some pointers on picking out the correct catamaran, as taught to me by my spouse:
check bridge
deck clearance - that is the clearance between the
water and the bottom of the
deck at the closest location - don't learn this pointer after you buy the
boat. Waves slap the underside of the deck, particularly as
water gets squeezed between the two hulls. The slapping and pounding of the water under the deck on a
multihull will make you insane. Get as much clearance as you can. Always look at a stern
photo. Run away from low bridge deck clearance, particularly if you want to live on it (midnight deck slamming at
anchor might be a pisser).
After that, do you care about the
cooking station? Think about
head room for you at the
galley. Do you want
galley up (cooler) or galley down in the hulls (hot presumably). Do you ever cook anyway?
On
Privilege Cats - the
ports leak - seems to be a characteristic - sucks.
Privilege owners please feel free to stand up for your boat. We have just seen a lot of old Privilege cats with leaking
ports and soggy headliners, rotten spots on
wood floors and liners because of the leaking. yuck.
wet headliners and leaking are a big deal on any boat. Also look around the floor level and see if any stains indicate the boat has ever been sunk. run! if you think it has been sunk in the past, unless you really are very savvy.
Always check
electrical wiring. Some of these boats have been jerry rigged and are not safe, and often the
wiring is corroding.
Go to the Practical Sailor website and join - they do some
reviews of boats - although you have to pay for the review. The few bucks we spent on these
reviews was worth every dime.
Consider if you care about balsa
core versus foam
core - this is another forum hot buttom btw. If you decide you don't want balsa core, that eliminates many boats. I would love to have a Leapord cat, but all South African produced cats have balsa core. We are anti-balsa core. A lot of folks swear by balsa core.
I read a lot
books when we started our search. Amazon.com has a lot of
cheap used
books with ratings by readers. Pick a boat category, do the search, and buy your books. Priceless
advice available in some of those books.
Always
survey any boat before you
purchase, unless you are really knowledgeable yourself.
I've exhausted all my useful
advice. enjoy your
cruise through this forum ;=>
If you go to the thread I started when I introduced myself to the forum, you will find tons of useful advice from members that gave advice and links. All useful.