Moorings Yacht Charters is 90% Catamarans Now

[Cotemar]

Moorings Yacht Charters is 90% Catamarans Now

Just came back from a 10 day Moorings Yacht Charter on a Leopard 43 Power Cat.

We were amazed that it's mostly all Sail and Power Cats now.
Not many mono's left in the fleet.

Its all CATS as far as the eye can see.

Must be what charters are asking for. We most certainly had a GREAT TIME.

[MarkJ]

Companies that are so stupid not to listen to their custoners are fools and better off broke.

Where were you?

Mark

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Companies that are so stupid not to listen to their custoners are fools and better off broke.

Where were you?

Mark

Our Moorings Charter was out of Tortola, BVI

This was our 5th Moorings Charter and it was just so amazing to see the transition from mono's to cats take place every time we go there.

[denverd0n]

Disappointing to me. My wife and I prefer to charter with just the two of us. Even the smallest cat is larger than we need. And the cats cost WAAAAY more to charter.

Just hoping that someone will continue to fill the niche for those looking for smaller monos to charter.

[Privleoplag]

For sure you weren't in St. Lucia.. lot's of monohulls still in the fleet there, and more arriving all the time while I was there.

[yeloya]

The day before, I had the opportunity to meeet the CEO of one of leading monohull's company in Istanbul Boat Show. What he said; monohull sales are globally in decline, slight increase in motoryachts and exploding catamaran sales.
Of course mono's will always exist. My gut feeling is that smaller sizes (32-42 ft , for those who cannot afford even the cheapest mono, and larger ones (55 ft and over, for those who still wants to have a mono but the comfort and speed of 45-50 ft catamarans) will prevail.


Cheers


Yeloya

[PaulinOz]

All these charter boats become the next generation of cruising boats as they are retired from the commercial fleets over the next ten years.

[Barra]

Originally Posted by PaulinOz

All these charter boats become the next generation of cruising boats as they are retired from the commercial fleets over the next ten years.

Exactly which is why its such a shame the ideal charter cat is moving further and further away from the ideal cruising cat design wise

[robert sailor]

Chartering a Cat makes perfect sense to me. You can put 8 people on a 40 footer and it's very easy to handle. For new sailors they are easy to operate and women love the wide open spaces. Also easier to sell after their best before date arrives. As the market gets saturated and it always does in situations like this the resale values will drop just like any other commodity products. I think over time the motor Cats will outsell the sailing Cats as they make much more sense than sailing models for chartering.

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

I think over time the motor Cats will outsell the sailing Cats as they make much more sense than sailing models for chartering.

I Agree.

For the charter business that typically runs 7 days and with so many islands to see. You can not see all the good destinations and still tack up the Sir Francis Drake Channel all day.

Most charterers hate to anchor, so you really have to be at your next anchorage by 12 am to get a mooring ball.

We chartered a Moorings 433 PC 3 cabin owners version Power Cat.

We covered 76 miles and used 37 gallons of diesel for the ten day vacation.

The Moorings was surprised we used so little fuel.

We used only one engine at 2000 rpm going 7.5 to 8.5 knots depending on sea conditions.

She tracked straight as an arrow on autopilot.

The Moorings 433 has two 260hp Yanmar engines.

The ten day sail and used 37 gal. of diesel at $3.38 a gal = $125 in fuel to cover 76 Miles.

A great time was had by All.

[nautical62]

First they phased out their smaller monos, now they are moving towards all cats. I think it's too bad, but I get why they are doing it. Boats that charter for twice as much don't cost the company twice as much. It doesn't cost them twice as much to slip, clean and support a $4,000/wk charter boat as a $2,000/week charter boat. If they can get people to charter and people to purchase more expensive cats, it makes economic sense to do that.

[smj]

Originally Posted by nautical62

First they phased out their smaller monos, now they are moving towards all cats. I think it's too bad, but I get why they are doing it. Boats that charter for twice as much don't cost the company twice as much. It doesn't cost them twice as much to slip, clean and support a $4,000/wk charter boat as a $2,000/week charter boat. If they can get people to charter and people to purchase more expensive cats, it makes economic sense to do that.

I don't think they "get" people to charter the cats I think they are trying to keep up with the demand of the current market.

[pathlesschosen]

On a recent trip to the BVI I was amazed at the lack of qualification requirements displayed by several of the motor cats. At least the sailing cat skippers had some skill. I usually arrived early then watched the entertainment, such as connecting mooring lines to just one cleat. Or the best one was looping the eye on the mooring ball to a cleat then wondering why their boat drifted away. Scary.

[Hearts Content]

The challenge with the charter cats is that they're not setup to be great cruising boats. Who needs four heads on a cruiser? Do you rip out the head and sink to turn these into closets?

Good news is this should start driving cat prices down.

[gts1544]

Rumor has it that years ago, Moorings tied nearly invisible tell tale threads around the furled sails of all of their yachts prior to dispatch with guests. The number of threads that returned intact promped Moorings to start ordering in motor yachts and the rest is history! Anyone know if that rumor is true? George