Looking for comfortable small day sailing catamaran? Suggestions Please

[lexmtaylor]

It seems like there should be category of catamarans that are larger than a Hobie Cat, that have a salon and a head, but are not really comfortable enough to live aboard.

The goal would be to take the catamaran out in the intercoastal of Florida to sail for the day bring the catamaran up to beach it. Have a small salon area to get out of the sun or weather. Maybe in a pinch be able to camp in the salon for a night.

Is there a class of cats that might fit this description in about 25 foot length or less. It strikes me that I maybe looking for something that cannot or does not exist. The heavenly twins seems to be close to what I am looking for, but I am open to any suggestions in this size.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by lexmtaylor

Is there a class of cats that might fit this description in about 25 foot length or less?

The Hirondelle

[44'cruisingcat]

Great Barrier Express?

Seawind 24?

[Franziska]

Try this http://www.sailingcatamarans.com/wiz.htm

Great little boat! From a great & experienced guy.

[John_Trusty]

Corsair trimarans Corsair Marine – The worlds best trailerable trimaran yachts like 760, or the faster F27 or newer F28 - https://www.boats.com/reviews/perry-...-corsair-f-28/

They're called racers, but they also make a nice family boat with limited sleeping / camping ability. Fairly cheep to operate and trailerable. They made a ton of them, so there should be a good user group.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by lexmtaylor

It seems like there should be category of catamarans that are larger than a Hobie Cat, that have a salon and a head, but are not really comfortable enough to live aboard.

The goal would be to take the catamaran out in the intercoastal of Florida to sail for the day bring the catamaran up to beach it. Have a small salon area to get out of the sun or weather. Maybe in a pinch be able to camp in the salon for a night.

Is there a class of cats that might fit this description in about 25 foot length or less. It strikes me that I maybe looking for something that cannot or does not exist. The heavenly twins seems to be close to what I am looking for, but I am open to any suggestions in this size.

Back in the day there were cats that might be close to what you describe. Maybe the first wide spread design were the small Wharrams. They tended to have some type of tent over the boom to provide something of a salon. In Europe there were several boats like the Heavenly Twins. Stiletto produced some very fast boats that were like the Wharrams in terms of tents for a salon; and seem to have an updated model in the works.

Problem was that aside from the Stiletto they were cats that sailed like dogs. As noted Ian came up with several fboat designs that were stupid fun to sail and provided a place to sleep out of the rain and Portapotti type heads. Did I mention the fboats were stupid fun to sail, could easily be trailered, were easier to launch from a trailer, easy to store; things no cat could compete with.

The fboats were produced in large numbers and are easy to find and hold their value well. As a result no production multihull could compete with them from a bang for the buck standpoint. As a result no one is making the type of cat you describe; you have to look on the used market.

[mcarthur]

Jarcats may work for protected areas. Narrower than the twins so can be trailered easily. Homebuilt, with some being better than production quality and some being... not quite as good (eek). There’s a few in the states.

[VBsail]

In addition to above -

Seawind 24


Tomcat 6.2


Prout 26



Maincat 30


Iroquois 30


Truewind 32


Macgregor 36

[thinwater]

In my case, the F-24. The problem seems to be that they cost too much, and that people would rather have a larger cabin (monohull) for the same money.




I've always felt that even among monhulls, there are not enough larger (24-28') daysailers out there. The focus is always on cabin space, though most boats very seldom overnight and very few cruise for more than a few days. The only boats that focus on daysailing seem to be race boats.


Though I've show the F-24 tearing along, if you reef it can be very calm boat.

[Training Wheels]

Cat2fold!

[Sand crab]

Take a look at the Telstar 28 tri and the original Gemini 3000 but both of these are a touch bigger than your specs.

[lexmtaylor]

Thank you to everyone that was so quick to give so many great suggestions.

[tomfl]

There have been three posts, including mine, about several fboats hitting (and exceeding) all your specs except being a cat.

One other thing I would mention is while several possible cats have been suggested I am not sure how realistic they are. As an example the Cat2Fold is basically a one off boat; true it is for sale now. Many of the other cats suggested would require a long trip to even look at them; not to mention getting them back to your home port if you could find one for sale.

There are literally dozens of fboats for sale now at locations that most folks can easily get to. This is why I posted fboats have basically eliminated competition. I seriously looked at fboats and still have a soft spot in my heart for them. Thing was I wanted a real live aboard I could cruise on long term and my Seawind fills that bill better than any tri I could find.

The thing is once you reach 35 feet or so cats offer a lot more cruising comforts than tris till a tri gets up to 40+ feet or more. But under 30 feet, and especially under 25 feet a tri offers better, but very limited, cruising comforts than a cat. This is assuming you want a sail boat and not a mini condo you will be motoring most of the time.

[ejlindahl]

VBsail pointed out some really cool cats I hadn't noted before. If one of those don't work for you then I'll second the Corsair/Farrier trimarans suggested. They will do what a cat will, beach, easy to trailer, fast fun to sail, lots of deck/net space, don't heal much. etc, ie a multihull. In the size you are looking at a tri will give you more cabin space. Someone alluded to resale. Ian Farrier was fond of pointing out total cost of ownership for his designs. Whether you sell sooner or later you might consider this about these boats. There is a healthy market for them, even 30 year old F27s. I can probably sell my 23 year old Corsair for what I bought it for 5 years ago. There is a nation wide dealer network where you can get parts if needed and a very active forum where you can get any question answered by someone who's been there done that. I bet some iteration of the Corsair 24 will fit you needs. More expensive to start but you'll likely get nearly all of it back when you sell and it will sell relatively fast. Good luck, have fun.

[rob denney]

Most of the advantages, few of the disadvantages of cats and tris:
E25 Camper Pod – HARRYPROA
E25 – HARRYPROA

Build it yourself, or we can do it for you.