Small Liveaboard Cat Search

[djeeke]

Originally Posted by Sea Wolf

Djeeke,
Log onto CruisersLife.com, go to the visitors page and leave me your email address.

done

[djeeke]

Originally Posted by Tropic Cat

I have some news that may be of interest.
There is a Catalac 8M in Brittany, France that went aground and the owner is offering the boat free of charge.

Got a very short mail today from the owner...
He is going to get back to me...

[djeeke]

Originally Posted by djeeke

Got a very short mail today from the owner...
He is going to get back to me...

Almost a week has passed
I sent him a little reminder

[Talbot]

I wonder if this is a case of "if it seems to good to be true, it probably is too good to be true".

Probably guaging interest, and selling to highest bidder. The longer this goes on, the less likely the boat is to be recoverable.

[Sea Wolf]

Djeeke,
Have you heard from Robin Hodges? I got an email from him the other day that he would be in touch.

Loree
Aboard SeaWolf
CruisersLife.com

[djeeke]

Originally Posted by Sea Wolf

Djeeke,
Have you heard from Robin Hodges?

Yup Loree !
He asked me a few basic questions and would have a look around, then come back to me...
Thank you for the introduction

[Sea Wolf]

Djeeke,
Glad you heard from him. Don't know how many older Geminis are in the EU, but Robin would most likely have a line on any. Good luck.

Loree
Aboard SeaWolf
CruisersLife.com

[djeeke]

Originally Posted by djeeke

Almost a week has passed
I sent him a little reminder

It is still very quiet...
I guess Talbot is right...
The boat was originally for sale after all...

Reminds me of the fact that I posted an add myself some time ago as I was giving away a camper, a lot of people did come up with $$$ to buy it.
It did go to the first party that reacted but I really should have posted it to sell to the hightest bidder. That would have made a few more $$$ to add on the boat.

[djeeke]

My budget brings me to boats like the Iroquois, OCEANIC MkIII , Prout Quest, Prout Ranger, Sea Cat, Hobart 900 amongst others... These are mostly boats built in the seventies...

I already did get some good feedback on the Iroquois and visited one to get an idea on the boat, unfortunately not in the water so no sailing impression...
Two negatives I have are standing headroom in the salon (but this is often the case on a cat this size and age) and the size of the berths (the doubles are more like large singles).
The Prout Ranger I mention is a 33 ft with 12.8 ft beam, according to the seller it does not seem to have more inside space than any other ranger, just the hulls are extending very far aft. Some feedback I got is that this is a very good (quality) built boat, apparently undercanvassed and not a very good windward sailing ability.

Anybody has any knowledge on any of the other mentioned boats ?

We are not so sure about the well known Catalac or Heavenly twin cats, some fall within our budget, we don't especially like the looks but never say never...

[Tropic Cat]

Give us an idea of what your budget is.

[djeeke]

Rick, the ads listed above all mention boats within budget...
Target offering price around 25.000 to 30.000 Euro, keeping some money aside for repairs/refit/enhancements etc...
The mentioned Sea cat would need to be in excellent condition to be a possible candidate. (asking 40k)
I also tried to reach a few Gemini owners having theirs for sale within my budget but no reply yet...
I know I will need to be patient and lucky ...

[Tropic Cat]

What would make this challenging is the boats have to be in Belgium. Did you ever follow up on the German Catalac I mentioned earlier?

[djeeke]

Originally Posted by Tropic Cat

What would make this challenging is the boats have to be in Belgium.

The boat could be anywhere... Far away is off course not so easy to visit and make the purchase arrangements (and travel could be expensive as well).
Since we plan on extensive cruising anyway, where the boat is could be our starting point... (actually on our options list we have a boat in Canada, expecting some feedback from the seller though...)
We should be able to sail it to Belgium at some point in time

Originally Posted by Tropic Cat

Did you ever follow up on the German Catalac I mentioned earlier?

It is on our list, we have not contacted the sellers yet as the next boat on our schedule to visit is in Amsterdam, probably beginning of April...
(but I do check regularly, this one is still for sale... another one off our list which was lying in Greece is apparently just sold, asking was 25.000 Euro)

I have to coordinate between the agenda of my wife and mine, not always so easy and I insist she comes with me when we go 'boatseeing' ...

[Sea Wolf]

Djeeke,
Bill and I saw a heavenly twins when we were first looking and we liked the boat. That was a long time ago, but if I remember correctly, it sailed well on Long Island Sound. Again, the problem was headroom. I think the headroom in the saloon was about 5 feet... maybe a little less. I'm 5ft 2 inches and I had to scrunch down. A friend of ours had a catalac on the Hudson River and he loved it. The Hudson has finecky winds so coming about was the norm. Said it sailed well, but we were never on it, so I can't give you anything first hand. I will tell you that Tom Lac sailed a Catalac to the Chesapeake from the UK in '84 (I think) for the first multihull symposium in Annapolis Maryland. He said it handled well. Of course, he was the builder so you'd expect him to say it was a good boat, but others have said the same, so there must be something to it.

Loree
Aboard SeaWolf
CruisersLife.com

[djeeke]

This one is on the high side of our budget but feasible...

1976 CSK Rudy Choy Catamaran sailboat for sale in California

Can anybody comment on this 37 ft cat ???