A little intro: I'm 45 years old, I have extensive technical expertise and a
budget of roughly 900,000 USD for a brand new cat.
Here's the problem. I wish to live at sea. I have the experience, the
training, but I don't know much about the
boat building industry, which puts me at risk to get fleeced.
Here's what i do
NOT need but everyone is trying to sell me:
- Luxury accommodations, laminated oak
panels and marble countertops.
-
Charter capability with 4 cabins (I plan to sail solo or with another skipper)
- Basically the cats or
boats I trained on
Here's what I
actually need:
- A lot of
power (PV
panels galore, inverters, all accessible and easy to access as I have the knowledge to fix them).
- Autonomous
water supply
- Plenty of space, meaning removing all the cabins and replacing them with
storage space
- Some type of climate control for my
computers and on board scientific
equipment.
Now, you'd think with almost a million bucks, it would be easy. WRONG.
I contacted a lot of builders, including Bali, who recommended me to Nautitech (because the 44 has a 'smart room').
Everyone i contact tells me "They can't remove the beds, because the factory won't allow for that". Yet youtube is filled with videos of people building custom cats, and the largest manufacturers can't .. take out a few beds and replace them with
food storages? Or accommodate an extra
antenna for my HAM/SDR
antenna array? In the age of starlink? REALLY?
I feel like I'm going in circles, that basically the boutiques hear 'million dollar' and are trying to fleece me.
So I come to you, humble, and ask for help.
Who can you recommend to build something like this? Why is it so hard to get
batteries and PV when there are singaporean companies building
solar cats for less than half a mill? But more importantly, who is the
builder, out there, who will help me make my
work come true by letting me have a cat that has ONE
cabin, and the rest as space for automous living over many years?
I know it's unusual. I know most people want to sip pina coladas on their
deck or
charter. But surely what i want to do is possible, right?
Thank you so much.