Knysna 44 advice

[richard45cdo]

Good day, lookign for a Catamaran to cruise around the world in. I live in South Africa and a Knysna 44 has become available. it was built in 2004. selling for £180,000


any Advice on old Knysna Cats?



thank you

[LeeV]

Originally Posted by richard45cdo

Good day, lookign for a Catamaran to cruise around the world in. I live in South Africa and a Knysna 44 has become available. it was built in 2004. selling for £180,000


any Advice on old Knysna Cats?



thank you

Try googling it; there is a long ongoing discussion of their minimal bridgedeck clearance.

[Luftmeer]

We have looked at this model and ruled out due to the bridge deck clearance which is only 24 inches.

[BillsWife1]

If you ruled them out solely on the bridgedeck clearance than you simply don't understand how the Knysna's are built. While there are people out there that have this bench mark of so many inches of clearance is mandatory, there is far more to it than that.

Knysna is a performance cat with more narrow hulls and chines designed to minimized any slamming.

Do yourself a favor and do some more reading from a variety of sources.

[tp12]

Chines aren't going to stop waves from hitting the bridgedeck in a 44 foot cat. Unless those two hulls are only a few feet apart, which they're not.

Height above the water is the major factor ie, bridgedeck clearance. 24 inches on a 44 foot cat is in the low end of the spectrum; especially for a performance cat.

[Thumbs Up]

There are plenty of catamarans going around the world with less than 24" clearance.

[Sand crab]

Aren't all the South African cats pretty low? Leopard and Voyage have a good rep.

[tp12]

Originally Posted by Thumbs Up

There are plenty of catamarans going around the world with less than 24" clearance.

Sure. Bridgedeck clearance is not the only design consideration and it comes into the balance/tradeoff of characteristics depending on what's more important to you/the buyer, like everything else. I'd wager that most of the cats sailing around aren't performance cats; people are happy with those design compromises. As long as you're happy, all good.

[Intentional Drifter]

The Knysna 44's began life as the St Francis 44, which went through at least two updates before Duncan Lethbridge went on to the 48 and 50, at which time he sold the 44's molds to Knysna and it became their first model.

Having sailed many thousands of miles (much of it offshore) in our St Francis (now sold) as well as many other cats, here's my comments on it.

The issue of bridgedeck clearance is full of often distorted and misleading information/opinions. The clearance is 24", which is at the lower end of what some "expert" somewhere said is acceptable. There are several factors that go into all this, though, and tradeoffs that must be made.

Angelo Lavranos wanted the design to be more on the performance side for a cruising cat, while still capable of taking on very tough conditions. Keep in mind that Lavranos is in S. Africa and they design boats to take on the Southern Ocean, Agulhas Current, Cape of Good Hope. For a cat to maintain capsize resistance yet also be speedy and go to windward well, you don't want a high profile and keeping the windage down helps with all of these.

Lavranos took an interesting (and, I think, quite successful) approach to this set of problems. By putting the engines midships, he kept the heaviest objects at the CG. This helps minimize hobby horsing (ever been on a Lagoon 380/410 when it starts hobby horsing in medium chop? It seems to set up almost a harmonic synergy that goes on its own). It also allows a smooth, easy exit at the transoms and that helps performance. He also kept the cabin top fairly low and with the relatively lower profile on the water, the capsize resistance is still high, even though the boat is carrying 1250 sq ft of working sail -- this is almost 20% more sail area than a 410, even though their LWL is almost the same. Simply better performance, especially when you also consider that the St F weighs almost 2000 lbs less. Plus, the lower windage lets you go to windward better. Most cruising cats of this size, with keels, will point to 45 and then pretty much stall out. St F's can pinch to 35 and still be maintaining about 50% of windspeed. That's almost as good as most daggerboard cruisers, without the complexity, expense, and loss of space. But, in order to get those advantages, that means a relatively lower boat.

The other thing is the shape of the bridgedeck. St F's are shaped much like the bow of a boat, so that when water hits it, it is diverted away rather than hitting it square on. It also has stringers under the deck that serve to channel and direct the water. The deck also starts fairly far back from the bows. All of these help to deflect and divert water, so when it hits water, it is more of a splurge around than a pounding shock. Of course, all cats will have certain conditions where they pound and the St F is no exception. In 3 to 5 foot chop to windward is where it isn't happy (as if any boat is). The solution is to either speed up, or bear off 5 or 10 and that usually deals with it.

So, as with so many things, it boils down to what you're willing to give up in order to get what you want. I view the St. F as a nice, comfortable, extremely well built (they really are one of the best built cats I've ever seen), safe boat that has an excellent balance between comfort, space and performance.

One of the things to consider about the Knysna 44 is whether the engines are in the transoms or midships. As I said, the boat was originally designed for midships and that's where you will get your best performance. (There are also other advantages to that placement, though two disadvantages: the cabin noise is a bit louder, and you have the engine cowlings sticking out in the passageway.) The transoms were designed to be narrow for optimal water flow, but that means they won't carry much weight aft. For the boats with aft engines, I think they widened the transom area, but you might want to check.

Like many cats, the St F/Knysna are weight sensitive. Load it up too much and your performance will suffer. Keep it light and they will fly.

ID

[Luftmeer]

Originally Posted by BillsWife1

If you ruled them out solely on the bridgedeck clearance than you simply don't understand how the Knysna's are built. While there are people out there that have this bench mark of so many inches of clearance is mandatory, there is far more to it than that.

Knysna is a performance cat with more narrow hulls and chines designed to minimized any slamming.

Do yourself a favor and do some more reading from a variety of sources.

I do understand exactly how the Knysna is built, which is exceptional otherwise we would not have looked at one. We also talked with the mfg. All boats are a trade-off and at this point in our search bridgedeck clearance is important to us.

[Bleemus]

I know this is an old thread but does anyone know the air draft (bridge clearance height) for the Knysna 44?

Regards,
Keth

[Intentional Drifter]

The air draft of the St Francis 44 (the original builder of the Knysna 44) is 64 feet and a bit of change depending on your VHF antenna.



If you're wondering about the ICW, we negotiated it without difficulty.

[Bleemus]

Thank you Drifter!

[Sand crab]

Hey ID, is your boat called Scabenga now?

[Cameron65]

From previous posts understand the St Francis and Knysna 44 are from the same mold. On the boats presently for sale the Knysna engines are towards the stern, the SF midship with the saildrive placed inwards. I understand the benifits of the weight/engine placement. but are they not very exposed to debri passing between the hulls as to some keel protection in the aft position?