AMERICA’S PREMIER MULTIHULL MAGAZINE
MULTIHULLS MIAMI BOAT SHOW PREVIEW HEAVY WEATHER SEAMANSHIP
QUARTERLY
BAHAMAS CHARTERING 20 TIPS FOR CAT SKIPPERS LIVING THE CRUISING DREAM
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MULTIHULLS QUARTERLY Volume 10 Issue 3
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6
FROM THE PUBLISHER
8
ON THE LEVEL
New Chris White design, power courses
18
ON CHARTER
Katie Baker Power cruises in the Bahamas
28
GONE CRUISING
Tara Kelly begins cruising on a Gemini
32
SAILING SMART
Phillip Berman has 20 tips for multihull seamanship
36
ON PASSAGE
Bill Biewenga on multihull storm tactics
40
MULTIHULL REVIEW MIAMI BOAT SHOW PREVIEW 2019
cat, from Hawaii to California Cover shot: The Xquisite X5 sails on a peaceful sea. Photo: Hondo Studio Photography
www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 5
modernmultihulls
Letter from the Publisher
Getting the Lead Out
W
e once sailed our Mason 43 monohull Clover some 60,000 miles as we circled the globe. The adventure took us five years and along the way we visited 34 countries where we collected all kinds of memorabilia. Every year when we hauled out to refresh the antifouling, we would have to raise the boot stripe by an inch as Clover got heavier and heavier. But that really didn’t affect her sailing performance since her keel was already filled with 8,000 pounds of lead. She’d go six knots no matter what and hardly a knot faster whether it was blowing 10 or 30 knots. When we got home and took all of our stuff off the boat, she floated four full inches higher in the water so the boot stripe was well above her designed waterline. That’s the thing about monohulls, they are “lead mines” that rely on ballast for stability. But multihulls are not. Catamarans and trimarans rely on their beam for stability, not a lead keel. When a puff hits the sails, the boat doesn’t heel over, instead the power of the wind is translated directly into forward motion as the cat or tri skims over the surface of the water instead of plowing a deep furrow like a monohull. And therein lies the rub. The heavier a cat or tri gets, the more it plows through the water, the slower it gets and more strain gets put into the rig, chainplates and hulls. So, while you are not carrying around tons of lead, if you are cruisers like us, you will collect stuff as long as you own your multihull. You’ll add a genset, a watermaker, solar panels, extra batteries…all of which make life afloat more comfortable and the boat heavier. You might have a growing shell collection or SCUBA gear or fun water toys like paddleboards, kayaks, surfboards or windsurfers…all of which make life afloat more fun and the boat heavier. So, the real trick of cruising a multihull is to make careful decisions about what you bring aboard. This is particularly true of the new breed of light-weight performance cats like Gunboats, HH cats, Balance cats or Outremers. But even the heavier cats that are used in the charter fleets are sensitive to too much added weight and their performance will suffer if they get too overloaded. Like all things to do with boats, you have to compromise to get the best of both worlds. By choosing to sail a multihull, you already have got the lead out and opted for great sailing performance and commodious living spaces. But, if the boat is going to be happy, sail well and translate wind power into boat speed instead of furrows in the ocean, you have to question the need for another kayak or a genset or a SCUBA compressor. At the end of a long cruise, you want to be able to take all your stuff off the boat and be satisfied that the hulls are still floating just where the designer and builder meant them to be.
Editor and Publisher George Day Ph: 401-847-7612 Fax: 401-845-8580 george@bwsailing.com Contributing Editors Bill Biewenga Rebecca Childress Patrick Childress John Neal Amanda Swan-Neal Art Director Sandy Parks Ph: 401-847-7612 Fax: 401-845-8580 sandy@bwsailing.com Advertising Sales & Tom Casey Marketing Consultant tomcat911@comcast.net Ad Director Scott Akerman Ph: 207-939-5802 scott@bwsailing.com Subscriber Questions Circulation Customer Service Ph: 866-529-2921 (hours 8:30 am - 7 pm EST)
MQ-Multihulls Quarterly is published by Blue Water Sailing LLC as a free supplement to the February, May, August and November issues of Blue Water Sailing magazine. Copyrighted 2018. All rights reserved. Reprinting, photocopying and excerpting passages is forbidden except by permission of the publisher. Blue Water Sailing ISSN: 1091-1979
6 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
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Two New, Chris WhiteDesigned Atlantic Catamarans
8 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
AMERICAN CHRIS WHITE HAS BEEN A PIONEER IN multihull design and construction for nearly 40 years. His Atlantic series of cats have set the standard for custom, high-performance cruising catamarans that are particularly suitable for experienced couples who cruise widely about the world. With the launch in Rhode Island of two new cats, MQ asked Chris to offer
Sail different CONFIDENCE, EFFICIENCY, EMOTION
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on thelevel
some thoughts on these new creations. He wrote this short brief on the new 70 and 72 from his own Atlantic 55 Javelin in Mazatlan, Mexico as he was leaving the harbor for a passage to the Baha Peninsula.
10 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
This summer saw the launch of two new blue cats. They look kind of the same, except for the rigs, so what gives? The Atlantic 70, Saphira, was the first one to get started and was designed for a very experienced cruising couple who among other things did a circumnavigation in the 1980s via Cape Horn. Now nearing retirement, the idea was to go cruising again but in a boat with enough performance so that nasty weather could be avoided. One of the owners, a climate scientist, determined that a 300-miles-perday capability coupled with modern weather information would largely take care of that problem. To achieve that kind of performance in a “mom and pop” cruising cat means long hulls and light
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on thelevel
weight. The owners were totally onboard with that concept and were eager to incorporate weight saving measures wherever possible. The end result is a 70-foot cruising cat with all the normal cruising comforts at a sailing weight of only 33,000 pounds! That is what many 45 and 50-foot production cats weigh. The second unique aspect is the rig. Freestanding carbon wing masts, side by side with one in each hull. While this has been done before, notably in the huge racing cat Team Philips, it is pretty unusual. The advantages over a stayed mast are several: First the number of rigging parts is tremendously reduced, which should reduce maintenance and increase reliability. The other feature not to be overlooked is that the rig can be de-powered on any point of sail simply by easing the sheets. Without rigging in the way, the sails can be luffed on a dead run.
There are complexities however. Masts like these are not an off the shelf item and special provision has to be made to support them within the hulls. And there is one point of reaching where the windward sail blankets the leeward sail. But all cats reach well, their weakness is typically going dead upwind and dead downwind. The biplane rig does this quite well as both sails are operating in clean air. Reefing the two, big mainsails is more work than rolling up jibs, however. But, with power winches and a good deck layout that leads everything to the center cockpit, it is easy enough to do. And without any standing rigging in the way the sails can be luffed on any heading, which aids reefing and is a significant safety feature for a cat. Skylark, the new Atlantic 72, on the other hand, has a completely different role to play. Between visits from the owner and family Skylark is active in charter. That requires more sleeping cabins, each with its own toilet and shower, more extensive climate control, a larger dinghy, gourmet galley for the onboard chef, larger fuel, water and holding tanks, etc. While Skylark looks much like Saphira she is six tons heavier with wider hulls to carry the weight and increased accommodation. The rig is a conventional stayed carbon mast. It differs from the normal cat rig in that it has a fixed backstay to provide better tension in the jib luff, which increases the windward performance. She sails upwind with the smaller self-tacking jib and full
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www.atninc.com • 954-584-2477• atninc@hotmail.com 12 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
mainsail at the true wind speed, making 10 knots through the water in 10 knots of wind. With a bit more wind and freeer angle of sail, Skylark’s boat speeds immediately jump up into the high teens. Tacking is quick and effortless in both designs: Just flip the wheel over. The working sails are self-tacking and little boat speed is lost in the process. And,
both cats utilize daggerboards as well as small fixed fins which protect props and rudders. With many dozen Atlantic cats sailing for decades with this underbody configuration we have had almost no instances of damage to rudders, drive train or hull bottoms. In my opinion, this type of damage prevention is a must-have for adventurous cruising boats.
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www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 13
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Offshore Sailing and Power Cruising School Adds New Power Catamaran and Certification Course OFFSHORE SAILING AND POWER CRUISING SCHOOL founder and Chairman Steve Colgate announced the addition of a Fountaine Pajot Power Catamaran MY 37 to its fleet at The Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village and Tarpon Point Marina in Cape Coral, Fla. Colgate said, “Due to the increased requests of our students for power catamaran training so they may charter on their own, we now offer our Fast Track to Power Cruising Course aboard a beautiful 3-cabin/2head powerboat.” Offshore Sailing and Power Cruising School also offers this same course aboard Moorings Power Catamarans from Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.
At the Cape Coral, Fla. location, students will arrive on Sunday and stay overnight at the Westin Cape Coral Resort, where they can enjoy the many amenities available before boarding the Power Cat on Monday morning to live and learn aboard the vessel for the week. Colgate added, “We are so confident in our ability to teach all of the safety and technical skills necessary to skipper this boat, that the students aboard (four maximum) will drop the instructor off on Friday afternoon and handle the boat themselves, returning to the marina on Saturday morning.” The course package includes textbooks sent in advance, one night resort accommodations, US
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STEERING THE DREAM
14 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
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16 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
Powerboating instruction, all provisions aboard for the week except two dinners ashore, three US Powerboating certifications (Basic Powerboat Cruising, In-Shore Powerboat Cruising, and Colgate Offshore Powerboat Cruising), lifetime Offshore Sailing and Powerboat School graduate benefits, including up to 15 percent off their first charter with Offshore Sailing partner, The Moorings. Course package prices vary by season due to the resort accommodation rates, but generally the course in Cape Coral starts at $3,940 per person, double occupancy. The first 10 students aboard the Fast Track to Power Cruising Course in Cape Coral will receive a free aviator-style jacket! Visit OffshoreSailing.com or call 800-221-4326 for more details.
Power Cruising in a Bahamian Paradise
Seven ladies spend their vacation cruising the Abacos aboard a Leopard 51 power cat and discover the islands’ delights and a few beach bars along the way by Katie Baker
Lagoon 42 - February 2016 - Photo Credit: Nicolas Claris
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oncharter
H
aving lived in Florida my entire life, and with the ability to hop on a short flight to the Bahamas, you would guess that this Sunshine-State local would spend weekends on the beautiful sands of Bimini or in the gin-clear waters of the Abacos. Sadly, I am ashamed to say, this is not the case. But when the first opportunity to cruise these amazing islands came a’knocking, I was all in. The Abacos were everything we envisioned and more. We were seven friends with the opportunity to charter in the not-so-chartered islands of the Abacos, we welcomed the freedom to go where we wanted to go, when we wanted to go, all while cruising and discovering different islands each day. And how to best achieve this? If you are in the Bahamas, there is no better way than on a spacious power cat. With a draft of only 3.5 feet on a 51-foot cat that has a 25-foot beam, you can’t go wrong. 20 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
So, there we were—setting off from Marsh Harbour on a Leopard 51 PC. First stop? Tahiti Beach, a white sand beach with a thick grove of palm trees and far reaching sandbars located south of Marsh Harbour, This being our first time cruising the Abacos, we were well aware that the waters could get quite shallow. But who is afraid of a navigational challenge? Not this group of Florida gals, where shallow waters are all we know. Whether the depth sounder reads four feet or 30 feet was irrelevant, we could see everything happening underneath us. The waters were a turquoise hue that were completely stunning. But, eyes on the charts here people. Yes, charts, plural. When navigating the Abacos always have your cruising guide open and your charterplotter on. These trusty tools will ensure you don’t make the mistake of all mistakes as a charter skipper—grounding the boat. Considering the islands are in close proximity, we sat
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It’s been five decades since The Moorings story first began, born from an immense passion for sailing and a slim fleet of six yachts. Our unique cruising culture has helped guests establish new traditions, bridge generation gaps, and capture rewarding experiences—so here’s to another 50 years of priceless vacation memories on the water... MOORINGS.COM/MQ
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oncharter
back and enjoyed the ride from the helm station on the massive fly bridge. You and a first mate can lounge at the helm, and the bridge itself holds enough seating for up to 10 guests. This is the place to be—trust me! Power cats do not have trampolines and why would you need one? With the views and the breeze from up top, there is no comparison. Pulling into Tahiti Beach we found the perfect location to drop anchor. Now is the time that I think I must come clean and admit that this was the first charter this band of ladies had ever taken without our guys with us. And, as we are setting anchor our windlass decided to take break for a little while. So, what do we do? Rig and set the storm anchor, that’s what. And I have to admit that the most rewarding part of this trip was proving to ourselves that when something went wrong, we would do some troubleshooting and figure it out. When cruising these grounds, it is important to study your tide charts. Low tide is generally not a good time to navigate through the channels. During our days in the Abacos, we would wait at least an hour and a half after low tide to mosey into a harbor for the evening. The first evening, our destination was Hope Town Harbour. Once we tied off on a mooring ball for the evening, we had dinner on board and then decided to
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search for Multihulls Quarterly 22 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
head ashore for cocktails. The best part of a yachting vacation is meeting fellow cruisers and charter groups. People you meet when cruising are typically down-to-earth folks. I also considered the fact that they too have been on a boat for days, so it is always refreshing to strike up a conversation with someone new on shore. The next morning, we climbed the Hope Town Lighthouse and then it was off to swim with the pigs in piggyville on Noname Cay. The cruise up to Noname Cay could not have been better. In order to get there, we had to run on the Atlantic side of the islands through Whale Cay Passage. If the weather is not good, we were advised not to not make this passage because the narrowness of the passage with rocks and shoals surrounding you can get treacherous when a big sea is running. But, the weather was perfect so we carried on. Arriving at Noname Cay we were the only people in the harbor. We dropped our anchor and enjoyed the view for lunch. From there, we loaded up a bag of goodies—bananas, onion bagels, a little lunch meat and some bread—and jumped into the dinghy. The welcoming committing on the beach was quite excited to see us. Although I found that the pig’s opinion of me was highly influenced by whether or not I had food in my hands. A word of advice: Don’t mess with
photo courtesy Carol Hansen
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oncharter
A word of advice: Don’t mess with the MaMa Pig’s food!
the MaMa Pig’s food! Give her some goodies and then stand back while she devours them. Aside from the adorable flock of pigs that inhibit this 26 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
island, t h e b e a c h itself was dazziling with clear waters and little rippling waves that shimmered and seemed to go on for miles. We spent hours on the beach that we had all to ourselves discussing the various ways we could bring a pig home. Again, as slaves to the tide, we waited until an hour before sunset to cruise to our last spot for the day. In the meantime, we cleaned up and dressed up before moving into White Sound on Green Turttle Cay. Heading into the sound, the navigational beacons looked a lot like buoys and they were not very easy to spot. I don’t suggest attempting this after dark. Once in the sound, we snagged a mooring ball, ate a quick dinner and headed for shore. Our dinghy engine failed thus we sang “row, row, row your boat” as we made our way towards civilization. After taking a taxi through the forest, we danced the night away at a great little place called Sundowners. The vibe was Caribbean and we made friends left and right as we swayed with the palm trees into the night. The next morning, we were not up with the sun. We
were told by numerous people that we needed to get to Nunjack Cay this particular morning to experience the sea life. However, after a late night, sleeping in was a requirement. Once some of the group was up and at it, we set off for Great Guana Cay for an afternoon at the infamous Nippers. And while Sunday is the big day here for the pig roast, a Saturday afternoon spent here did not disappoint. We hitched a golf cart ride to the Atlantic side of the island and sipped “Frozen Nippers”, a cocktail that was recommend to us by a gentleman named Travis who worked at the marina where we picked up the boat. These cocktails should come with a warning sign—all you need is one and done! Of all of the beach bars that I have been to around the Florida Keys and the Caribbean, I can confidently say that I would rank this as one of the greats—it is right up there with the Soggy Dollar. For sunset we wandered over to a place by the name of Grabbers, and this turned out to be a fantastic decision. We watched the sunset between some palm trees on a tiny little Island off in the distance. It was an ideal way to end the last night of a spectacular cruising vacation. The following morning, we cruised at a slow pace to Marsh Harbour, where the group had flights home at various times throughout the day. While I began to slip into post-vacation blues, I couldn’t help but think that I had only just scraped the surface on my new-found love for the Bahamas. The Bahamas are made up of 700 islands, this means that you could spend years cruising this territory without growing bored. While I had previously vowed my loyalty to cruising in the Virgin Islands, now, after exploring the Abacos, I am more eager than ever to discover
more of this lovely country. There is nothing quite like that specific charm that each island offers that keeps us seeking more. Katie is a Yacht Sales Marketing Professional specializing in the growth of the marine industry. Her creativity is most brilliant when sailing and multihulls are the theme.
www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 27
gonecruising
THE PATH TO THE CRUISING LIFE It starts with a dream of a different life and ends on an extended cruise aboard their Gemini cat by Tara Kelly 28 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
I
t started one Sunday afternoon while my husband was watching football when I asked him, “Have you ever thought about blue water sailing?” “Yes, all my life. Why?” I’m not sure where this question came from. It just came out of my mouth. I had never thought about going cruising. Maybe this was a sign? Over the next few months, I began researching monohulls online and would show the boats’ specifications to my husband during football commercials. I asked him if he had ever been on a sailboat? He said, “Yes, when I was a kid I used to sail Sabots.” He told me stories of Friday night beer can races with his friend Frank and a few others. My husband said he’d ask Frank to take us out on a day sail. Frank agreed. We climbed aboard and headed out into the harbor. It felt exciting. Out of the Honokohau
harbor, I watched as the sails were hoisted and the motor switched off. Sailing here we go! Then, I noticed we kept sailing back and forth? What? I thought we would sail somewhere. I wasn’t so sure about sailing now, on my first day out, but I knew that we loved the water and that we wanted to go somewhere when we got our boat. The following Sunday, while I was searching, online, I asked my husband, what about catamarans? He was all for it. I began looking at all the amazing catamarans online. I soon realized we would need to work for another 10 years to buy any of these catamarans. I began to wonder if smaller affordable catamarans were out there in the $50,000 range? Soon, I stumbled upon older Geminis and Catalacs. Here we go, I thought. We liked the saloons and galleys on these boats, but were they blue water worthy? I then began my research and noticed a few Geminis had gone further afield than coastal cruising. This was making me feel better. We continued to dream about one day going to Florida to find a boat and
continued to work towards that goal. We were living in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. My husband was a captain for scuba dive charters, at Honokohau harbor. Daily we would visit Gentry’s Kona Marina, sometimes up to three times per day. We enjoyed driving by the stored boats and talking about them. One day, as we were driving along the back row of the stored boats, I screamed to my husband, “Stop, there’s a Gemini.” We had never noticed this boat parked here. We jumped out of our truck and walked around it. It looked like it had been here for a while. There were wasp nests in the sails, and the sail cover was falling apart from sun damage. She was named Xenia and the homeport on the back of the boat was Redondo, California. I thought, well, this boat came from California, so it must be seaworthy. Then we noticed the sticker over the door that said “Live your Dreams.” At that moment we knew this was our boat! We just didn’t know how. And, there was no for sale sign on it. I know you shouldn’t board a vessel without permission, but I climbed on the boat
www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 29
gonecruising
anyway and put a note I had written in the lock outside the cabin door. The note asked the owner to call us. We wanted to see the inside of a Gemini. We continued to drive by this boat every day checking if our note was still there. A month passed, our letter was still there and we never saw anyone at the boat. I asked the yard manager who owned the boat? He told me the Gemini belonged to a person who owns a B&B on the north shore. I asked him if he would mail a letter to him/her for us? He agreed and a few weeks later Eugene called us and agreed to show us the boat. We arrived early and excited to see inside Xenia. Eugene pulled up in a white pickup truck with the back overloaded with boat gear. He climbed down from the truck, said hello and then said, right up front, “Write me a check for $40,000 and it’s yours.” “We don’t have any money,” I replied, “We just wanted to look inside to see if a Gemini is the right boat for us.” Man, if looks could kill. We followed him up the ladder and he unlocked the cabin door. The Gemini’s interior stank, was dusty and most of the headliner had fallen down. Orange ceiling insulation foam was everywhere. We sat at the table in the saloon and Eugene 30 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
said, “I haven’t seen this boat in eight years.” He told us he had sailed it from Mexico and just parked it. We thanked him for showing us his boat and asked if we could help him unload all the gear from the truck? He agreed and afterward we took him to Harbor House restaurant so we could buy him lunch. We talked about his sailing days in California, Mexico and Hawaii over cheeseburgers and beers. After lunch, we agreed to stay in touch. We did just that, we became friends with Eugene. We often would meet him for lunch, or at his home for dinners. One day he called us unexpectedly and said, “I had no intention of selling the boat, but I have a few people asking about it. I want you two to have it. If you come up with $25,000 by the end of July (in approximately three months) the boat is yours.” “Yes,” I said, “we will do that!” But as I spoke, I was really thinking, “What are we getting ourselves into?” I told my husband we are buying the boat. I don’t know how, but we are. We are buying the boat and sailing away. We will be cruisers. We had zero money saved and only about $400.00 in our checking account. My husband wasn’t so sure. I told him we are selling everything we own, we’ll work extra hours and save all our money. This boat will be ours! Even though we didn’t own the boat, we decided to begin working on the inside, anyway. We removed the headliner in one day. We had to work on Sundays or after 5:00 pm because customers were not allowed to work on their own boats in the yard. We had to sneak in when security was not around. We often
wondered what we were doing? We don’t own this boat yet. What if we can’t get the money, my husband would ask? I told him this is not an option; this boat is ours. Deep down I was worried. I was a real estate agent so I was hoping I’d get a good sale and a closing that would make our plans work out. The “Sale-A-Thon” began. We sold our refrigerator, stove, microwave, dryer, Jeep Cherokee, and our old 20-foot Mako boat. We worked extra hours. As fate would have it, for one of my listings I was able to represent both seller and the buyer in the sale. Yahoo, my commission doubled. We were close to the July deadline and short $1000.00. We thought about this for a week and kept looking at our big screen TV. We knew we wouldn’t need it on the boat. But my husband loved his TV almost more than me. And, we’d owned it for five years. He said, “Okay. Do you think they will take it back?” “Let’s try it!” We loaded the TV into the truck and drove to the store’s return department. The clerk didn’t bat an eyelash. She looked up the original purchase on her computer and told us we would get a $1200.00 refund. We accepted the cash and dashed out of the store, never to return. We had the money! We made the call to Eugene and arranged to meet him at a local eatery to complete the paperwork. We handed him the zip lock bag full of cash and he went outside to count it, which made me feel like we were doing a drug deal. He came back, shook hands on the deal and signed the papers! Sweet Jesus, I thought, we just bought a boat. Now what? We continued to work on Xenia for nine months. To say we know every nut, bolt and screw on the boat would be an understatement. We soon decided it would be safe to splash her into the water and take her for a spin. After a few days of trials and learning to sail her, we were ready for an adventure. Our first cruise took us from the Big Island to Maui, Molokai, Lanai and then to Oahu over 10 days. Crossing the Alenuihaha channel you have Haleakala on one side and Mauna Kea on the other. These 10,000 foot volcanoes funnel the wind between them so the channel can be up to five times windier than surrounding waters. Locals told us that Alenuihaha means “chiefs laughing at you.” Luckily, we made the first trip easily. After our first cruise, we continued sailing around the Hawaiian Islands and have sailed through that channel seven times. We now know what the locals meant and learned a thing or two about seamanship along the way. We were still working to build the cruising kitty
and sailing whenever we could in preparation for our big departure date in 2014. Our plan was to sail south to the Marquesas in French Polynesia. Or, so we thought. But our plans changed. Instead. we left Hanalei Bay, Hawaii in June 2014 and sailed east for 33 days to Fort Bragg, California. We made it and had smiles on our faces for weeks. We have since sailed 10,000 miles on our 32-foot Gemini. Xenia has taken us to Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. We never thought such an ambitious cruise would be possible, especially in our little boat, but here we are. We are living our dreams with no regrets.
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20 Tips of Multihulls Seamanship
Here’s a primer on how to make life aboard your cruising multihull safer and more fun by Phillip Berman
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ver the past few decades I’ve been privileged to earn my living as a yacht broker who specializes in catamarans. I’ve visited about 50 countries in the business and made great friends the world over, most of whom have taught me valuable nuggets of information on the art of catamaran voyaging. I am asked, often enough, how safe is it to sail on a catamaran? I can say with some measure of pleasure that, so far, of the over 800 catamarans we have sold at 32 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
The Multihull Company and Balance Catamarans that not a single customer of ours has capsized—at least that I know of! This is quite amazing when you consider that we specialize in liveaboard sailors, adventurers, and performance cat enthusiasts. The above said, I’ve had a couple dismastings in our family of owners, a few boats have gone aground, and three of our owners have had collisions with other vessels. To date, thank goodness, not a single yachtingrelated death in our family. Not so long ago, one of our catamaran family members ran their Leopard 46 aground on a reef near Huahine, French Polynesia. The Govatos’ are a happy-golucky Mormon family who love the sea and set about with their children to sail around the world offering love and service to others anywhere they visited. They
brought great honor to their church by the graciousness of their heartfelt service. The Govatos’ loss has compelled me to think a lot about how it could have been prevented and on voyaging safety in general. So, here are 20 things to keep In mind: NEVER TRUST THE CHARTPLOTTER IN SHALLOW WATERS Especially in countries that have small navies and less than accurate charts. I learned this from my friend Russell Eddington who sailed around the world on a Dolphin 460 we built for him in Brazil. I had visited him in Thailand and we anchored in Krabi. Russell said, “Phil, come take a look at the plotter and see where it says we are.” We were anchored safely, well out in the middle of the bay, but the plotter had us 25 yards up on a beach. DO NOT ENTER FOREIGN PORTS AT NIGHT UNLESS THEY ARE WIDE, WELL LIGHTED, AND CARRY A RANGE MARKER TO GUIDE YOU IN What happened to the Govatos family is that they arrived at Huahine too late in the afternoon, had never been there before, and trusted in their chartplotter. Lacking the visual aids that they required to enter this narrow, reef-lined opening safely, they entered when they should have stood off for the night. This is a mistake made by many cruisers. Some get lucky, others do not.
NEVER PUSH YOUR CATAMARAN BEYOND HER EASILY DRIVEN SPEED Catamarans really do not “talk to you” like monohulls. When you get hit by a big gust, the cat does not heel over. Instead, all of the load goes right onto her sails and rigging and are then transferred to her mast base, bulkheads, and hulls. Wise voyaging requires that you learn the sailing “sweet spot” of your catamaran on all points of sail and never carry more sail than you need to remain at or below the sweet spot. My own experience from sailing most of the production cats is that this is a range been 7 and 8 knots, especially upwind. To go any faster, you really have to push these cats very hard upwind. Off the wind the sweet spot is typically a knot or two higher on most production cats. Anyway, the moment you are sailing in your sweet spot, if the winds picks up, shorten sail. Your speed is not likely to drop much, but you will be taking a lot of pressure off your sails, rig, mast base, bulkheads and hulls. Best of all, your cat will ride more smoothly, comfortably, and safely.
Running with big seas is very tiring and difficult to do at night.... You are not racing, so heave-to and chill out
AUTOPILOTS WILL NOT STEER YOU AROUND REEFS OR ROCKS I’ll never forget running into a delivery captain on the ferry from Tortola, BVI to St. Thomas a few years back. He had just delivered a brand new 45-foot French catamaran to her new owner a few days earlier. On his first day sailing the happy new owner set his autopilot and fell asleep on the trampoline; while asleep, his boat ran into a reef. To add insult to injury, he left the sails up long enough for the boat to get driven even deeper into the rocks and destroyed. If you are near land, best be careful. Another huge mistake that has led to more than a few mishaps is sailors setting their autopilots and failing to account for current and drift that will set them far off course after miles of sailing. Some years ago, a man ran a Lagoon 55 onto a reef in French Polynesia for this very reason. It is vital that those on watch keep a close eye on where they are and where they are being set so they can compensate appropriately.
IF YOU GET TIRED, HEAVE TO Many accidents at sea come from fatigue. If you ever find yourself terribly tired while sailing in big seas and wind it is usually a good idea to “park your boat” if you have sea room. Drop the mainsail, roll in most of the jib, pull it a bit to windward, turn the helm to windward and sit it out. If it is really rough, set a sea anchor. Running with big seas is very tiring and difficult to do at night unless you have a lot of good and experienced crew onboard. You are not racing, so heave-to and chill out. STAY OUT OF SHIPPING LANES WHENEVER POSSIBLE, ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT If you have ever sailed up the Delaware Bay at night, with the lights of Wilmington to your west and the shoreline dotted with lights north and south, I can tell you it is very hard to pick out the lights of other vessels navigating the narrow channel. I always set my course these days just to the side of shipping lane markers whenever I’ve got the water to do so. I certainly do not think it is a good idea to cross the Straights of Gibraltar toward Africa at night. When crossing oceans, know where the shipping lanes are, plot courses to either side of them, and use extra caution when crossing the lanes at www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 33
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night. One great thing about AIS is that it can be set to alert you to close traffic, so this is a Godsend for shorthanded voyagers. AIS is truly an amazing safety tool.
It is also critical to look carefully at where you are positioned in relation to the land and reefs as well as the other yachts around you. Ask yourself: what if that
When sailing at night, short-handed, sail the boat throttled down a notch.....
MOST ACCIDENTS HAPPEN NEAR SHORE, NOT OFFSHORE If you are short-handed, you are actually a lot safer to sail a bit further out than the bulk of the traffic hugging close to the coast. The further out you are, as a rule, the deeper it is, the less danger of running aground, running into a lobster pot, a buoy or some unlit small craft. If you ever sail up the Malacca Straights, be careful; the vast majority of little
boat to starboard starts to swing into me, or drags her anchor? What if the wind switches direction at night? What if a current changes direction on me? Think carefully through the variables and plan your exit strategy for that 3-a.m. scramble.
Never sail to any other agenda but yours and the safety of your boat... fishing boats are sailing without any form of marine lighting you could possibly recognize. HAVE YOUR RIGGING INSPECTED ANNUALLY BY A COMPETENT RIGGER Losing a rig is no fun. At night it can be horrifying when you hear that heavy thud. A good rig survey will reduce your chances of a dismasting significantly and also protect you from your insurance carrier claiming you did not practice prudent maritime precautions if you should lose your rig. SAIL AWAY FROM STORM CELLS A radar is your best friend, especially when sailing at night, as it shows where the rain is falling and the storm cells are located. If you stay focused on this, you can generally position yourself to avoid storm cells, or at least put yourself far from their centers. This will reduce your chances of a lightning strike and often save you from running into significant wind gusts. DO NOT FURL OR UNFURL LARGE HEADSAILS UNDER LOAD The best and safest way to furl and unfurl headsails is to drop downwind, remove the pressure, and furl and unfurl when the headsails are in a nearly limpid state. I continue to be blown away at how many people do not do this and struggle with massively loaded furlers and sheets. ANCHOR FIRMLY AND PLAN FOR YOUR EXIT I suppose it goes without saying that you want to be certain your anchor is firmly set when resting at anchor. 34 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
NEVER DO A LONG PASSAGE WITHOUT A SAT PHONE AND MODERN WEATHER ROUTING TO ASSIST YOU Satellite communications have made cruising safer than ever before because you no longer have to sail blindly into bad weather. If you are competent at reading GRIB files, get them and do that. If not, why not hire a weather routing company to guide you? There is simply little reason these days to find yourself in the brunt of a major storm if you monitor weather closely and route away from the worst. IF YOU WANT TO HOLD DOWN THE COST OF CRUISING, DON’T RUN INTO THINGS – ABOVE OR BELOW THE WATER If You are worried about docking your boat in a new place, or taking her into a travel lift, either because of current or high winds or a tight fit you feel unconfident to manage, then don’t do it. Either get some help or find another day or place to dock or haul. Most boat damage comes from running into docks, other boats, or into travel lift walls. Oh, yeah, and don’t go under bridges lower than your mast! And be careful when sailing in the shallows! BUY SOME HUGE FENDERS Get yourself massive blow-up fenders with felt covers and get plenty of them if you wish to allow yourself a margin of error when coming into docks – especially in high winds. Great big fenders can make up for a multitude of sins, and no matter how good a pilot you are, great big fenders reduce stress for everyone. NEVER HEAD UP! If you are ever hit by a sudden gust of wind, don’t head up into the wind, instead, drive down hard. The moment you head up on a cat in a gust, the apparent wind moves aft, not forward, and this is how racing cats capsize. This is counterintuitive for a lot of monohull sailors.
REEF DOWN AT NIGHT When sailing at night, short-handed, sail the boat throttled down a notch. Take in an extra reef, slow down a bit and increase your margin of error. FALLING OFF YOUR MAST OR BIMINI ISN’T A GOOD IDEA Before you leave a dock, or an anchorage, unzip your sail bag, attach your mainsail halyard, and pull your lazy jacks well forward on one side and tie them off at the mast. It is silly trying to clear all of your battens through the lazy jacks when you can do it with them tied off and out of the way. Also, on so many cats these days you have to climb up steps to attach a halyard or unzip the bag. Why be climbing up steps or walking down a Bimini at sea when you can do these at anchor or a dock? And why not zip up a lazy bag when you are anchored or back at a dock? Too many people hurt themselves doing such things in bumpy seas. There’s just no reason to do it, so don’t. CHECK YOUR PROPANE SYSTEM CAREFULLY Surely the most dangerous thing on a catamaran at sea is a catastrophic fire, and most such fires result from propane explosions. Check your system carefully for leaks.
JIBE UNDER CONTROL If you are going to jibe, pull your mainsail into the center of your boat, sheet it in pretty tight and turn the stern through the wind very slowly. A violent jibe is unnecessary, dangerous, breaks battens and can subject your entire rig to needless stress. NEVER LET GUESTS, CREW MEMBERS OR FAMILY PRESSURE YOU INTO SETTING TO SEA WHEN YOU KNOW IT’S A BAD IDEA If someone is joining you for a sail, or a vacation, make it clear to them that safety is more important to you than them missing a flight or some obligation back home. Which means never sailing to any other agenda but yours and the safety of your boat. If people have to wait for you to arrive, let them wait. There are plenty of hotels in the world. If people are demanding you drop them off at location X to catch a flight, or to return to work, that is their agenda, not yours. Anyone who thinks things will always run on a schedule when yachting should not be a guest on a boat. Phil Berman is the owner of The Multihull Company and Balance Catamarans. He is the author of several books on sailing and former Hobie Cat World champion.
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onpassage
Multihull Storm Tactics
Gales and storms happen when you’re blasting along on your multihull, but reaching into your bag of tricks, you can find a few procedures that apply and can help you avoid major problems by Bill Biewenga
36 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
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s I came up on deck I could see the wide-eyed looks in everyone’s faces. The catamaran was going too fast, and no one fully understood what to do. The speed had crept up on the crew, and I could hear it and feel it even while sleeping fitfully below. With seas building and the apparent wind angle moving to a close reach, more speed could mean more trouble than anyone wanted to face. It would be a good opportunity to demonstrate the “miracle” of trailing warps off the stern. On sailboats most of us spend the vast majority of time trying to figure out how to make the boat go faster. Easing or trimming, a little less helm or a little more sail help create a vast array of tweaks and tricks to speed up the boat and shorten the passage. We’re not often interested in slowing the boat down. When those occasions happen, however, slowing the boat down can seem like a Godsend. Assumed imminent disaster suddenly fades into a pleasant afternoon or an opportunity to focus more fully on what else needs to be done. Of course, we’re all familiar with shortening sails and the general procedures for doing that. Generally, I like to reduce power forward prior to reducing sail area in the main. As a broad concept, the main can help to support the back of the mast, especially when on the wind. The value of storm sails can’t be overestimated in my opinion when heavy weather comes into play. That applies to both mono- and multihulls, or course, but it applies to multihulls in spades. The difference between the two, however, is that the storm sails on a multihull should be significantly smaller for a given boat length. Being generally lighter without a lead keel, multihulls usually require less sail area to make them move, and in storm conditions you want to slow the boat to a manageable speed. If the same formula is applied to sizing a storm jib for a high tech catamaran as the formula for a similar length monohull, the storm sail will be too large to actually slow the multihull down sufficiently in a brisk breeze. Another difference between monohull and multihull storm tactics is due to the fact that the monohull usually has a lead keel hanging from the bottom of the hull, helping to keep the boat generally upright. Also, it turns out that a multihull is pretty stable in both the upright and up-side-down “configuration”. Obviously, we all prefer the former to the latter, and we can increase that likelihood even in storm conditions if we are mindful of how we deploy not only our sails but also our dagger boards on multihulls. When equipped
with dagger boards in each hull, we usually sail with the leeward board down in normal sailing conditions going up wind. In those conditions, the weather board may be down, as well, depending on the wind angle and wind speed. As the wind and sea state build, the leeward board should be up, and the weather board may only be partially down, again depending on wind speed and angle. The objective is to allow the multihull to slide down the face of an oncoming wave that is approaching us on our quarter or off to the side of the bow. If the weather hull starts to “fly”, to keep the boat upright, it’s important that the leeward hull be allowed to slide sideways down the face of the wave rather than trip on its dagger board and result in a capsize. Of course, it’s not only multihulls that have been known to move too fast on occasion. There are plenty of ways to adapt to heavy weather if that’s the cause of the added speed. An adept helmsman can pinch the boat up a bit if they’re on a close reach or alternatively one can run off if on a beam reach. Waves can be put forward or aft of the beam to reduce the possibility of being rolled by large breaking waves. Those heavy weather tactics, of course, don’t only apply to multihulls. Sailors on monohulls can face the same dilemmas. In extremis, one would never want to be beam-on to large breaking waves regardless of the type of sailboat one was aboard. That would be courting disaster. Sometimes, however, running off only adds more speed as the sailboat surfs down increasingly large waves. Pinching the boat up may mean rocketing off waves that seem to have a cliff rather than a back following the crest. The resultant hard slamming may shake the rig so violently that failure seems inevitable. In either case, it’s time to slow the boat down. The desire to slow the boat down doesn’t only result from heavy weather, however. There can be other reasons to slow the boat down. Perhaps there is an equipment failure that requires a more stable platform. Perhaps a self-steering vane needs to be repaired. Or perhaps slowing the boat to make a daylight landfall would be more convenient. Speed isn’t everything. Control is. At times, slowing the boat provides just the added control you need to make everyone’s life just a little better. STREAMING WARPS When I arrived on deck finding people disconcerted by the speed of the catamaran during that gale, I suggested that it would be the perfect time to deploy a series of warps. The process is easy enough, www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 37
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and most boats have plenty of equipment to accomplish the task. We already had the dock lines handy. Into one line we tied an eye in the middle of the rope, forming a bridle from which the warps would trail. We tied all of the other dock lines into that eye. With the relatively short bridle line in which the eye had been tied, we put one end around an aft winch on the port quarter, and the other end of the same bridle was secured around an aft winch on the starboard quarter after running that line aft of the backstay, outside of everything in the back of the boat and careful to make sure that the line was clear and would be free from chafe when the warps were deployed off the stern. We then tossed the warps, and bridle off the back of the boat, keep the two ends of the bridle secured to the two winches. We could control the location of the eye off the back of the boat using the winches. The boat speed went from 16 knots to 8. We were under control, and the remaining storm sails provided enough power to allow steerage. When necessary to additionally slow the boat, I will tie overhand knots every two feet in the warps that are attached to the eye of the bridle. The knots add 38 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
enough friction to further slow the boat. When retrieving the warps, I bring the eye close to one of the winches and merely haul the warps in one at a time. Even with the line knotted for additional drag, it’s not an overly difficult task. Drogues, such as the well-known Galerider, are also meant to slow the boat down. Deployed from the back of the boat, drogues – as with all types of equipment that have a potentially rapid increase in load - should be deployed with care. If your vessel is traveling at speed and you suddenly introduce a means to slow it down, the added friction will put a substantial load on the line that is holding the drogue. Lines such as warps can be paid out slowly, introducing drag gradually. Depending on the type of drogue you might use, the load may be somewhat sudden. The bitter end of the line holding the drogue to the boat should be secured around a winch and tied to avoid losing the drogue. The line should be readily adjustable at the winch, however, so make sure it has several wraps on the winch and the bitter end is then secured. The line should be flaked out so that the drogue is able to run freely without chafe and the line is laid out in a figure “8” pattern to insure that there are no knots or tangles in the line. Feet and arms should be well clear of the line as it plays out, and everyone on the crew should be aware that the drogue is in the process of being deployed. Everyone clear! No surprises! PARA ACNHORS On a different voyage, we discovered the damaged ama on the trimaran in 50 knots of wind and it became obvious that we would need to deploy the sea anchor. Generally, sea anchors are meant to be set from the bow and designed to stop the boat. Stopping the boat in breaking seas, however, renders the vessel at the mercy of the oncoming waves and reduces its ability to diminish the impact by moving with the wave. Since the parachute sea anchor had a trip line that allowed for partial deployment by pulling the center of the parachute forward towards the boat, we decided to deploy the sea anchor from the stern and reduce the sea anchor’s ability to fully deploy. I don’t think I’ll do that again, although when trying to stop a multihull, the sea anchor may still be the best way to accomplish that. Prior to deployment of the sea anchor we had fed the rode into a laundry basket, leaving enough bitter end tail to be led to a winch. With the rode properly stacked in the laundry basket and the bitter
Fold down tank storage racks
end secured to a large winch, we hooked up the sea anchor to the other end of the rode, making sure it was clear to run when we put it over the side. I’ll admit to the fact that the sea anchor was effective at stopping the boat. Happily enough, the winch wasn’t ripped off the deck, and neither arms nor legs are part of this story. The point of all of this, however is to suggest to the reader that whenever deploying anything meant to slow the boat down, try to slow the boat down first. If the boat is moving at speed and the tether to the sea anchor is short, you will experience an abrupt speed reduction as the line suddenly loads up. If people are in the way, problems can result. HEAVING TO Heaving to is also a valuable tool that everyone should practice in moderate conditions. Both monohulls and multihulls can creep forward at a few knots while hove to, and merely by tacking without releasing the jib sheet, one can find how their own boat reacts. Each boat is slightly different. Some may need the wheel tied over. Others will benefit from having the boom prevented so the boat is stable and safe. Multihulls may find heaving to is difficult due to their bows catching the wind and spinning the boat around, never quite finding a point of equilibrium that is stable for an extended period of time. In all cases, practice in
moderate conditions is a worthwhile exercise. If completely stopping your multihull is your primary goal, deploying a sea anchor from the bow and attached to a bridle is still probably your best option. Ideally, whether you use warps, drogue or sea anchor, you should stow the gear properly, ready to deploy so the load will be introduced gradually either by having the boat at dead slow or by deploying something like warps with can be gradually be fed into the sea. Another suggestion is that you should try deploying your gear in 10 or 15 knots of wind under good conditions first. You will learn a lot and have a great time doing it. And the next time you need to confront heavy weather conditions, you will have added more than a few procedures to that ever-expanding bag of tricks. Bill Biewenga has over 400,000 miles at sea as a professional offshore racer, navigator, weather forecaster and delivery skipper. He makes his home on Cape Cod, MA.
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Miami Boat Show Preview -- 2019
Multihulls rule the waves and dominate the boat show
Nautitech 47
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Nautitech Open 40
he multihull section of the huge Miami International Boast Show continues to expand and is now the winter showcase where many new and current models will be on display. Here’s a preview of what you will see there in February: BAVARIA NAUTITECH The huge German builder of production monohulls, Bavaria, bought the French catamaran company Nautitech three years ago and then promptly went into receivership. Bavaria is back under new owners and Nautitech continues to build new cats with interesting new designs coming out almost every year. At the Miami show, you can expect to see the Nautitech 40, 46, 46 Flybridge, 541, 542 and the 47 Motoryacht. The boats are elegant modern designs and have proven to be fine sailing cats as well. You will find some Nautitechs in the charter fleets but in general the boats are designed and built as family cruisers, The accommodations are very comfortable and the layouts offer good indoor-outdoor living spaces.
Corsair 760 CORSAIR TRIMARANS If you want to sail fast and don’t need a huge amount of accommodations on your boat, then you really ought to consider owning a trimaran in which you can usually sail as fast as the wind and will be able to point with racing monohulls – unlike a cruising cat. Corsair is one of the oldest builders of performance trimarans and has a range of sizes to fit your needs from 16 feet to 37 feet. The 22-footer is a great bay boat and fun to race. The 28 is a fine weekender and will thrill you with its speed and performance. The 32 is a comfortable cruiser that you can take offshore if you like and will be fun for cruising for weeks at a time. The 37 is a true blue water boat that you could take just about anywhere. The boats are built in Vietnam and have fairly spartan interiors to keep weight down.
Corsair 970 www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 41
Fountaine Pajot MY 40
Fountaine Pajot New 45
Fountaine Pajot MY 37
FOUNTAINE PAJOT One of the Big Three builders of production catamarans, with Lagoon and Leopard, the French company Fountaine Pajot has grown and expanded a lot in the last decade. They build seven models from the 40-foot Lucia to the 67-foot Alegria and each is a handsome, well-built family cruising boat. Even the 67, which is a massive cruising boat, is manageable by an experienced couple and will make an amazing voyaging boat capable of fast and comfortable ocean passages. It also makes a wonderful crewed charter boat. This year, FP is launching it’s New 45 which is the company’s latest take on what a modern cruising cat should be all about. The New 45 has an indoor-outdoor saloon and cockpit layout that will be an amazing living space. The helm is raised to starboard where you will have great visibility. On top of the cockpit’s hardtop you will find a raised lounge area where you will spend a lot of time in good weather. The New 45 is sleek, modern and will be a huge success. 42 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
GEMINI Gemini has been around for many years and is, probably, the most popular cruising cat ever built. The original Gemini 105MC has been in constant production since 1980 and the Gemini Legacy 35 has been in production since 1981. Well over 1,000 boats have been built and you will find them cruising all over the world, even as far south as Patagonia. The boats are fast, roomy and economical. They fit into most marina slips and cost about the same as an equivalent monohull. Yet, they offer so much more in terms of space, level sailing and ease of handling. If “go small and go now” is your motto, then a Gemini might be the cat for you.
HH 55 HH CATAMARANS HH Catamarans is a company that sprang from the creative minds of Kiwi Paul Hakes and Chinese entrepreneur and boat builder Hudson Wang. Among the well-known non-marine products Wang produces in China are Yeti coolers. Wang has built Gunboats, J/ Boats and the luxury British brand, Pearl. He has also built a series of one-off high tech racing boats. The HH project is Wang’s entrance into the high-performance, luxury catamaran market. The boats are designed by Morelli and Melvin and built of high tech laminates and carbon to be extremely light, fast and strong. There are two models in build right now, the HH 66 and the new 55. With luck, both boats will be at the Miami show. When you climb on board, you will be amazed at the quality of the finished product. The composite moldings are perfect and the wood and varnish work true yacht style. These are boats for sailors who want it all – luxury, high tech, speed and the prestige that comes with owning a boat that has it all.
KNYSNA Knysna Yachts is a small boutique builder in the coastal town of Knysna, South Africa run by Kevin and Rika Fourche. They build four to six boats a year for discerning customers who want to have their boats built with a lot of personal care and customization. The 500 SE is their basic model and is a handsome, swift-sailing 50-footer that is set up for a couple to handle on their own. Kevin and Rika put a lot of themselves into each boat as you can tell from the fit and finish of the woodwork, the fabrics and colors of the upholstery and the attention to little details everywhere. There are 500 SEs cruising all over the world and several have made circumnavigations. If you want the intimate and personal experience of working very closely with the builder of your new boat, then a Knysna 500 SE should be on your short list.
Knysna 500SE www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 43
Lagoon 46 LAGOON This French builder, which is part of Groupe Beneteau, is the largest builder of cruising catamarans in the world and one of the Big Three with Fountaine Pajot and Leopard. Based in Bordeaux, Lagoon builds eight models of sailing and power cats from 40 feet to 77 feet. Last year, they introduced two new boats at the Miami show, the 40 and 50, both of which are evolutionary designs that incorporated a number of innovations new to the company. Both boats have the new style rig Lagoon is employing with the mast moved well aft to the middle of the saloon’s cabin top. This reduces the size of the mainsail and increases the size of the roller furling genoa; by doing so, they have made the boat easier to sail and perform better on all points of sail. This year, Lagoon is launching the new 46 which falls between the 40 and 50 and incorporates all of the innovations, and more, that we first saw last year. Lagoon builds a lot of boats that go into charter fleets and gets a lot of feedback from both charter customers and charter fleet managers. This enables the company to refine their designs and innovate solutions in a very short time frame much to the benefit of the charter world and the large base of private owners who buy their boats for their own cruising adventures.
FLagoon Seventy7
Privilege 580 44 Multihulls Quarterly • Volume 10, winter
LEOPARD The third builder to be included in the Big Three, Leopard cats are built by Robertson and Caine in Cape Town, South Africa. In an interesting arrangement, R&C builds boats only for the holding company that owns The Moorings and Sunsail charter fleets, which also owns the worldwide rights to sell cats, under the Leopard banner, to private owners. This arrangement means that R&C has a very steady and large demand for new boats and thus the ability to innovate and refine their designs annually. They build four sailing cats – the 40,45, 50 and 58 – and two power cats – the 43 and 55. One would think that with this business arrangement that most of the R&C built boats go into the charter fleets but, in fact, about half are sold as Leopards to private owners. The boats are solid, well built and full of life-style features that make them great for living aboard and making ocean passages. Until recently, all of the R&C cats in the Caribbean were delivered on their own bottoms under sail from South Africa.
Leopard 45
PRIVILEGE The French builder, Privilege, was once a production builder of very fine mid-size cruising cats. But, a decade ago, they decided to move into the very high end of the catamaran market by designing and delivering large, spacious luxury cats that embody many of the features of custom, highly finished mega-yachts. While the smaller models in the Privilege line, the 50 and 510, are suitable for owner-operators, ie., couples and their families, the larger designs are laid out to accommodate professional crew. The Series 6 and 7 – 60 and 70 footers – are true luxury yachts that would feel right at home in Monte Carlo, St.Barts or Newport. One of the hallmarks of each Privilege is the master stateroom. Designed on the same level as the saloon, the cabin is forward and under the arching cabin top, it runs almost the full width of the boat and has a very commodious head and shower. If you are looking for a boat that you can cruise on when you have the time and then put into crewed charter for obvious business reasons, then a Privilege should be on your shopping list.
Royal Cape 530 ROYAL CAPE The Royal Cape Catamarans Majestic 530 is a multipurpose luxury cruiser that is built outside Durban, South Africa in a boutique semi-custom environment. Ken Bircher owns the company and works closely with every customer to create a 530 that suits the owner’s specific needs. You can have the boat with a hard top over the cockpit or create a flying bridge with a large lounge. The boat can be set up for SCUBA diving or you can trick it out for fishing. The interior spaces offer both privacy and social areas that are warm and friendly. The finish work in the 530 is classic, old-school woodwork that glistens with varnish. The boat is fairly heavy so it has a very comfortable motion in a seaway and has shown good speeds on passage. If you want to build a semi-custom boat that is created for your special activities and cruising plans, then RCC Majestic 530 demands a closer look.
XQUISITE The Xquisite X5 is not your father’s cruising cat. This design and the finished yachts are sort of futuristic while being imbued with many traditional qualities. Tomas and Sara who founded and run the company, build the boats in South Africa on a semi-custom basis. But, they have immense experience sailing, cruising and living aboard boats like the X5 and have a lot they can share with new owners from their experiences. The boats come with a lot of equipment standard that would be optional of many cats. At 50 feet, the X5 is right in the sweet spot for many cruising couples since it promises great sailing performance, ease of handling with all lines and sheets managed from the raised helm and pure luxury in the interior cabins. With its large, bold arch aft and the immense hull windows, the X5 does not look like any other cat out there, so if you are looking for a complete cruiser that you will never mistake for anything else, the X5 might just be for you.
Seawind 11980 SEAWIND Seawind catamarans developed a keen following in Australasia from it’s original home in Australia. The owners moved the company to Vietnam a few years ago, along with its sister company Corsair, to take advantage of the favorable labor rates and traditional boat building skills. They build four models between 35 and 50 feet that are designed for couples who want better than average sailing performance and true indooroutdoor living. The boats are easy to sail and perfectly suited for the tropics or other warm regions. That said, with the large saloon doors in place and closed, the main cabin is cozy and comfortable. The 50-foot cat is a large performance cruiser that will be more than suitable for living aboard for long periods and making fast and comfortable ocean passages. If you are looking for something a little different that provides a good combination of sailing performance, comfortable living aboard and value, check out the Seawinds at the show.
FXquisite X5 www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 45
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The Multihull Company
The World’s Leader in Multihull Sales, Service and Charter The Exclusive Dealer Of These High-Quality Catamarans 20 ar e Ye th of
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Broker Spotlight
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The Balance 451
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The Balance 526
The Balance 760
Fe at u red B r o k er a g e L ist i n g s
2011 Privilege 615 $1,299,000
201 Lagoon 52 $1,200,000
2012 Catana 47 $499,000
2001 Switch 51 $449,000
2011 Royal Cape $685,000
2011 Alibi 54 $899,000
2010 Knysna 480 $539,000
2015 Lagoon 560 S2 $1,250,000
2014 Antares 44 $695,000
2013 Lagoon 39 $400,000
2006 Privilege 435 €310.000
2002 Catana 471 $395,000
2016 Malcolm Tennant 60
2014 Lagoon 450 $599,000
2017 Schionning 60 $1,400,000
1990 Privilege 482 €290.000
2005 Switch 55 $649,000
2015 Fountaine Pajot Sanya 57
$1,249,000
2012 Nautitech 542 $899,000
Andrew Hodgdon Wilmington, NC
+1-910-477-2508
AmHodgdon@multihullcompany.com
Andrew grew up sailing his fathers Hobie Cat and transitioned that into a long career as a USCG licensed captain in the yachting industry. Working his way up from his college years as a sailing instructor to a position as a private yacht captain aboard a Gunboat 57, he brings with him a comprehensive knowledge of catamarans and the cruising life. His career has taken him from his home waters of Cape Fear, through the waters of the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Central and South American, and the South Pacific Islands. During that time he worked as a charter yacht captain and a professional delivery skipper specializing in catamarans. He has operated a wide variety of multihulls, everything from from old Lagoons to brand new Outremers and most things in between. This experience has given him an extensive first-hand knowledge of many different makes and models and a solid understanding of their various strengths and weaknesses. Now, he has settled down in North Carolina and seeks to share his passion for catamaran sailing and the cruising life with others. As a broker with The Multihull Company, Andrew hopes to help pair sailors of all types and skill levels with the perfect boat for their needs. Whether you are looking for a safe and capable coastal cruiser or a carbon fiber racing beast; For assistance with buying or selling your next catamaran, contact Andrew at +1-910-477-2508.
$600,000
2017 Custom Greg Young
€1.695.000
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