Calling all catamaran owners.....

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BradleyC

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We are currently looking at possible liveaboard yachts, and the catamaran seems to offer a number of advantages for a liveaboard. Our plan is to sail in the Med, and I'd be really grateful if any existing catamaran owners could give me some feedback on how they find their cat in terms of accomodation, sailing and cost of mooring in the Med. Any recommendations in terms of particular brands would also be welcome.

Cheers!
 
Check out South African built Cats, they are by far the best value, Matrix Yachts, Admiral Yachts, Charter Cats, Sky Blue Yachts, Royal Cape Catamarans, Knysna Yachts, Dean Cats and St Francis Marine.
A £100K will buy a 50' in good condition
 
Thanks!

Thanks for the tip - I didn't know that! I'll certainly have a good look at the brands you've mentioned.
 
BradleyC said:
We are currently looking at possible liveaboard yachts, and the catamaran seems to offer a number of advantages for a liveaboard. Our plan is to sail in the Med, and I'd be really grateful if any existing catamaran owners could give me some feedback on how they find their cat in terms of accomodation, sailing and cost of mooring in the Med. Any recommendations in terms of particular brands would also be welcome.

Cheers!
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You might get a quicker more informed answer over here

http://www.multihulls4us.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=7

What kind of budget and/or size were you thinking ? New(nearly new) or older ?

Broadblue are often recommended as a liveaboard but there are many more and without a little bit more information it might be difficult to help you. Will you want to use the canals to get/their back ? This will limit you to a small number including old Prouts for instance.

Your also find some good stuff from Dave (and some hard sell on his vides) from

http://www.maxingout.com/index.htm

I don't always like his style but there a lot of good stuff and experience in what he writes
 
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Bobobolinsky said:
Check out South African built Cats...
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Avoid the Jaguar and Wildcat and anything else built by Erik Schoemann. He has traded under many guises, mainly Charter Cats though.

There are other rogue builders in SA eg Proud Catamarans and a "broker" whose name escapes me at the moment.

The solid builders are Robertson & Caine, Southern Ocean, St Francis, Voyage, Knysna ????, Admiral and South Coast Boats (difficult to find on the web because they don't have a website)

I've heard that there have been many cancelled orders in SA on half-complete boats. Dig around and you might get the bargain of the century.
 
Hi Bradleyc
Welcome and good start, usually we get asked for general types but you have made our advice some what easier to dole out.

We live on a Solaris Sunstar 36,Manatee, and have been full time live aboard for 8 years and in that time have had several jobs as crew on bigger cats including several of the south African makes mentioned above and our favourite of those was/is the Voyage 500, but we have also sailed on Roberson and Caine, Royal Cape and Dean cats all have pros and cons but all were larger 45-50 ft charter cats with huge amounts of space.

The main thing you have to remember when you start your live aboard life is that you sail for a few days or a couple of weeks at a time but you live on board all the time so comfort is all important, so what if some one can point 5 or 15 degrees higher you will take lightly longer to get there but it will be more comfortable (some cats can now point almost as high as a mono, Fountain Pagot(sp) ).

Our 36ft cat gives as much living,usable space inside and on deck as much larger 50ft+ mono without the inherent cost of the digger boat.

Cant help with the cost of the Med as we have not been there, but our life style and preference is to anchor for free when ever we could and still do, one advantage of the cats at anchor is the extra stability which means you can anchor in areas renown for not being to comfortable for monos without the fuss.

Side bar, all cats have a wave hight and span that will make it/them roll horrendously, we found that it is half or double the width of the boat, and a wave hight that will slap the bridge deck when under way that will make the boat shudder. But those are the biggest downs to cat sailing we've found.
Good luck on your search

Mark n Lee :)
 
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You could consider an old Prout Snowgoose which were built like battleships and quite spacious and were chartered for ten (10) people which was probably o.k. for a couple of weeks.They are reckoned to be virtually unsinkable and there is no record of one ever having capsized.I have a friend who has crossed the Atlantic 15 times in one.
Marina prices vary enormously - in the new Alcaidesa marina ( La Linea) last month a 9m Catalac cost €13 p.d.
P.S. My Snowgoose is for sale.
 
Hi and thanks for all the great info. I hadn't thought of the French market either so thanks for another great tip!

Budget is ideally less from 35000- £50,000 or if that isn't possible then in the 50,000-100000 range. Size will be dictated by budget but as we are planning on sailing as a family (husband, wife, 12 year old and 9 year old) probably somewhere in the region of 35-45 feet. From what people have said, a 36 foot cat gives the same spacious accomodation as a 50 foot mono, which is another reason we are looking at them. In my experience kids need a certain amount of space, so basically we will try to get as much boat as we can for our money (natch!)

Hope that helps, and thanks again.
 
Looking at your budget, you are really constrained to something like the Prout Snowgoose Elite. If you are lucky and can find one post 1996, you will get the best version. (major rigging and mast changes at that date) The earlier Pre-elite Snowgoose is available in the lower budget range, but is not as good at carrying cruising weight, and by the time you have spent the money updating, you might just as well get the newer boats.

Not the fastest cat (by a country mile) but solid family boat with a great history of long distance cruising. Dont forget to budget about 30% for long distance cruise necessities

another vote for www.mutltihulls4us.com as a source of data on cats, and for Dave at http://www.maxingout.com/index.htm as a source of information on sensible long distance cruising
 
Feedback on Wharrams cats

Thanks to everyone who has posted back- its much appreciated!

I've noticed that Wharrams catamarans come up quite a lot and they tend to be a lot cheaper compared to other cats. Has anyone got any experience of them or know anything about them?

I also noticed that someone had a problem in that they couldn't get insurance for a Wharrams cat which was lying in South Africa.

So what am I missing?
 
Feedback on Wharrams cats

So I guess our options would be to either avoid altogether or have a seriously in-depth survey prior to buying!

Do you know what they are like to sail/how comfortable they are etc?
 
BradleyC said:
Thanks to everyone who has posted back- its much appreciated!

I've noticed that Wharrams catamarans come up quite a lot and they tend to be a lot cheaper compared to other cats. Has anyone got any experience of them or know anything about them?

I also noticed that someone had a problem in that they couldn't get insurance for a Wharrams cat which was lying in South Africa.

So what am I missing?
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Wharrams are based on polinisian (spelling) designs and there is a lot of them cruising all over the world. They dont have the internal volume of modern designs and I believe windward performance can be hampered on some designs as lashings are used to hole them together which can make it difficult to get rig tension I believe. I haven't sailed any mind you but thats what I remember when I was boat searching. Insurance can be an issue on homebuilds in less you get a good insurance survey and carry out the recomendations to the insurrers satisfaction. There are a lot of high quality homebuils out there though such as kelsell and woods as well as warram.

My research for family sailing led me to conclude I wanted high bridge deck clearence, slender hulls below the water line, weight consious build and 40+ feet for stability and to reduce risk of wave induced capsize to negligent for all the conditions i was likely to encounter. I ended up with a Kelsell 45 homebuild for our trip (now finished and sold :( )

For what its worth i think prouts, and broadblue are not well designed. Privilages are to heavy but well built and comfortable, I'm not a fan of Lagoon either. If I could afford it I have a chris white 42 or 48. There is some good french cats too.
 
no never been on one I did read a book years ago the early ones were basically 2 canoes with tied cross bars which were free to flex. A lot of people held them in high regard as they get bigger they are sleeping in one and galley, heads and day time in the other . Then they start to have a central pod The smaller ones had a sort of lift up camper van thing in the middle loads of different types lot of early ones were ply then some grp and professionally built ones.
 
a CATAMARAN

Good Morning, You have had a remarkable response. At last you gave a few more thoughts re size and cost.

We are live aboards on our second CATAMARAN. Have sailed extensively and love it.

Our Cat is a Solaris Sunrise 11meter (36 ft) x 4.*meter. Depth 0.8metr 3 double cabins one is ensuite. All the mod cons fitted by us when we bought her. We are in the med now in our second year.

Our type and size would be ideal for you and the family. Our first Cat was a Dean Ocean liner 365. Built for us in South Africa. Very fast and very strong. No longer built BUT you may just may find a s/h one. Do pay for a prepurchase survey and include insurance survey.

If you want any further info PM me and I will give you my e-mail address.

Costs in the Med are not too bad, but we anchor all through the summer and only use a marine on odd occasions. We always use a marina for the winter months and so far have managed to get very reduced fees.

Good luck

Peter
 
Note that yard completed Wharram's are few and far between, James Wharram has had some sort of argument with design authorities over the lack of in hull escape facilities on his boats, in the inverted position. He points out that his designs are so different from the modern multihull design that this is not a requirement. Personally I support him in this issue and have found then extremely good sea keeping boats. They are more of a sailors boat and are not really good as a liveaboard in anything other than a warm climate. There are those that would disagree with that analysis, but personally sleeping in one hull and going to the other hull to make a cup of tea, is not good on a frosty morning. If you are looking for a Wharram, be aware that they suffer from rot in the beam boxes (where the cross beams are attached) and on a casual inspection, this is sometimes not visible. Though they do suffer a little to windward, they can make up for that at other points of the wind and downwind can surf and reach 18 knots. They don't slam like modern designs tend to and are more comfortable in rough weather, though again many would disagree/ In warm climates they are perfect having big open "party" decks. I have friends who have fire pits let into the deck
 
Calling all cat owners

Thanks to everyone for the flurry of replies. I've had a look at the different Wharram designs and I can see what you mean about them being good warm climate cats as they seem particularly well geared to out doors living. Has anyone tried living on one in the Med? Given that they are reasonably good value one option might be to live on one during spring, summer and autumn in the Med, and then rent somewhere warm during the winter months.
 
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