To some this will seem like an utterly absurd question. I remember talking to an owner of a 34' mono hull about the cramped space inside the 44'
catamaran I had chartered. Every so often I could see in his eyes that he thought I was nuts. So be it.
The issue is more for friends and
family who don't handle smaller spaces well. Personally, I'd do fine with even a small 24' mono hull to
cruise around in for some short-lived peace of mind sessions. But for them, even aboard a 44' cat, the berths and heads in particular can be a bit cramped. Yes, owners versions help somewhat, but not for people staying in the non-owner berths.
I've been looking more and more at the
Lagoon 500. It seems as though the 4
cabin version might fit the bill. But even then, we're still talking about what would be considered an extremely small
hotel room by "land" standards. Plus once you cross even the 48' threshold (I'm thinking the new
Leopard 48 here) the prices really start going up both for
purchase and more to-the-point charter.
Have I been barking up the wrong tree? Do I need to start looking at
motor yachts? I have nothing against those, by the way, except for the amount of
fuel they burn. The thing I love about catamarans is their efficiency and relatively large
interior volume as compared to sailing mono hulls.
Another thing I've been wondering is, why don't they make 40 foot-ish boats with simply two state rooms? IE., the FP
Lipari 41 would be a very, very comfortable boat for two couples if both hulls were set up as "owners" versions. I know some older model FPs have this setup, but they're on the smaller side of 40' ish.
The other issues that has come into play for me when chartering a boat and trying to gain new converts is
pitch poling. We recently chartered a '41 FP and I found it did in fact bobble around quite a bit more than even a "slightly" larger 44' FP (Orana) as we hit the wakes of much larger boats and some medium sized choppy waves. At what length does it really stop being an issue? I would imagine waves are much more of an issue in
Florida,
Bahamas,
BVI and
Mediterranean than they are here on the Chesapeake.
I've chartered three boats this year, the latter two being with friends and
family ... attempting to show them how wonderful it could be in crystal blue waters (we only sailed the Chesapeake ... and the damn jellyfish ruined the swimming part both times). I don't think I managed to convince anyone. Aside from the jellyfish, it seems just plain difficult for 50 year+ folk to get around inside the smallish heads and whatnot.