Cat slip availability

[pagethomasa@gmail.com]

I have multiple years experience with monohulls, mostly Catalina models. I am interested in moving to catamaran. Two cats finalist - 2007 Gemini or 2012 Tomcat 9.7. My question is when cruising is it more difficult to find slip with 16 ft beam for a cat? (34 LOA).

Thanks,
Tom

[FSMike]

When I'm at a marina I usually have a side tie rather than a slip. With the relatively narrow beam you mention you might fine it easier to find a slip than most multis.

[Ostinato]

My beam is nearly 27' and end up on a T dock or spending more $ for a slip. It's only money but some monohulls are as wide as you will be. I wouldn't worry about it. My biggest problem has been finding places to haul but again you should not have that problem.

[AD28]

FSMike +1

[SVNeko]

We often end up at a side tie or T dock. Some modern marinas have pens wide enough for a cat. We often pay more than a mono but never twice as much, which we expect. On the other hand it grates on us to pay more for a side tie where a mono of equivalent length would pay less for the same spot.


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[valhalla360]

With a Gemini in the USA, it's a non-issue.


We just sold ours (bought a boat in Europe) but we have done the Great Loop 1.5 times around with a great many marina stays over 10years.


At 14' beam, it's very rare we couldn't fit in a standard slip. Only a couple of times was it even suggested there might be an upcharge for being a catamaran but they always backed off when they realized our beam (got in the habit of asking for a slip for a 34'X14' sail boat with a 3' draft and most never realized we were a cat until we showed up and it was going to be hard to explain why the price changed).


Sometimes we wound up on an T-head but never out of necessity due to the beam.


At 16', the Tomcat isn't going to be a huge issue but you may get forced onto the T-head occasionally as a lot of 35-40' slips are 16' across, so there is no margin for error if the boat has a 16' beam.