Opinions on 40 ft cruising catamarans.

Is there a ~40 ft cruising cat that stands above the rest in the cruising segment? Country of origin is not a consideration.

 

Can you perhaps give some more information. Do you have a budget in mind? Do you want a production catamaran or are you interested in building from a plan or kit?

 

Either used in the $250+ range -plus another $100 to modify to a singlehanded easy rig- or a new boat in the same budget range.

There are some boats that I like on paper but have no idea how well they are built and if they will hold together in serious conditions.

 

That sounds reasonable, I'd look towards the more performance oriented boats mainly because they offer improvements in safety and comfort and better bridgedeck clearance the Catana's for example have a very good reputation for being safe, comfortable and fast. It's probably worth defining your requirements as well to determine what you can and cant live without. Are you cruising solo or with your family or as a couple? What sort of range and payload requirements do you have? Most 40' boats can be managed reasonably well singlehanded 100k seems like a lot to make the mods you may be better to tip some of that into your purchasing fund.

 

Catana has gone through several reincarnations. So you have to be careful to chose a good one. I've seen some pretty bad examples, including one that had split open and another that sank (yes I know multihulls are supposed to be unsinkable, that's just proof of the build and design quality)

You might consider Outremer, especially an older second hand one. The newer ones are less performance orientated and more mainstream

or the Shuttleworth Advantage 44, built in Germany by Burkhard Bader Multihulls but not sure if they build them any more

There's always my semi production Transit 38 of course, built to your specific requirements

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

I could suggest the Bob Oram design "39 C" of which mine is a variation - but Bob has retired...

Otherwise, Robin Chamberlin (check out the images in my gallery of the C10)... - I understand that there is also a 40 ft version of this displacement cruising powercat both cruise at up to 15kts... The builders mobile number is on the window of the C10 Mr John Hamm... another excellent builder

For an excellent cruising sailboat, John Hitch has X-IT for sale at a reasonable price - he was solo cruising at 75 years (his lovely wife, I am led to belive would come along but not to crew)... The rig is exceptionally easy to handle in ALL points... X-IT is listed in the electronic magazine "The Coastal Passage" published in Bowen, Queenswland...

Then there is my boat for somewhere between Au$250K and Au$300K see http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-building/my-little-piece-peace-25962-119.html for the build and cruising story...

 

I found it a bit strange that Bob Oram just shut down his website like that, did he just decide that he was over it and he was never going to get his boat on the water unless he pulled the plug? I assume he is still supporting existing builders with their projects?

 

Hi Corley,
Time to do his own thing... - and - - I presume a designer needs more than 12 new projects a year to remain viable....

To my way of thinking, - possibly, a recognition that the market has gone quiet as a consequence of the GEC - - and the aftermath, - which is yet to hit (or be acknowledged as a major issue, as it will, very soon for the Australian economy)...

It would be reasonable to expect continuing significant contractions in the global/international markets leading to at least another 30% drop in the price of Australian residential housing... Expect lots more layoffs as "Can-do Campbell" is doing in Queensland...

The Labor party was endeavouring to keep people in jobs, - so, - - if the Liberals control State and Federal Parliament expect very high levels of layoffs and consequent unemployment in lots of other private sectors around Australia... Do not declare - bankruptsy in Australia - as one still has to pay off the debt to be able to borrow money at reasonable rates...

Enjoy a frugal lifestyle as debts created by Wall Street and sold around the world as "AAA rated" assets bear the fruit of the fraudulent debt created by the "global money markets"...

 

A very old one is for sale in FL for $300k. !

Good points. There are many Catanas -nice boat- in the market, but what RW has to say about the "bad" ones is not encouraging. How does one know which ones are the good ones? Paying for long distance surveys is not a good way to go.

Requirements are well defined and I'm cruising solo save for the occasional island hopping guest. 100k for the mods is probably a safe estimate. By the time you add design fees for the rig, custom fabrication of mast and foils and furlers and hardware and serious boat systems and electronics it adds up quickly. A 60lb Manson Boss lists for $5,300 ! One of them.

The boat would be finished somewhere on the US Eastern seaboard and sailed to the Med. Then maybe through the Suez and South as allowed by circumstances.

 

If you plan to fitout a boat on the east coast USA then you should talk to David Halladay of www.boatsmithfl.com. You'd have a superb boat built for a good price by a very enthusiastic pro-multihull boatbuilder

Not sure why you want such a heavy anchor. Most 35-40ft multihulls use 35lb. If you "manage it yourself" you can get a new 38ft catamaran built to your exact specifications with good gear for USD300,000

Many production boats are built with cheap deck gear and sails. Cross cut dacron has a very short life when used on a big roach mainsail. Better to invest in one in pentex or spectra and (tri) radial cut

Many boats don't have enough winches. I saw one large production cat with only one genoa winch and only two reef lines. Usually the biggest problem is raising/lowering the mainsail. Anything over about a 45ft luff (say 35ft cat) and you need a proper mainsheet track style luff track. That is what was fitted to the Transit 38 I sailed, I have posted a 12 second youtube video of the mainsail being lowered when sailing downwind. Quicker than a junk rig could be lowered!

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

David's shop is about 300 miles South of me and his wife will have him call me. Small world, they hail from Long Beach, CA where I sailed many series at a time when he was on a Dennis Choate boat that I knew, designed by Alan Andrews.

The 60 lb storm anchor comes from my own dictum that one should refer to the anchor mfr.'s maximum recommendation for the boat size and then select the next size up.

The $300k is a realistic number, a lot depends on the builder off course, and a used boat takes a lot of the variables out.

Can't find the video among the many on your website. Direct link?

The question that is very important for me at this time is the rig and I'm not closer to identifying something that fits my wants and needs. Chris White's first MastFoil is still many months away from doing any significant sailing and there is little feedback from unstayed wishbone cat rigs on ocean going cats. The Junk is out, I only mentioned it to broaden the discussion.

Aerorig? Balestron rig?

 

If you are trying to keep to a budget a conventional rig lets you easily source the rig components- even buy used donor masts, sails etc....The seamanship and handling is worked out etc......The Wharram gaff rigs are a interesting cruising alternative.

 

If you have too big an anchor you may find it difficult to dig it in to set it. That is especially true with an outboard engine powered multihull that has little reverse thrust

Even on a monohull a big anchor is not always a good idea. For example, if you sail in the Bahamas you often anchor where the bottom is shallow sand over rock (limestone). A big anchor cannot dig in and the flukes just skate over the sand, and the anchor tip is too big to catch in the rocks

My youtube channel is

http://www.youtube.com/user/WoodsDesigns?feature=mhee

several Transit and Eclipse videos on it, while the video I mentioned before is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29QabdOcXwA&feature=plcp

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

I'm pretty much set on a 40 foot cat, no smaller. Chris White's MastFoil will be sailing in two weeks and I will wait to see how it goes.