Options other than Antares 44i

[Four Coconuts]

I agree with the St. Francis 50 mk2 and would take a hard look at the new Seawind 1600. That boat gets me excited for a whole host of reasons and I can't wait to get on one. Privilege 445 and 495's are beauty boats, however, the rounded seating everywhere makes lounging difficult. I struggle with Outremer. I want the performance, but for me they sacrifice too much in the way of livability for performance. Even the 51 has a seriously compromised galley if you're living full time on board.

[Catalysis]

Sea adventures
Bill,
Antares 44:
Well engineered boat, easy to sail, great finish, quality throughout, shaft drive, easy to maintain, good resale value, excellent user community, Antares University for new and used owners twice a year. Seven sailing around the world right now. Wait list for a new boat 2019.

St Francis 50:
Bigger boat, well engineered, customizable, sail or shaft drive, easy to maintain, proven world cruiser, fast, hoping to get users group more active based on Antares owners group experience.
Build time is about a year.
Paul



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[Lambretta]

Originally Posted by rallyman1122

IN regards to similar sized boats, there is the Helia 44, a leopard 44 or 48, even a Lagoon. Or if you are looking for something with more performance and a bit more extreme, there is the Atlantic 48 Mast Foil from Chris White. Nautitech or Outremer have excellent reputations for producing quality boats

It comes down to your needs and desires. Many have cruised on all of these boats and there are many more to choose from as well.

For information .... The Leopard 44 is no longer in production. Its replacement the Leopard 45 (a true 45ft .... the Leopard 44 was just under 43ft) is due for release in September.

One other thing .... I have noticed that a lot of the "production" cats made (predominately) for the charter market have less storage and a lot less refrigeration than the boutique cats like Knysna, St Francis, Antares etc. My thinking on this is that these production cats are built (mainly) for charter market where people stay on them for a week or two and this is therefore not a limitation. That said, IMHO it is not a huge problem and other fridges and deep freezes can be added, if necessary. However sometimes not that elegantly!!

[jclark500]

Originally Posted by Catalysis

Johnny AoB,
That's funny, we recently sold our beloved Antares 44 after seven years and are having a St Francis 50 built.
Paul




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Would like to hear of your experience with that. Just back from a sail on an older Antares and considering a ST. Francis.

jclark500 @ cox dot net

805.450.5050 cell. Best, Jeff

[boneboy]

Look at the Voyage 480 owners version. Nice boat, well built, good systems. Build time about 10 months

[Catalysis]

Jclark500
Take a look at my response to sea adventures.
They're both great boats - but different - Antares is very complete out-the-door with great after sales support - St Francis needs to be spec'd to your taste - it has a much less developed owners group.
I'd sail either one around the world without hesitation.



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[LTDsailing]

The Antares 44 is a well designed, well built boat - but it is an old design. Not much has changed since the PDQ 44.

Since you are looking at the Antares - it sounds like you are looking beyond the FP, Lagoon, Leopard production boats.

I think that you have gotten some good recommendations with Nautitech, St. Francis & Knysna. Those are all good quality cruising catamarans. If you are looking at higher performance, I would recommend looking at Outremer and Balance (which we do represent) - but realize that if you go with a higher performance boat you are giving up a lot of living space foot for foot and as soon as you load it down to go cruising, you are going to loose a lot of the performance.

We are representatives for The Multihull Company - let me know if you have any questions we can help you with.

Enjoy the adventure of finding the right boat for you!

[Four Coconuts]

I second what Chris says- the 486/526 are worth taking a closer look at. While they haven't produced any 486's yet, I've been on some of the other boats out of the Nexus yard (located in St. Francis Bay, SA) where they are building the larger Balance cats and they are putting together a nice product.

[Andrew Grace]

One point to also consider with all of the boats mentioned is the production payment plans, beleive only one of them offers final 50% payment on Launch where others expect continuing part payments throughout the build which can expose you to considerable loss if something goes wrong financially with the builder, all are $800 to 1.1 k price tags so you want to make sure and mediate the risks of construction.

[snort]

Schionning
Grainger
Seawind