafts, there is a section of the boat where water can rush over top of the rafts where you could place your feet. I wore waterproof shoes whereas Angie wore strapped sandals, and we'd definitely recommend the latter if you have them (or going barefoot, as our guide did). You will get a little wet, especially around your feet and, if going fast, backside.

We were also provided waterproof pouches for our phones, and advised to leave anything in our pockets and/or other valuables behind in the locked office to ensure they don't wind up in the rivers the way my hat did.

Up next, your guide will tell you when to be mindful of no wake zones, particularly on the Beaver River and Raccoon Creek, but it is worth pointing out that these boats can bounce a bit when zooming across another boat's wake on the Ohio. We always tried to slow down slightly when seeing ripples in the water. Although you may like that, we thought this resulted in a more comfortable ride all the same.

Finally, we also should point out that the tour element of the experience is a bit limited here. You do not have headsets with a guide narrating as you would on other boat tours, but rather are touring with a leading boat showing you where to go, what to avoid, and the like. So, in a way, it felt more like a hybrid between a tour and a boat rental experience- you control your boat, and the guide helps you on the route proper.

All in, this came together for a really fun experience on the water, and we look forward to taking a tour out with Cat Boat Excursions again in the future!

Cat Boat Excursions is located at River Harbour Marina, 1658 Riverside Drive in Beaver, PA. We were guests of Cat Boat Excursions for this review, but as always, all opinions are our own.