Catalina Yachts, USA has finally closed down and Club Nautique has also ceased operations.

[Concerto]

Catalina Yachts, USA has finally closed down after a takeover and continuing financial difficulties. Club Nautique, the French shared boat ownership company has also closed on 31 December 2025.

https://www.thestreet.com/travel/an...ares-bankruptcy-and-shuts-down-after-46-years

Is there an oversupply of boats for a contracting market?

 

[Davy_S]

I seem to remember Catalina as building the 27 masthead rig yacht that became known as the Jag 27, sailing holidays Ionian fleet used the Jag 27, in fact we charted one many moons ago.

 

[dunedin]

I seem to remember Catalina as building the 27 masthead rig yacht that became known as the Jag 27, sailing holidays Ionian fleet used the Jag 27, in fact we charged one many moons ago.

Quite a few of the old Alacrity and Jaguar branded boats of the 1970s and 1980s were UK buit versions of Catalina’s. The most commonly seen is the centreboard Alacrity 22/650 later called Jaguar 22, based on the Catalina 22.

 

[sealegsjim]

I seem to remember Catalina as building the 27 masthead rig yacht that became known as the Jag 27, sailing holidays Ionian fleet used the Jag 27, in fact we charted one many moons ago.

I was on a flotilla with Sailing Holidays in the Ionian and was speaking to a couple who had a Jag 27.
I asked them how they were getting on and lady said they had never been on a sailing boat before but thought they would 'give it a go' She said the boat was a lot smaller than they imagined and she was particularly disappointed that there was no bath!

 

[Davy_S]

Not a bath but the later Jags had an altered interior and were fitted with a shower, they sold off the Jags but the altered ones were a good buy at the time, the smallest they use are 32ft now.

 

[Stemar]

She said the boat was a lot smaller than they imagined and she was particularly disappointed that there was no bath!

It's always helpful to understand the difference between metres and feet.

 

[johnalison]

There was a Catalina 34 around at the time we were looking for a boat of that size and we saw one at SBS. It was a conservative design with little obviously wrong with it, if rather lacking in character. Over the next year or two we saw this and larger versions, finding that we were about a knot faster and felt that we had made the right decision.

 

[jwilson]

Pity: done a lot of miles in a Catalina 42 - pure cruiser, solidly built, but not that slow and super interior accommodation. When I was looking for a 34-36 ft boat fifteen+ years ago would have liked a Catalina 36 but none on the market in the UK.

 

[smert]

There was a Catalina 34 around at the time we were looking for a boat of that size and we saw one at SBS. It was a conservative design with little obviously wrong with it, if rather lacking in character. Over the next year or two we saw this and larger versions, finding that we were about a knot faster and felt that we had made the right decision.

This may have been our current boat you saw at the boat show... it was the show boat the first year Catalina had a presence there. I'm not sure if they did it again!

I agree that it's not a fast boat and we don't sail it hard, but we'll still see 6-6.5kn through the water (7+ kn with a clean bottom. For us it has a lot more interior space that others of a similar length and age, and it doesn't feel dark and gloomy.

 

[Fossil]

When I lived in Belgium, I owned a Jaguar 27 which I had for 10 years or so. As I understood it at the time, Jaguar Yachts, a UK-based company licensed the design from Catalina US and built them in the UK in a factory in Essex. They were, by all accounts built and fitted out to a higher spec than US Catalinas. They were very good sea boats and comfortable to live aboard, even if the bathroom was on the small (vide non-existent) side... All I know is that my wife and I lived aboard Evette for three months during an extended tour of the Netherlands/Kiel-Nordzee Canal/Germany/Denmark and enjoyed ourselves immensely. It's a pity that the rush to ever larger and more expensive starter yachts has tended to obscure the sheer fun you can have on a small, easily-handled cruiser. If fitted out properly - as ours was - with sprayhood, dodgers and an internal diesel heater, we were able to cruise comfortably in most weather.

 

[potentillaCO32]

They were built on canvey island, down the road from the Prout factory. Also built on canvey but by thames marine were snapdragons and mirages.

The rapid death of the uk yacht manugacturing industry.