The Bali 4.0 or Catspace is a charter cruiser catamaran from the company that produces Catana catamarans. The Bali 4.0 is 39.5 x 21.5 foot with a weight of 20,600 lbs and a displacement of 28,600 lbs. The fractional rig has a 52 foot aluminium mast and carries a 538 square foot fat head main sail with a 355 square foot jib, a 600 square foot gennaker and a 970 square foot spinnaker. The hull length to beam is about 7.8 to 1. The low aspect ratio keels draw 3.5 foot.
The manufacturer: Chantier Catana design team was Olivier Poncin with Lasta Design Studio. They designed a charter and cruising cat that is still capable of sailing well. The design has the accommodation of a 45 foot French cat in a 40 foot length. The accommodation is very creative on its virtually full length bridge deck. The forward cockpit is large, the window between the forward cockpit and the galley can be opened for conversation etc. This may be a problem upwind is strong winds but with 6.5 foot of freeboard on a full bow on a 39.5 foot cat helps reduce an problems. The main saloon and cockpit cab be integrated into one large space giving the impression of a much larger saloon. The hulls can have 3 or 4 double berth cabins each with their own bathrooms and entrances. This is a large amount of accommodation in a small package and requires the 8000 lbs payload to carry the stores, water and fuel tankage 8 people would want on a 2 week cruise. The main sailing steering and sail handling position is on the main cabin/cockpit roof.
This excellent “open” accommodation has one downside. In really heavy or storm conditions you will have to handle this cat very carefully. I have sailed cats that have had solid water come over the bows and the side decks. I have also had the top of a breaking wave dump on top of a bridge deck cabin roof of a 37 foot cat. Storm window and cockpit door coverings would be a very good thing, especially at the front of the main cabin.
So how does it sail? Well. It can go upwind at 45 degrees, it tacks without any backwinding and maintains a course easily. The roof top cockpit provides good vision and an excellent control location for all sail handling. According to a tester “Its position is delightful, and taking the helm reveals a special surprise: it is extremely light, precise and it feels as though there is a perfect contact with the rudder blades. The sailplan of the 4.0 follows the latest trends, with the rig set further aft, stepped on the coachroof. The mainsail remains effective with its moderate area (though a square-topped sail is recommended). However, it is the foresail that gives the power.” The test report said: “Any pitching moments are well dampened. The 4.0 doesn’t, however, have the waterline length of its bigger brother, the 4.5 and will start to have a bit of a porpoise effect earlier in big seas. There was no gennaker on our test boat, but with 12-14 knots of wind on the first afternoon, the liveliness of the 4.0 was already noticeable, and we easily picked up to 8.8 knots on a reach under main and solent. The following day, with the wind settling down around 8-10 knots, the other great revelation came when we were on the wind (less than 45° to the apparent, on a flat sea) with the solent allowing us to achieve a very good VMG. This type of sailplan gives a vitality to the foresail, which remains filled even at fairly tight angles. This leads us to assume that the performance under gennaker or spinnaker would be good.” Translation as with all accommodation cats they tend to sail at a speed of about half to two thirds of wind speed up to about 25 knots of wind speed. The good accommodation cats sail well on all points where as older designs/models had limitations. The Bali 4.0 is a 8 knot average with peaks of 15 knot sort of cat. The highest speed recorded in test sails I have read is 9.2 knots in 25 knots of wind.
The structure is in 3 parts. The outer hull moulds are joined on the keel lines with the bridge deck platform and the inner parts of the hull are joined for a solid structure. Fiberglass hulls have been built with a polyester PVC sandwich resin infused. The Bali has fiberglass infused decks and topside with plywood supports. Bulkheads are multilayer plywood, laminated or glued. The main bulkheads in a polyester sandwich and secondary plywood multiply laminated or glued. The solid foredeck also serves as a structural member and is built of box sections and kept light in weight. The mast is supported partially by a nacelle under the wing deck. Now there is one issue, this cat is built in 2 locations. The charter version is built in Tunisia and other versions are built elsewhere. Result depending on which version I am reading about has slightly different structural components. One version claims to have no plywood in it.
The jpegs give the idea of a good accommodation cat that can sail well.
The manufacturer: Chantier Catana design team was Olivier Poncin with Lasta Design Studio. They designed a charter and cruising cat that is still capable of sailing well. The design has the accommodation of a 45 foot French cat in a 40 foot length. The accommodation is very creative on its virtually full length bridge deck. The forward cockpit is large, the window between the forward cockpit and the galley can be opened for conversation etc. This may be a problem upwind is strong winds but with 6.5 foot of freeboard on a full bow on a 39.5 foot cat helps reduce an problems. The main saloon and cockpit cab be integrated into one large space giving the impression of a much larger saloon. The hulls can have 3 or 4 double berth cabins each with their own bathrooms and entrances. This is a large amount of accommodation in a small package and requires the 8000 lbs payload to carry the stores, water and fuel tankage 8 people would want on a 2 week cruise. The main sailing steering and sail handling position is on the main cabin/cockpit roof.
This excellent “open” accommodation has one downside. In really heavy or storm conditions you will have to handle this cat very carefully. I have sailed cats that have had solid water come over the bows and the side decks. I have also had the top of a breaking wave dump on top of a bridge deck cabin roof of a 37 foot cat. Storm window and cockpit door coverings would be a very good thing, especially at the front of the main cabin.
So how does it sail? Well. It can go upwind at 45 degrees, it tacks without any backwinding and maintains a course easily. The roof top cockpit provides good vision and an excellent control location for all sail handling. According to a tester “Its position is delightful, and taking the helm reveals a special surprise: it is extremely light, precise and it feels as though there is a perfect contact with the rudder blades. The sailplan of the 4.0 follows the latest trends, with the rig set further aft, stepped on the coachroof. The mainsail remains effective with its moderate area (though a square-topped sail is recommended). However, it is the foresail that gives the power.” The test report said: “Any pitching moments are well dampened. The 4.0 doesn’t, however, have the waterline length of its bigger brother, the 4.5 and will start to have a bit of a porpoise effect earlier in big seas. There was no gennaker on our test boat, but with 12-14 knots of wind on the first afternoon, the liveliness of the 4.0 was already noticeable, and we easily picked up to 8.8 knots on a reach under main and solent. The following day, with the wind settling down around 8-10 knots, the other great revelation came when we were on the wind (less than 45° to the apparent, on a flat sea) with the solent allowing us to achieve a very good VMG. This type of sailplan gives a vitality to the foresail, which remains filled even at fairly tight angles. This leads us to assume that the performance under gennaker or spinnaker would be good.” Translation as with all accommodation cats they tend to sail at a speed of about half to two thirds of wind speed up to about 25 knots of wind speed. The good accommodation cats sail well on all points where as older designs/models had limitations. The Bali 4.0 is a 8 knot average with peaks of 15 knot sort of cat. The highest speed recorded in test sails I have read is 9.2 knots in 25 knots of wind.
The structure is in 3 parts. The outer hull moulds are joined on the keel lines with the bridge deck platform and the inner parts of the hull are joined for a solid structure. Fiberglass hulls have been built with a polyester PVC sandwich resin infused. The Bali has fiberglass infused decks and topside with plywood supports. Bulkheads are multilayer plywood, laminated or glued. The main bulkheads in a polyester sandwich and secondary plywood multiply laminated or glued. The solid foredeck also serves as a structural member and is built of box sections and kept light in weight. The mast is supported partially by a nacelle under the wing deck. Now there is one issue, this cat is built in 2 locations. The charter version is built in Tunisia and other versions are built elsewhere. Result depending on which version I am reading about has slightly different structural components. One version claims to have no plywood in it.
The jpegs give the idea of a good accommodation cat that can sail well.
