Is purchase BALI CATAMARAN ?

[Clevermoray]

Hi everyone, what do you think about this brand?
Does anyone have experience with any of the models and are there any problems?


Thanks...

[Factor]

Motorboat and I wouldn't do a passage in one. otherwise very pleasant.

[ohdrinkboy]

I think it really comes down to your intended use. Perhaps you will get better answers with a description of how and where you want to use one.

[Snore]

I was going to bid a Bali transatlantic delivery. I kept on hearing how slow they were. In an attempt to get some hard facts I tried to find a set of polars for the boats. No one has them. Sort of scary when you speak to guys selling the boats and they don’t have them….

Ended up not bidding the job.

My thoughts? Probably a nice putzing around boat. Not sure I would take it on a long crossing without A LOT of food and water.

[Invictus69]

Originally Posted by Clevermoray

Hi everyone, what do you think about this brand?
Does anyone have experience with any of the models and are there any problems?


Thanks...

Hi, I chartered models 4.3, 4.5 and 4.8 (in 2016-2019) period. It is a fancy looking boat for short Caribbean charters with nice forward deck and flybridge for sunsets and booze. It is mass produced primarily for the charter market (eg large kitchen size fridge). I wouldn't do a major offshore passage. Not great quality finishings (again, charter) has a cheap feeling, but nice looks.

Not great sailing performance either (with a disclaimer that those were not-optimized charter boats).

If you are looking for French cats, I would look at Fountaine Pajot or Lagoon.

[Kinkircating]

It's a charter boat, made for short motor sailing island hops and filling the refrigerator with beer. It does this task very well. Sailing, now that is not it's strong suit, but that is not the purpose this boat is built for.

[chubby]

Originally Posted by Invictus69

Hi, I chartered models 4.3, 4.5 and 4.8 (in 2016-2019) period. It is a fancy looking boat for short Caribbean charters with nice forward deck and flybridge for sunsets and booze. It is mass produced primarily for the charter market (eg large kitchen size fridge). I wouldn't do a major offshore passage. Not great quality finishings (again, charter) has a cheap feeling, but nice looks.

Not great sailing performance either (with a disclaimer that those were not-optimized charter boats).

If you are looking for French cats, I would look at Fountaine Pajot or Lagoon.

i've only been on/chartered a 4.6 (pretty sure it was a new 4.6...but may have been the 4.8)






i do remember it had a self tacking jib set up(now i want this on any sailboat)..and the boom requires climbing to access..
but i didnt see it is a challenge to single hand.

...that said, i don't believe we ever had "enough" wind to get it sailing without the engines.

the positive..the foredeck space was popular with the female and her mama..






however..
overall impression was that it just felt "cheap"..
..at least compared to comparables.

[jleonar]

I am not a seasoned veteran like many here. But I have sailed a 41' FP Lipari and a 40' Bali. Both in very similar conditions.



I see people sh*tting all over Bali constantly but for my experience, they are no worse or better than typical lagoons or FPs. Can't speak to a leopard as I have never sailed one.

[yeloya]

Originally Posted by jleonar

I am not a seasoned veteran like many here. But I have sailed a 41' FP Lipari and a 40' Bali. Both in very similar conditions.



I see people sh*tting all over Bali constantly but for my experience, they are no worse or better than typical lagoons or FPs. Can't speak to a leopard as I have never sailed one.

Sorry but I've sailed any cat from Outremer's to Catana from Lagoon's to almost every FP. And we had three/four Bali's on our charter fleet, so I sailed them as well. Bali's are not even close to FP and even Lagoon's in terms of build quality and sailing performance. But, the charter clients who don't sail anyway are very happy and all women fall in love with the huge fridge.
I won't talk about IKEA furnitures as with few exceptions all brands now are pretty much the same, but the overall build quality is simply terrible. And yes, it's cheaper, for a good reason.. If you call this sh*tting all over, you buy one and you prove us wrong ..

Cheers

Yeloya

[Clevermoray]

Any Bali models have a polar diagram plan?

[Snore]

Originally Posted by Clevermoray

Any Bali models have a polar diagram plan?

As I posted neither the factory or the dealer was willing to provide one.

Do some calcs and you will see they are under powered

[TheOffice]

Chartered a 4.5 flybridge. In addition to what has been mentioned, not enough hand holds to get to the bridge in any sort of weather. it was 4 years old and in need of TLC.
Cabin was tight given the size and weight of the boat. Not enough storage foe luggage or groceries except in the fridge

[creudelsud]

I'm a Bali 4.8 owner

Hi there

My recent experience with Bali producers moved me to post this.
In short: very poor service and a sort of attitude I would not accept in my company. They don't care about their customers and users. Period.

Our boat was delivered new in their base in Med France, with months of delay forcing us to charter a boat for that summer as. Bad beginning. Our Bali 4.8 had problems since new. Most minor but bothering like stopping ACs, interior lights going crazy because of the domotic system not working well, throttle cables not well installed getting no neutral position, foam of the exterior matresses desintegrating in months, etc etc.

The layout of the boat is great with very few drawbacks like the poor ventilation in the cabins.

The main bad thing is the execution: poor materials and poor or average installations. Noisy, etc. The same design with a higher standard would make the almost perfect cat.

Would I buy it again? Nope.

Now things are all of them almost fixed and the boat is not luxurious but extremely confortable and safe. It pitches on sail way way less than any other I have sailed even with his (great) forward solid terrace instead of net.

What to buy then and now? Honestly, I don't know. I've heard also really bad things about Lagoon on their bigger boats and also bad or worse for FPs.

I have sailed FP 38, FP 41, Leopard 40, Leopard 45 and Bali 4.8. Among them the best execution I saw is the Leopard 45 whereas the Leopard 40 had unacceptable problems, being the 45 new and the 40 one year old. On the 40 I had water leaks on rain, both waterpumps for the engines exploded at the same time (yan 27hp), boom cleat coming out its place. On the 45 I had no issues I can remember. On the FPs I sailed shorter periods and no issues but they were poorly equipped (no gen, no AC, no watermakers, no nothing).

It sadly seems that the boat makers are, most of them if not all, light years behind car manufacturers. Why? No idea. At the end of the day they assemble parts from Yanmar, Raymarine, Eno, etc etc. Why are they so plenty of mistakes on production? I cannot figure out.

With this info I wish next owners to push more on the quality delivered and after sales service which is simply unacceptable.

[Kinkircating]

Originally Posted by creudelsud

I'm a Bali 4.8 owner



It sadly seems that the boat makers are, most of them if not all, light years behind car manufacturers. Why? No idea. At the end of the day they assemble parts from Yanmar, Raymarine, Eno, etc etc. Why are they so plenty of mistakes on production? I cannot figure out.

With this info I wish next owners to push more on the quality delivered and after sales service which is simply unacceptable.

Sorry to hear about your troubles with this brand, but just keep in mind that this was a self-inflicted wound. The boats are universally panned by everyone that is not a charter company or a boat magazine trying to sell ad-space and have been since their inception, just review any forum topic where Bali comes up. Big and comfortable, beds and heads...built to last the 4-5 years in charter market then be discarded or go through a total refit. There is no free lunch and like everything in life you get what you pay for.


So I come from the Auto industry, and I can tell you exactly why these builders cannot get it right.

#1) Profit margins are razor thin as is, there is a reason they are cheap when you compare to an actual high quality boat. They cut corners on materials and the labor hours that go into these boats.
#2) Auto companies tool automobiles to build hundreds of thousands of vehicles. They build more cars for testing and crush them than the entire production run of a Bali 4.8, these cars are built 2 years in advance of the first model getting into a customer's hands. There are armies of engineers who's sole purpose in life is to root out any issue.
#3) Auto companies have real quality systems in place, and don't allow build gates to be passed unless they are all met.

There are probably a hundred other reasons, but in a nutshell, even the best boat builder will never come close to matching the level of first-time quality in your average KIA. I wish this was not the case but it's just the way it is. There is a reason there are so many defunct boat builders from over the last century, it is not a business for the faint of heart!

[Statistical]

Originally Posted by creudelsud

It sadly seems that the boat makers are, most of them if not all, light years behind car manufacturers. Why? No idea. At the end of the day they assemble parts from Yanmar, Raymarine, Eno, etc etc. Why are they so plenty of mistakes on production? I cannot figure out.

Production volume. Cars especially popular models are produced in insane volumes on real assembly lines. The guy putting in the front dash does not but putting in the front dash. He even has a robot which helps him put it into place. He knows the 18 bolts and the four wiring harnesses by heart. He does literally the exact same thing for hundred cars a day thousands upon thousands over the course of a year.

Boats are just not built like that. Even the most popular models are built in tiny numbers and they are essentially hand built. Yeah they may series production but it isn't an assembly line and they may have a dozen boats in production at once.

Sure it is mostly off the shelf parts but that is usually not the hard part. It is all the custom stuff that is going to be unique to that model. Like the thousands of meters of house wiring running from everything on the boat to the panel. There is no wiring harness they can just snap into place. It is done the same way a DIYer would do it. Very labor intensive and lots of potential for mistakes.