Antares 44 vs Helia 44 - help us decide?

[peteh007]

Hi
Wife and I are planning to purchase a 44ft cat very soon for world cruising... We have short listed to an Antares 44 or an FP Helia 44.
Both loaded for world cruising with similar kit, lets say.
We need help to push us over the edge, one way or the other.
Can anyone help us with good technical advise?
cheers!
Peter

[mbuckner]

I favor the Antares:

-Better helm protection

-Shaft drive ... no sail drive

Good luck and have fun .....

[Vasco]

Not a cat man but have you seen all the complaints re FP warranty issues lately?

[Regors]

I favor the Antares also.

Not just Better helm protection and Shaft drive
Antares not only builds the best Cruiser they offer free instruction to get you use to your new Cat in a group situation so it really feels like your boat by the time you take delivery and if you buy a used Antares you are still wecome to participate in the hands on training, they are very good at customer service.

[EllesBelles]

Originally Posted by peteh007

Hi
Wife and I are planning to purchase a 44ft cat very soon for world cruising... We have short listed to an Antares 44 or an FP Helia 44.
Both loaded for world cruising with similar kit, lets say.
We need help to push us over the edge, one way or the other.
Can anyone help us with good technical advise?
cheers!
Peter

Peter, look at Antares Yachts - Pre-owned Catamarans for sale
Antares are the hottest, fastest-selling cats, which maybe answers your questions best. The company has pre-sold all its future builds out for several years out. This will help you a lot when you go to sell your boat, so I'd say for that reason alone, the Antares 44 beats the FP Helia 44, hands down.

[bradb]

Antares is a true blue water owners boat. Not a boat designed for the charter like most FP.

[DotDun]

IMO, Helia.

A couple of observations:

Antares hull designs appears to limit load carrying capacity. Noticed transom steps underwater while motoring with 6 people on board.

Engine/transmission noise very loud in the hulls while underway.

[jayson42]

Have you (anyone) looked at the Lightwave 45? Australian, similar price(maybe more expensive - I would imagine it is a lot more expensive to build in Australia than Argentina) and sounds like similar ambitions.

The Anteres 44 is currently my boat of dreams for world cruising. Would probably prefer a secondhand one (hate to spend a million dollars to put my kids in it, and to worry about putting the first marks on it). But they dont come up too often.

Anyone got any comments on the Lightwave vs Anteres?

ta

[travellerw]

I have absolutely not credibility since I don't own a Cat yet.. but...

I would look hard at the Anteres 44.. I have never heard a bad thing said about them..

[RichinBoca]

Antares hands down!!! Go on their site and read
Ted Clements Blog(he's the boats designer). He's straight to the point and no BS.
I hope to order one by year end. BTW the craftsmen in Argentina are something else.
These guys are building super dependable well thought out sailing vessels around 6 per year. Not pumping out dozens.
I have had friends trying to get me into Gunboats... There pretty cool don't get me wrong as well as Outremer and Catanas.
The two last ones I can't get past the exposed helms. I think I can deal with the lack of speed. I love the shaft drives and the safety design of the rudders.
I have not heard of one owner of the 44i say anything bad about the boat. Not a single one.
Cheek out Ted blog .... All of it. Your decision will be made.

Best of luck to you.
Rich

PS the boats come standard with pretty much everything you need to sail away( and the good stuff)unlike others where you will be putting in 150kplus plus in add on's.


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[tnf]

The Antares is list price $945' USD (almost) fully equipped.
The Helia 44 is list price $510' USD, but about $610' USD when you have outfitted her to the same standard as the Antares.

If my choice where between those two boats and the price did not matter, the Antares would without doubt be a much, much better boat. Better built, more storage space, shaft propellers +++

But, price is always important. For the same price as the Antares you would get the new Saba 50 that is list price about $825' USD and outfitted about $980' USD.

This is a much harder choice that I am currently trying to sort out. Would I go for the rock solid, but design wise slightly outdated Antares 44' or the brand new and stylish Saba 50? Surely the Antares is still better quality, but the Saba as much bigger and looks very good. Would not my family of 4 + frequent guests be better off for 3-4 years on a 50' Saba ?

[RichinBoca]

The Saba is a beautiful boat! Looks are important but so is quality. Many factors to consider. Firstly the Saba is 6 feet longer so you have more to manage. Ascetically in many ways I like the Saba better but that being said there are lots of other factors to be considered. For me shaft drives are a must and the rudder skegs on the Antares are right up there. Resale is also a factor. Not sure how the Saba will do but the Antares does better than most. I don't like the high center of gravity on the Saba and the lack of a glass enclosure at the helm along ability to close off the entire aft section. Lot of people tell me oh get a Catana or an Outremer...you'll want the speed... And I do but I'm not willing to make the trade offs... That the Antares can provide. exposed helms don't cut it for me even if you use autopilot 99% of the time. If I or one of the crew is on watch... I want to be sitting at the helm of the Antares. My best advise for you is to read Ted Clements blog catamaranconcepts you can find the link on the Antares site. He is a no BS straight shooter and gives you the real drill down on boats(not afraid to say what others won't) ...he's a sailors sailor. There is a video somewhere of him being rescued in the middle of the pacific on an overturned Chris White designed cat interesting story.
Remember the magazines pander to the big advertisers... Antares makes 6 boats per year. The quality and thoughtfulness of the design is unparalleled. Another item people don't speak about much is mast height. If you travel the east coast and want to use the ICW the 61 ft mast height will allow you to clear all the bridges on the ICW. The other thing that kind of gets me is how people knock the galley down on the Antares. It's not cut off from the saloon and it's a real galley. My family cooks! We are foodies and I just don't see the "galley up set ups on like size boats appropriate for ad quite counter space and cooking. Another thing about the Antares galley is you don't have to bend over to get something out of the fridge! You'll never find everything you want it's all about trade offs. Check out the owners blogs too on the Antares. I hope this helps and best of luck with whichever boat you decide on I'm sure you be happy being out on the water either way!

P.S. I have 4 kids 2 younger who will be with us 90% of the time. The older ones will be meeting up with us at various ports with their spouses...could I use a little more room yes but again I'm in it for the safety, comfort when sailing in weather, design and build.


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[phillippeterson]

Antares 44i - by far!

[EllesBelles]

Originally Posted by tnf

The Antares is list price $945' USD (almost) fully equipped.
The Helia 44 is list price $510' USD, but about $610' USD when you have outfitted her to the same standard as the Antares.

If my choice where between those two boats and the price did not matter, the Antares would without doubt be a much, much better boat. Better built, more storage space, shaft propellers +++

But, price is always important. For the same price as the Antares you would get the new Saba 50 that is list price about $825' USD and outfitted about $980' USD.

This is a much harder choice that I am currently trying to sort out. Would I go for the rock solid, but design wise slightly outdated Antares 44' or the brand new and stylish Saba 50? Surely the Antares is still better quality, but the Saba as much bigger and looks very good. Would not my family of 4 + frequent guests be better off for 3-4 years on a 50' Saba ?

We did a similar comparison (and I think you're underestimating how much more you'd need to add to the Saba to outfit it like the Antares).

One very important factor you're not mentioning is the resale value. Antares 44i's hold their value better than any other catamaran out there - by a huge margin. Many boats are selling for almost full value (and often more than the original owners paid for them) after 4, 5, 6 and more years. The well-maintained Antares are selling either before they go on the market, or within a matter of days most often. There is one in NZ called Samurai that's a 2007 that just came on the market for $707 USD. I only saw the listing online, but I won't be surprised if it sells for that quickly. You may want to talk to them.

And given that all the future Antares are already pre-sold by the builder through something like 2018, that's only going to help resale prices.

We looked at and have sailed the Saba and Privileges and other cats, but now that we've put 3,000 miles or so on our Antares, we can attest that we definitely made the right decision for us.

Good luck to you in whatever decision you make.

[beauris]

the antares for me is terribly unfrench ( ok i m french) the galley down in the hull is aslo a problem if you live aboard..so for me it would be the helia ( beside here in france an antares would be impossible to resell ) now about the exposed helms..if you 've ever sailed a monohull you now you can survive it....

pricewise... i am also looking to buy a multihull in the 44/47 ft range...i m definitely not going for a new vessel..i ll look at something that has lost value ( in france value goes down for about 10 years then stabilizes) definitely not a new one and if really the antares ( which is really old school in my views) sells around 900k i'll either for that price look into catana's boat or outremer or nautitech ( probably nautitech 482)

cheers

boris