Higher Quality fit-outs?

[BuzzFan]

Are there any makes of cat which are fitted out to the same joinery standards as monohull makes such as Halberg Rassy, Swan, Oyster etc? I understand the need for lightweight, but can't get too enthralled about the cheap bland glassfibre mouldings of many of the larger production makes. Am I alone with this viewpoint, or do any others feel the same way?

[ArtM]

I agree. In recent models, I feel that the Leopards are better than the Lagoons and FP's.

Some people have said the larger models have a better quality of interior finish. I haven't noticed that, but I've been shopping 42 and down - mostly 40'.

I've seen photo's of some $1M models that have beautiful interiors.

I've spent a lot of my life living in RV's, and the production cats use very similar interior finish styles. In the RV world, some plastic photo-laminates are better than others. In the liveaboard luxury Cat world, you don't get as much selection of makes.

[Dave852]

Some gunboats are finished very nice and maintain their light weight. Privilege are but come with the weight. I

[Factor]

Corsair 50. Some custom boats (eg Schionning G Force - Attitude) and whilst not to extreme standard seawinds certainly are not ikea boats. Photos are seawind 1000 on left and Attitide on right.

[bryguy67]

PDQ/Antares have quality builds. Beyond wood joinery everything else is high quality too, just as you see when you buy an upscale German car. When we were at the Fall boat show">Annapolis boat show we stepped onto a 2009 Lagoon and were horrified by the light fixtures and faucets that were corroded plus the mirrors and other items whose appearance made them look 15-20 years old. I would add Isara to the good list as well although they don't have a long track record. Materials/labor appear to be of a higher scale.

[Jeannius]

In production boats, at a still reasonable price, then Privilege and Catana are the best in terms of fit out. Our 10 year old Privilege is wood throughout (except in the heads) with not one square inch of gelcoat visible. Of course they are heavier than Lagoon, Leopard and FP but I think that extra weight helps with the ride-quality.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, BuzzFan.

[Mimsy]

Antares, Privilege, Gunboat. They are lighter on the joinery but I still like the Outremers. Have fun shopping

[dan360]

I think of production Monohulls Contest are the nicest, Swans are lovely - Halberg Rassy also nice but too old school design wise for me.

Oyster and Discovery I think are a slight notch down in terms of joinery - still high quality boats way above a Beneteau etc.

I bought a cat for performance and space - the fast cats make a different design choice compared to the monos. For example Gunboat has excellent quality, but is all laminated and lightweight, it has a different feel to a Contest or Swan, but that is deliberate.

I haven't been on the Discovery 50 cat, but would imagine that the joinery quality carries through from their monos.

My Outremer has I think higher joinery quality than a FP or a Lagoon, but not as high as a Gunboat (but it is $1M less than a GB60). The 5X does take the same lightweight approach - the light boat displacement is only 13T, we are at 15T with Genset, Watermaker etc.

I didn't look at privilege closely or sunreef either, but both of those would seem to fit the higher quality bill in exchange for weight. The sunreef 58 for example displaces 26T.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by dan360

SNIP

I bought a cat for performance and space - the fast cats make a different design choice compared to the monos. For example Gunboat has excellent quality, but is all laminated and lightweight, it has a different feel to a Contest or Swan, but that is deliberate.

SNIP

I bought a cat for the same reason. I have never been on a Gunboat but suspect it has a higher quality than my Seawind, but it also has laminate for low weight.

Interestingly a friend has a Catalac and he was refinishing the salon table which turned out to be solid teak. In fact the boat seems to have a lot of solid wood on the inside.

[tamicatana]

My 20-YO Catana has some beautiful woodwork which seems to have been very well done. Here's pics of another