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dirkdig · 20-02-2009, 21:54

i am seriously considering a LAGOON 440 for cruising and was wanting to find out from owners just whatsort of performance they actually do have.Every where i read says they are heavy and therefore slow fro a cat,is this actually the case?????

fastcat435 · 21-02-2009, 02:02

Hallo Dirk , they are extremely slow , have a small weight to sail area ratio but are strong build and good cruisers if you have time on your hands.
Greetings

Gideon

Jeannius · 21-02-2009, 02:49

Don't worry about the performance. When you are cruising, cruise!! I spend more time thinking about slowing my boat down than I do about trying to go faster and it is hardly a 'performance' boat.

One thing about the Lagoon 440 though... Do you really want to sit all the way up at that helm a howling gale and 20 ft seas? I wouldn't.

dirkdig · 21-02-2009, 03:20

Well at the moment it's a choice of a 440 v's a catana 471 and both have plusses and minuses.which one to buy I don't know,maybe buy one if I am not happy then sell and buy the other!

Troutbridge · 21-02-2009, 04:47

Sell and buy the other? You have more money than me, my friend

I would have thought you are talking about two different animals here. Do you want a 'sporty' boat or do you want a lot of interior space and the profile of an apartment block?

dirkdig · 21-02-2009, 05:12

I am new to this but I figure that we will spend a lot more time actually parked somewhere and enjoying the location and amenity of the boat than sailing point to point.myself I would go for performance anyday but with a fussy wife who looks at gloss over content and two daughters 5 and 13 we need to find the happy medium.it is so hard to sort out which way to go

dirkdig · 21-02-2009, 05:16

On another front to this a catana dealer I have spoken to has told me it will cost $25k a year just to maintain a 471? This has to be more than the annual upkeep on a lagoon 440?

**sandy daugherty** · 21-02-2009, 08:33

Owners of all kinds of boats report spending 10 to 25% of the purchase price of a boat on annual expenses. Some of us don't even want to know what we spend. My budget has two categories: Boat and "non-essentials" like food and medicine.

Esprit Marine · 21-02-2009, 11:06

Dirk,

SAD (Sail Area / Displacement) ratios or Bruce numbers give a pretty good idea of the relative performance of catamarans.

As an example I have attached the results of the last ARC. Bruce numbers are given for lightship weights. The two Lagoon 440 were not last, the 420 fleet was behind !

The Catana 471 has a Bruce number of around 1.33 so will be faster than a Lagoon 440. Latest Catanas (Poncin era) are far heavier.

scarab · 22-02-2009, 05:25

I chartered a Lagoon 440 for 2 weeks last december.
Fully loaded ( 8 pers ) we managed respectable speeds ( max SOG : 12.3 knots )
Steering this big cat was like working out !!
Considering the grounds we were cruising ( Windward Islands ) it was perfect.

Ram · 22-02-2009, 12:11

Tell me more details about" steering this big cat was like working out"

scarab · 22-02-2009, 12:32

The steering was hard work. I don't know if this is typical for a catamaran's this size or for the Lagoon 440 in specific but it was something that felt peculiar.
__________________
Koen

dirkdig · 22-02-2009, 12:57

Thanks open,
At last I have some speed details on this boat,anything you really liked or disliked about it

**Strygaldwir** · 22-02-2009, 15:53

Wow! I would have thought steering would have been easy! No weather helm to speak of. I did have some bushings that had swollen up on me and made steering difficult, but once that was resolved, it was clear steering.

Ram · 22-02-2009, 16:36

Scarab
I think maybe something could have been frozen up to make it steer hard , I had that happen to me after leaving the boat un used for 6 months then it worked it self back to being easy again, I can use 1 finger to steer normally