Advise on Catamaran for extended cruising

[Barra]

Originally Posted by Mariano

Hey, have you seen the new DISCOVERY / BLUEWATER 50 cat?
Ir has a hot tub instead of a forward cookpit. Acording to your statement it is unsafe in heavy weather too......

No I havnt but yeah probably is hey

[Drmanso]

The "Big 3" are Leopard, Lagoon, & Fontaine Pajot

[Zephyrous]

big 3 is probably Lagoon, Leopard, Fountaine Pajot (Seawinds seem nice also, but $$ for what you get). Catana is more performance oriented with boards on many models. Bali is Catana's non-performance line. Nauticat seems ... ok. Gunboats are sweet, but even more $$$$

Like a previous post, chartering would help. There are many variations even in manufactures, again as in a previous, some older models have some preferred designs (the older models at some point had narrower hulls which sailed better, but where more cramped inside and often had lower bridges). There is also the saildrive vs. conventional debate.

Of course even this is all just my personal opinion and others and your own opinion will likely vary greatly... so just my thoughts

[Lynchn0215]

I went to the Miami International Boat show and loved this boat layout and cant seem to remember what boat it was? Anyone have any ideas. This is the master stateroom and it spanned the full beam of the boat towards the bow.

[smj]

Originally Posted by Lynchn0215

I went to the Miami International Boat show and loved this boat layout and cant seem to remember what boat it was? Anyone have any ideas. This is the master stateroom and it spanned the full beam of the boat towards the bow.

Privilege

[Jeannius]

Originally Posted by smj

Privilege

Privilege certainly has that layout but I'm not sure any of the models have the pole-dancing option shown in the photo.

[fivecapes]

Originally Posted by Jeannius

Privilege certainly has that layout but I'm not sure any of the models have the pole-dancing option shown in the photo.

Think it's a 510.

[Jeannius]

Originally Posted by fivecapes

Think it's a 510.

So it is. I only looked at the bigger ranges as I thought it was way bigger than 50ft!

[river251]

subscribed

[Heath68]

Originally Posted by Lynchn0215

I went to the Miami International Boat show and loved this boat layout and cant seem to remember what boat it was? Anyone have any ideas. This is the master stateroom and it spanned the full beam of the boat towards the bow.

Discovery made a 50ft with the same layout

[CarlF]

One thing you need to decide in choosing a cat is if you want to go the speed of a monohull (or maybe a bit faster) - or go a whole lot faster.

As a long time monohull sailor I consider anything over 6 knots to be just fine. At sea, a 170NM day (averaging 7 knots) is all I need. I frankly don't enjoy going faster than 10 knots as it takes careful attention at the helm. I'm the sort of guy who reefs early.

To go 15 knots costs a lot in carbon fiber, usually means no washer/dryer, and is pretty noisy in most boats. Maybe if I was younger I'd still feel the "need for speed".

Even upwind the "big three" do fine compared to a monohull in most wind/sea states. While they can't point as high they go enough faster through the water that their VMG to windward is about the same as a typical heavy cruising monohull.

[CarlF]

A reason to consider a 50' cat is that it can carry more "stuff" - like a washer/dryer and still sail well. If you load up a 40' catamaran with all the toys people like to have today they'll sail pretty poorly.

[Yihang]

Originally Posted by CarlF

A reason to consider a 50' cat is that it can carry more "stuff" - like a washer/dryer and still sail well. If you load up a 40' catamaran with all the toys people like to have today they'll sail pretty poorly.

You can get pretty compact washers these days. Some korean wall mounted ones are 16 kilos (40lb?) I've seen a couple of seawind 1160(38ft) with washer dryers under the berth. A small countertop dishwasher is around 20-30 kilos. The weight saving of going to lithium is more than enough to offset that. Microwaves weigh nothing, same goes for a nesspresso machine.

But if you want household(US) sized washer dryers, dishwashers fridges etc then yeh, a 50ft boat is probably needed.

It puzzles me when people doing catamarans reviews get really excited over things like a washer dryer and microwave as standard equipment. Given these things are like a few hundred bucks on a million dollar boat. I would be more excited about lithium batteries. It seems like a pretty obvious marketing ploy to include these cheap add on as an easy way to sway a customer at a boat show.

[Piscis]

Originally Posted by Yihang

You can get pretty compact washers these days. Some korean wall mounted ones are 16 kilos (40lb?) I've seen a couple of seawind 1160(38ft) with washer dryers under the berth. A small countertop dishwasher is around 20-30 kilos. The weight saving of going to lithium is more than enough to offset that. Microwaves weigh nothing, same goes for a nesspresso machine.

But if you want household(US) sized washer dryers, dishwashers fridges etc then yeh, a 50ft boat is probably needed.

It puzzles me when people doing catamarans reviews get really excited over things like a washer dryer and microwave as standard equipment. Given these things are like a few hundred bucks on a million dollar boat. I would be more excited about lithium batteries. It seems like a pretty obvious marketing ploy to include these cheap add on as an easy way to sway a customer at a boat show.

Absolutelly aggreed!

And taken into consideration that most of the 40 +/- feet cats are designed to handle 6-8 POB´s on charter for 1-2 weeks, you will have enough loading capacity if you choose that sizze of boat for just a couple for liveaboard...

John