FP, Privilege or Lagoon ?

[liqidone]

Hi

I am looking to buy my first cat as a livaboard and island/coastal cruiser.
There is my wife and I and 2 teenage daughters.

Have had commercial pearling vessels all my life and now retired looking for some quiet time (2 teenage daughters jokes are not funny)

My research has eventuated in 3 vessels of choice (no balsa) with my preference the FP as I cannot find any bad reports on them (outside of light construction) and I like the performance and the fact these 38' vessels cross the Atlantic under their own sail.

I would greatly appreciate any honest feedback in regard to my choices (or others)

I am in Australia but looking to buy the vessel in the USA - Carribean area maybe stay a while

Thankyou all ahead of time.

Regards

Liqidone

[Palarran]

You might try reading the numerous threads already started in the multihull section. There is also a long discussion on pros/cons by settingsail2009. I'm sure members are willing to help on specific questions about the differences between these boats.

[svcattales]

I've been very happy with my 37' Privilege. It is a foam cored construction and very solid in all respects. To give you an example, I just removed my rudder to change the delrin bushings and I was really impressed by the design. The rudder post is solid stainless steel 2 inches in diameter. The bushings fit into a housing similar to the way the ball fits in a ball valve so the bushings make the rudder post is self aligning. The bushings are replaceable by rotating them 90 degrees and pulling them out. Very serious engineering and typical of Privilege construction.

I'm also happy with the boats performance under sail and power. We can motor at 7kts at 2200 RPM and have sailed at speeds up to 10 kts on several occasions. With favorable conditions, I plan on an average cruise speed of 7kts.

Suggest you check out the various threads on Privilege, Lagoon and FP for more details.

[liqidone]

Thankyou for the information.

I spoke with FP today in Australia and they are saying the design is one piece which I think will be stronger.

They have a very nice Privilege here however it is 20 years old and $450k !

Very nice vessel all the same.

I have just bumped into Catanas so If anyone has any comments on them ...feel free

Regards

[Jeannius]

They have a very nice Privilege here however it is 20 years old and $450k !

Very nice vessel all the same.

That tells you all you need to know! If you are concerned about resale value - and most of us are - the Privilege stands out from the other two brands you mentioned earlier.

Catana used to have a great reputation as well. Fast, well made, well equipped. Not so good since they were taken over by Poncin a few years back.

[gbanker]

Catana;high quality,exposed steering stations. Privilege: high quality, nice woodwork, windows let in lots of solar heat. FP and Lagoon:medium quality (my multihull friends refer to the FP as a "Pinto" which is a low quality American car of some years ago). We recently went through the same process that you are going through and as a result are having a Voyage 500 built in South Africa. You might want to look at Voyage cats also. We were impressed as to how the older Voyage charter boats held up and can not say the same for the Lagoons. Perhaps a function of the charter companies maintenance programs. All these boats would satisfy your mission. (these are just my opinions and anecdotal experiences - lets not start a war here please.) By the way, the Voyage cats are all delivered on their own bottoms from SA to the Virgin Islands and i believe the Lagoons are sailed from France on their own bottoms also.

[liqidone]

Gbanker

Thanks for that. I hadn't seen the voyage and they do look good.

I am new here and appreciate your input.
There seems to be a lot of good reliable boats out there, having had a small fleet of commercial vessels in pearling and crayfishing I understand its horses for course and all boats rely heavily upon their owners and crews handling and maintenance.(As you say not to start a war...picked that up early on these forums).

I will look into the Voyage and thanks again

All the best

liqidone

[Palarran]

Something I just found out about the Voyage is that it's rudders are skeg supported. I don't know of any other manufacturer who does this but it would appeal to me for beaching the cat.

[RubyBishop]

I am not endorsing just suggesting you look at Seawind and Lightwave. Both are delivered all over the world on their own bottoms. Both have good reputations and staunch followers

[muskoka]

If you have the money, the Privilege is an excellent boat. If not, I'd suggest the FP over the Lagoon because I have one!

Seriously, my Lavezzi beats the pants off the Lagoon 38 in light airs (and heavy airs). I'm often still sailing merrily along whilst they're dropping sails and putting on the engines. It's simple physics; less weight + more sail area = faster boat. My boat sails nicely in anything over 5 knots of wind, she'll tack without backing the jib, and she's pretty good to windward.

[barnakiel]

Catana for quality and materials, Privilege for woodwork and build. Outremer for sailing qualities. FP for price (believed to sail OK). Lagoon for being the closest thing to a sailing motor home.

Price/value I would go for Privilege. Money no issue Catana. Money issue FP. Good sailing Outremer.

Overall Outremer for me and I guess Catana (43?) for you.

b.

[Lucky]

Budget, budget, budget, I'm not in realestate but the issues are similar.

If I could afford a Yapluka I would not be sailing in a FP Belize43 but that's life! I would consider the FP's pretty good value but having sailed on most of their newer boats, I must say the latest models are practicle and looks quite good and the sail above average for their kind,.....they have a gnarling sound coming from the furniture joinery. Quite anoying.

The Athena 38 we fist had did not suffer from and our Belize do not eiter part from a corner of a joinery above the freezer, this could be easily fixed but my first officer prefer to keep for the "ol ship" feeiling.

That FPs are lightly built I find hard to believe. I have taken ours through storms doing 20 knots surfing downwind and tacking in 17m/s headwinds without any damage to any part of the boat.

Happy searching, it's both a rewarding and frustrating exercise.

Happy lead free sailin

[twowheel]

I've been trying to get some feedback from a FP 48 owner but our discussions have been limited due to language barriers and the fact that they are actively cruising and out of contact mostly. (Free on-line translators? you get what you pay for!! fyi)

[yeloya]

I own an Orana and sailed Salina in couple of occasions; Salina is way slower. (Even Logoon's are faster..) Moreover, despite being 4 ft longer, the space you get on the boat is almost equal , if not inferior. Strange, but this is it.. Sunbathing area on the aft could be great for coastal cruising, but it's dangereous on passages, to say the least.
The bridge deck clearance which is normally very good in FP's, seems to be the quite low, in proportion to her size.
Lastly, from ergonometric point of view, it's a disaster; if you move in rush in the boat in case of emergency, you will definately hit somewhere or even stumble.
The helm station is 1,5 meter aft the winches and contrary to Orana, you can not operate them while you are at the helm.

If you don't mind all that and are ready to pay 140.000 € over Orana, good luck with Salina.

We ordered recently a new Lipari 41 for our charter company and this seems to be much better designed, if you consider FP and Orana is too big or out of yr budget.

Cheers

Yeloya

[schoonerdog]

I think it depends on the size and what you are going to do with the boat. Older, smaller FPs had almost no storage in the hulls and little ventilation compared to Privilege and Lagoon, so they were really not setup well for a live-aboard boat, but someone carrying their luggage. The privilege due to it's center nacelle design will have far more room. In terms of speed, none of them are demons, but speed demons make horrible live-aboard boats, as they have little tankage and no storage. Privilege has more internal reserve bouyancy than lagoon (it's harder to sink) due to more water tight compartments. People mention speed as a main criteria, I'd choose multihulls for their comfort and safety first and speed only where it applies to comfort and safety. In terms of price for product, all of those manufacturers have a steady stream of boats coming off of charter and I imagine every charter fleet around the world is trying to reduce their total size to meet smaller ongoing demand, so you should be able to find a decent price for whatever your looking for.