Maintenance of a catamaran

SettingSail2009 · 23-04-2007, 00:03

Being a mono-hull sailor about to make the jump over to a catamaran, I must say that all that fiberglass seems like a daunting task to maintain. My last boat was a Bavaria 40 Ocean, but now I'll probably buy a cat in the 38-44 ft range. The cat I buy will either be new or less than 5 years old.

I'm planning a circumnavigation, but the idea is to see the places I go to and not to be stuck doing maintenance chores more than strictly necessary. With this I mean, keeping the cat looking nice and new with the appliances on board in working order.

I'm interested in hearing how much time, on an average, cat owners spend on maintaining their boats.

I'm also interested in hearing about the costs.

Naturally it would also be nice if some mono-hullers threw in their opinions.

dana-tenacity · 23-04-2007, 01:17

Keep systems to minimum, they are the problem, give the glass a wax at every haulout and it'll be fine. The time and money go into engines, gensets, hot & cold running water, AC, electronics, none of which are actually necessary.

northerncat · 23-04-2007, 03:43

deja vu im sure i saw this exact same topic 4 mths ago
sean

cnj · 23-04-2007, 03:58

As a monohuller that just bought a Catamaran, I have to tell you fiberglass is great! Most of my time was spent keeping all the wood work nice, and there's not much of that now. The inside of my 35 footer takes me an hour to clean. I use Soft Scrub for hard to remove spots and Fantastic for the rest. The Outside to scrub down takes about 2 hours. It doesn't need to be done every week though. When we're out at sea we ususally don't bother with the outside unless it needs it. We usually spend part of the day before we make land to really clean up the boat so it looks nice and then do the outside again while we're there because we can use fresh water. It doesn't need anything expensive.

colemj · 23-04-2007, 04:37

Not having woodwork on the catamaran cut my maintenance time down a lot. As for waxing the hulls, mostly this is just done on the outward side of each hull since the inward sides are not visible and don't see much sun. So this is equivalent to a monohull. There is a lot more deck area to maintain than a monohull.

Like mentioned earlier, it is the systems that take all of your time.

Mark

schoonerdog · 23-04-2007, 06:27

my boat has 24 opening hatches, about 10 of which need to be reseated and resealed (that's typical after 8 years or so). So I would assume some things like that are far more than a monohull with only 4 opening hatches. I figure it will take about 20 days of effort to do them all. It takes about 4 hours to wash the topsides every other week when it's warm. I would say wiring and plumbing is far more lengthy than a mono.

23-04-2007, 00:03	#1
SettingSail2009 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Aruba Boat: FastCat 435 Posts: 231	Maintenance of a catamaran Being a mono-hull sailor about to make the jump over to a catamaran, I must say that all that fiberglass seems like a daunting task to maintain. My last boat was a Bavaria 40 Ocean, but now I'll probably buy a cat in the 38-44 ft range. The cat I buy will either be new or less than 5 years old. I'm planning a circumnavigation, but the idea is to see the places I go to and not to be stuck doing maintenance chores more than strictly necessary. With this I mean, keeping the cat looking nice and new with the appliances on board in working order. I'm interested in hearing how much time, on an average, cat owners spend on maintaining their boats. I'm also interested in hearing about the costs. Naturally it would also be nice if some mono-hullers threw in their opinions. __________________ - Andreas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Man cannot discover new Oceans, unless he has courage to lose sight of the shore." - Andre Gide My website My blog

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23-04-2007, 01:17	#2
dana-tenacity Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Whangaparaoa,NZ Boat: The Squid is launched and sailing Posts: 686	Keep systems to minimum, they are the problem, give the glass a wax at every haulout and it'll be fine. The time and money go into engines, gensets, hot & cold running water, AC, electronics, none of which are actually necessary.

23-04-2007, 03:43	#3
northerncat Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: cairns australia Boat: now floating easy37 Posts: 636 Images: 41	deja vu im sure i saw this exact same topic 4 mths ago sean

23-04-2007, 03:58	#4
cnj Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Riverside, RI USA Boat: Fontain Pejot Tobago 35 Cat Alee Posts: 56	As a monohuller that just bought a Catamaran, I have to tell you fiberglass is great! Most of my time was spent keeping all the wood work nice, and there's not much of that now. The inside of my 35 footer takes me an hour to clean. I use Soft Scrub for hard to remove spots and Fantastic for the rest. The Outside to scrub down takes about 2 hours. It doesn't need to be done every week though. When we're out at sea we ususally don't bother with the outside unless it needs it. We usually spend part of the day before we make land to really clean up the boat so it looks nice and then do the outside again while we're there because we can use fresh water. It doesn't need anything expensive.

23-04-2007, 04:37	#5
colemj Registered User Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: In Puerto Rico heading down island Boat: Manta 40 - Reach Posts: 536 Images: 12	Not having woodwork on the catamaran cut my maintenance time down a lot. As for waxing the hulls, mostly this is just done on the outward side of each hull since the inward sides are not visible and don't see much sun. So this is equivalent to a monohull. There is a lot more deck area to maintain than a monohull. Like mentioned earlier, it is the systems that take all of your time. Mark

23-04-2007, 06:27	#6
schoonerdog Registered User Join Date: May 2004 Location: annapolis Boat: st francis 44 mk II catamaran Posts: 977 Images: 4	my boat has 24 opening hatches, about 10 of which need to be reseated and resealed (that's typical after 8 years or so). So I would assume some things like that are far more than a monohull with only 4 opening hatches. I figure it will take about 20 days of effort to do them all. It takes about 4 hours to wash the topsides every other week when it's warm. I would say wiring and plumbing is far more lengthy than a mono.