Boat of the show

stuartwineberg

stuartwineberg

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I'm a mobo'er these days but I was bowled over by the Nauticat 331 - what a beautifully made interior and superb use of space - 2 good cabins both ensuite, deck level airy, light saloon and a separate dinette - all in 34 feet. Chunky 75 HP Yanmar, ketch rig, mainsheet to hand for the helm, wide side decks, high guard rails, 600 mile range on the standard fuel tanks. What's the catch - round about £200K for a well equipped new one. Interestingly in the many motor sailer debates here that seem to alternate around Fishers and Colvic Watsons, older Nauticats never seem to figure - is there a reason (apart from price)?

Just to create a sense of balance, my favourite mobos - I am always enthused by Botnia Targas and was very interested in the new Marex 320 AC which is a great piece of interior design but surprisingly "flat pack" in trim for a Norwegian boat
 
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93 views and no comments. I thought this could have been a good chatty topic, unless someone else has done it and I missed it

stuartwineberg said:
I'm a mobo'er these days but I was bowled over by the Nauticat 331 - what a beautifully made interior and superb use of space - 2 good cabins both ensuite, deck level airy, light saloon and a separate dinette - all in 34 feet. Chunky 75 HP Yanmar, ketch rig, mainsheet to hand for the helm, wide side decks, high guard rails, 600 mile range on the standard fuel tanks. What's the catch - round about £200K for a well equipped new one. Interestingly in the many motor sailer debates here that seem to alternate around Fishers and Colvic Watsons, older Nauticats never seem to figure - is there a reason (apart from price)?

Just to create a sense of balance, my favourite mobos - I am always enthused by Botnia Targas and was very interested in the new Marex 320 AC which is a great piece of interior design but surprisingly "flat pack" in trim for a Norwegian boat
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Ok, I will bite.

Nauticat, or as well call it Bad Pussy.

Spec sounds good, nice workmanship, but pig ugly and a rather inflexible builder in my personal experience.
 
Take the rigging off and its closer to a trawler mobo than a sail boat. Nauticats, tend to appeal to a certain age group I seem to remember, does the Stanah stair lift come in the standard package?
 
photodog said:
Ooooh... I bet you are just SEETHING at this type of post!!!!

(And with good reason....)
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No not seething, every man to his poison. We love our Nauticat and can think of few boats that I'd want to change her for. If I had £500k to spend then I could identify some choices but if I had £500k I wouldn't spend it on a boat!

Rob
 
stuartwineberg said:
I'm a mobo'er these days but I was bowled over by the Nauticat 331 - what a beautifully made interior and superb use of space - 2 good cabins both ensuite, deck level airy, light saloon and a separate dinette - all in 34 feet. Chunky 75 HP Yanmar, ketch rig, mainsheet to hand for the helm, wide side decks, high guard rails, 600 mile range on the standard fuel tanks. What's the catch - round about £200K for a well equipped new one. Interestingly in the many motor sailer debates here that seem to alternate around Fishers and Colvic Watsons, older Nauticats never seem to figure - is there a reason (apart from price)?

Just to create a sense of balance, my favourite mobos - I am always enthused by Botnia Targas and was very interested in the new Marex 320 AC which is a great piece of interior design but surprisingly "flat pack" in trim for a Norwegian boat
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France would not categorize them as unlimited Ocean capable because of the lateral doors.
 
Sybarite said:
France would not categorize them as unlimited Ocean capable because of the lateral doors.
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Whilst I'm no expert in the CE classification process, I don't believe that individual EU member states have a discretion to declare a different categorization if a boat builder has correctly gone through the process.

The Specs on the Nauticat website say CE approved category B - so you are right that they are not "unlimited ocean", but I don't think you can single out the French for having made a decision on categorization.
 
Can't say I think they are the bees knees, but I would like a boat made from aluminium next - not everybody's cup of tea.
 
Angele said:
Whilst I'm no expert in the CE classification process, I don't believe that individual EU member states have a discretion to declare a different categorization if a boat builder has correctly gone through the process.

The Specs on the Nauticat website say CE approved category B - so you are right that they are not "unlimited ocean", but I don't think you can single out the French for having made a decision on categorization.
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Yes I believe that to be correct. The Nauticat pilot house yachts have A categorisation. Having said that there is a famous (infamous?) case of a N33 being abandoned off the western seaboard of the USA and it subsequently sailed/drifted itself half way across the Pacific and was found off Hawaii. It had been stripped of its internal equipment by looters (including the engine IIRC) and was brought ashore for refit. At the point the memory fades, not sure it if was reunited with its owner. The USCG took some flak because they had pretty much forced the skipper to abandon his boat for reasons that I can't recall. Here is the story from the Honolulu press: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Jun/07/ln/FP606070352.html/?print=on
 
Angele said:
Whilst I'm no expert in the CE classification process, I don't believe that individual EU member states have a discretion to declare a different categorization if a boat builder has correctly gone through the process.

The Specs on the Nauticat website say CE approved category B - so you are right that they are not "unlimited ocean", but I don't think you can single out the French for having made a decision on categorization.
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I was looking into a Nauticat 38 and why it didn't have the open category. But then France categorized boats before the practice widened.
 
I like the Nauticats, I think they're better sailers than some have suggested; part of the trouble is anecdotes, unlike a Bav 34 some motor sailers will be bought be people who only motor sail, so there's bound to be a few anecdotes out there from people who've owned but never sailed one. I know a chap who's too nervous to sail his CW34, he'll only motor sail it, but I know lots of other CW34 owners who sail hundreds of miles a year.

The Nauticat 33/331 does have one strange design feature, it's always been designed as quite a narrow boat. The beam is only 11 feet, I think that's unnecessarily narrow for the type of boat it is, it means 25% less interior volume for example than a CW34 or similar craft. The Nauticat 38 is even worse with exactly the same beam as the 331. Someone cleverer than me will say what effect that and the flat sided design does for form stability?

There are precious few wheelhouse yachts being built these days, a shame more people don't get to try them, we used to moan about the British weather until we bought one, suddenly the weather seemed to dramatically improve!
 
Lazy Kipper said:
There are precious few wheelhouse yachts being built these days, a shame more people don't get to try them, we used to moan about the British weather until we bought one, suddenly the weather seemed to dramatically improve!
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That is so true! We were out sailing in November, jolly cold but with the Eberspacher running we were sailing from the pilot house in shirt sleeves. Ideal for these northern latitudes that we sail in.
 
Robih said:
That is so true! We were out sailing in November, jolly cold but with the Eberspacher running we were sailing from the pilot house in shirt sleeves. Ideal for these northern latitudes that we sail in.
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Yep, oilskins unused for that last two years, and that includes 2012 summer which some claim was rather damp and cold?
 
Lazy Kipper said:
dreds of miles a year.

The Nauticat 33/331 does have one strange design feature, it's always been designed as quite a narrow boat. The beam is only 11 feet, I think that's unnecessarily narrow for the type of boat it is, it means 25% less interior volume for example than a CW34 or similar craft. The Nauticat 38 is even worse with exactly the same beam as the 331. Someone cleverer than me will say what effect that and the flat sided design does for form stability?
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Maybe because of Baltic box moorings which 'penalise' beam?
 
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