Sell me on your favorite cat

[44'cruisingcat]

We get to visit with the locals.

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by resistor

Request: Sell me on a cat that you have personally sailed, whether you own it or chartered it. Tell me why you think it’s great, and why it’s great FOR YOU.

Two rules:
I only want to hear about cats you’ve actually sailed, not just looked at online or in a boat show.
I only want to hear about cats you love. You can tell me about the drawbacks of a cat that you otherwise love, but I’m not interested in hearing about cats that you hate.

Depends a lot on the intended use. My perfect retirement cat for coastal cruising:

The FP Mahe 36. Why? The smallest widely available production cat that offers the standard layout we want: cabins in the hulls, galley up, acceptable salon and cockpit area, decent sized head, standing headroom throughout. All that without looking too much like a box, and with decent sailing potential, relatively cheap without being a niche design or builder.
Small simple and fun, but large enough to survive two weeks with visiting family without divorce or murder.

Perfect for the Med or zipping up and down the Caribbean islands. OK for a quick hopp across the atlantic East to West in season but thats it.

We sold our Mahe 2 years ago because payload is too small for serious ocean crossings, and I feel she is a bit small for potentially hard crossings like Atlantic West to East.
Life got in the way and instead of buying 40+ft for ocean passages we bought a similar sized Lagoon 380 for extended holiday cruising the Med for a few more years.
Also a very nice boat, but the overall package is not as simple, neat and small as the Mahe.

We loved our Lagoon 410 but I feel this one is slowly getting too old & rare to be relevant in today's market.

[CatNewBee]

Wow, Lagoon 410, FP Mahe, Lagoon 380, again a FP Mahe?

I would get too tired refitting a used cat every several years and also the money loss on each transaction for the agents, surveys etc....

I guess you have a good access to a catamaran dealer.

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Wow, Lagoon 410, FP Mahe, Lagoon 380, again a FP Mahe?

I would get too tired refitting a used cat every several years and also the money loss on each transaction for the agents, surveys etc....

I guess you have a good access to a catamaran dealer.

No second Mahe but I see one in our future when we get old...

I'm pretty sure there will be more boats between the Lagoon 380 we have now and the future retirement Mahe.
At least one larger cat when the kids leave the nest and we are free to roam the world.

I actually enjoy searching for boats and fitting out. In winter I can sit at the fireplace and surf the web for the next boat, the best deals on watermakers, batteries, solar panels, etc.


Who said I lost money on any of these transactions?

[CatNewBee]

So then - well done !