If you think catamarans are ugly,

[RichardS]

No, I just think it looks ugly full stop. The Jag doesn't really do it for me either. But then, I have one of these (with a white roof)

opinion on which divide the sophisticated from the savages very clearly.

Ah yes, but this serves to prove that beauty is only skin deep!

IMHO Citroen are definitely to be avoided if you like to get below the skin and actually do any work on them. Everything mechanical appears to have been deliberately designed to be as difficult as possible to repair, remove or replace.

I'm happy to sacrifice a chunk of beauty for practicality whether we're talking about cars or boats!

Richard

 

[Greenheart]

Maybe we'd be assisting catamaran designers and would-be builders, by briefly listing characteristics that we'd like to see aboard their creations, the absence of which may reduce existing cats' appeal? I'll start... (nothing very groundbreaking from me, here, although there's little evidence of mid-size cat designers/builders having yet seen the light):

- TEAK DECKS Think of the beautiful Sweden Yachts 34. The flush deck would be similar to a Sigma 33 (which is nothing like so pretty, in my view) if it weren't for the woodwork...

- CURVE IN THE COACHROOFLINE Look how the not-very-interesting VW Passat was made sexy in CC 'coupe' form. Huge improvement. Not cheap maybe, at the mould-building stage, and costly in space below, but worth it.

- SHEERLINE Just like on the coachroof, straight lines are dull as cardboard boxes. Christ, I feel like Gok!

Got some further thoughts on features? It can't take so much effort...there's not that much difference between tediously bland or downright ill-proportioned BenJenBav lines, and the wholesome designs of Chuck Paine. I actually like James Wharram's Pacific curiosities...anything's better than the floating portaloo shapes we encounter so often.

 

[snowleopard]

- TEAK DECKS Think of the beautiful Sweden Yachts 34. The flush deck would be similar to a Sigma 33 (which is nothing like so pretty, in my view) if it weren't for the woodwork...

- CURVE IN THE COACHROOFLINE Look how the not-very-interesting VW Passat was made sexy in CC 'coupe' form. Huge improvement. Not cheap maybe, at the mould-buiding stage, and costly in space below, but worth it.

- SHEERLINE Just like on the coachroof, straight lines are dull as cardboard boxes. Christ, I feel like Gok!

The only place for teak decks in my view is on someone else's boat. They add a lot of weight which is anathema to cat performance and they deteriorate in a relatively short time leaving a humungous bill for replacement.

The whole problem with ugly cats is the need to make interior space. If you want them pretty you need to accept that you'll have to crawl around on hands and knees while down below.

 

[Greenheart]

Accepted, Snowleopard: teak (or a less expensive substitute) translates to weight, but since when were builders and buyers of cruising cats primarily concerned with performance? And while it's a bitch to keep in good order, surely you'd agree there's no question about it...the quickest, surest route to any boat meeting general aesthetic approval, is wood decks and trim.

Maybe it's the feel of the vessel's age (even if that's a sham); maybe it's our knowledge of the organic finish's need to be cared for, unlike Treadmaster; or maybe it's the tactile pleasure of sitting on and touching wood rather than chilly plastic. I don't pretend to know why it appeals, but any denial is self-denial!

Doubtless the ugly, utilitarian cruising-catamaran designers/economists will dismiss wood after a fifteen-second meeting with their calculators. But it'll be the boats' loss, and a diminution of the vessels' owners' pride in ownership.

(My decks are foul old GRP, badly scuffed and worn. New teak or Tek-Dek is gonna cost...but I know there's no single thing I can do to the vessel that'll bring more admiration from observers. Hard to swallow, but it's a fact.)

I actually do like brown Treadmaster, too. (But that's not cheap, either!)

 

[Ubergeekian]

IMHO Citroen are definitely to be avoided if you like to get below the skin and actually do any work on them. Everything mechanical appears to have been deliberately designed to be as difficult as possible to repair, remove or replace.

The DS is absolutely fine to work on, as long as you realise that (a) the design is more than half a century old and (b) it's made up of a lot of small bits, rather than the modern trendy of fewer big bits.

I've done everything to the hydraulics on mine except replace the suspension rams, and it was all pretty easy. Even changing the clutch on my own was perfectly straightforward, just a little (!) time consuming.

 

[Tropic Cat]

Something like this is afforadable, but ugly.

Ugly???? Not to me....

She's beautiful

 

[Greenheart]

Against all my aesthetic instincts, I have to agree. That little grey square-topped plastic catamaran looks to me like fun - dozens of safe, simple seasons' worth of fun.

Nothing extreme about her, but she must epitomise non-traditional, low-maintenance, shallow-drafted, slightly rough-and-ready, wholly practical, instant access to the freedom of the sea. Terribly churlish, to object to her looks!

I saw an elderly Rival 32 at Lymington a month back; rather tired grey plastic decking and that oddly bulbous curvature in her form, as if a more angular design had been sealed, then inflated and stretched. Not technically any great beauty, but her solidity and enduring, proven seaworthiness make it hard not to feel affectionate approval.

 

[muyuu]

How do these super-beamy boats behave in high seas? Never been in anything remotely close to that.

Hylas*54s*do*alright,*but*they*have*a*much*more*traditional*design.

Edit:*no*idea*what's*going*on*with*the*asterisks*(?)

 

[RichardS]

How do these super-beamy boats behave in high seas? Never been in anything remotely close to that.

Hylas*54s*do*alright,*but*they*have*a*much*more*traditional*design.

Edit:*no*idea*what's*going*on*with*the*asterisks*(?)

Looks like you've mapped the asterisk key onto the space bar! It's easy to do with the right software but I wonder how you would have activated it in mid-sentence?

Richard

 

[muyuu]

For some reason the forum did the conversion. Anyway, it's not doing it anymore.

Back to the boat, I think it looks boss but if that turtled there is no way it's coming back up...

 

[bairdag]

I own one of these. It is possible to manage the screecher with on person - just switch on the autopilot and roll it up; if you want a good stow, one of the kids could let go of the sheet gently. She is a fantastic yacht in every sense.