Bali Catamaran Owners

[bibbjs]

Hey folks,

Are there any other Bali Catamaran owners out there? We are purchasing a new Bali 4.1 this summer and would like to connect with others.

J.

[tatomaceda]

Congratulations and welcome to CF. Please keep us posted about your new boat.

[TL2]

Congratulatios.
Im looking for a 4.0
Ill thank your comments on Bali quality and performance.

[Chablis 1]

Hi all,
I sailed around in Phuket during two weeks on a Bali 4.3. Boat was three years old and put in charter since new. The performance is not as good as the advertising is saying (did anyone had a doubt?) and very similar to for exemlpe a lagoon 421. On the other hand ,live abord ability, we were nine people aboard, is just fantastic. Lots of storage everywhere and a galley made for real cooking. Great space in the saloon, on the bimini and in the forward cock-pit. Superb ventilation with the forward window down and the saloon folding door up. 360° view is as good as it gets. I can see this kind of design becoming more and more attractive if live aboard and coastal cruising are the main criterias. We didn't encountered bad weather and high seas, and I wouldn't like to do that in this vessel. The huge fridge needed 4h of motoring par day, even with 400W of solar and dual alternators on each engin...
Thomas

[Sotiri]

Yes. I'm a new Bali 4.5 owner. Congratulations on your boat! Have you taken delivery of her yet?

[bibbjs]

Yes! We took delivery a little over a week ago. We are out working on our new adventure and currently sailing the Chesapeake!

J.

[ssmoot]

Originally Posted by bibbjs

Yes! We took delivery a little over a week ago. We are out working on our new adventure and currently sailing the Chesapeake!

J.

Any chance for a YouTube overview of your boat? "Pantry" and toy storage options maybe? Did you option a generator? How much storage is left in the forward hatches under the forward cockpit seating? Is there a place to put away the forward cockpit cushions (for seating and the sunbed) without stacking them in the salon or a cabin and without giving up storage for toys?

Is there anywhere big enough to store a pair of folding bikes?

Did you get a watermaker? Where is it (or would be) installed? Does it have a remote control panel or to you have to get at a hatch?

Would it destroy the comfort of the starboard lounging seat in the salon if you lost 4" of width to install a pop-up television behind it?

How much storage is under the new rear-cockpit seating just in front of the dinghy lift? Does the floor of the storage compartment (assuming there is any) extend down to the salon sole level, or does it extend down to the depth of the... sorry, having trouble coming up with the terminology... the bottom of the bridge deck? (Making it what, a good 12" or more deeper, appropriate for storing tall items.)

Did you get the full coverage canvas bimini up top? The one I saw in a video for a Is it available in fiberglass? I've seen a canvas bimini on a Bali 4.0 in Kavas Yacht Charter on YouTube which looks to have a sort of ladder built into the aft supports, but I assume you're not actually supposed to walk on the canvas to access the mainsail stack? That can't be the intent right? A large hardtop bimini would really interest me for unobstructed solar and access to the stack. How do you find stuffing the mainsail and zipping up the bag? It looks effectively out of reach for anyone under 6' to me?

Apologies for pelting you with questions. You're the first person I've seen "in the wild" with the 4.1, and it's a boat I'm very excited about (if you couldn't tell)!

Finally, if you have any thoughts on the 4.0 I'd love to hear them as well. It appears the 2018 Bali's have upgraded the interior finishes significantly, but I'm mostly concerned about how big a compromise having the folding transom instead of the new seating area would be if I managed to find a used 4.0 with the L-shaped dining seating (which appears to be a switch or option made available at some point, maybe 2017, but I haven't been able to identify when it happened other than the introductory boats all had the straight sofa apparently).

[tatomaceda]

Saw the Bali 4.1 in Annpolis this October. My wife likes. She prefers this over the FP, Lagoon and Nautitech of similar size.
You know when you walk into a house and it's the right one... I said, let's see if we can sail on one first.

[ssmoot]

Originally Posted by tatomaceda

Saw the Bali 4.1 in Annpolis this October. My wife likes. She prefers this over the FP, Lagoon and Nautitech of similar size.
You know when you walk into a house and it's the right one... I said, let's see if we can sail on one first.

We really liked it as well. Except for:

The exposed helm: The design was great, but the sun exposure was the worst at the show. For us at least, this boat definitely needs the optional full coverage bimini.

The lack of trampolines: I'm not invested in wether they're a good or bad thing. But while you get a little extra storage access from the forepeak hatches, most of that space appears to be inaccessible. Which means you're either leaving the giant cushions behind, or wasting a ton of stowage space on them. And I'm just not that big a fan of mattresses anyways, so tramps there seem more generally useful.

Ventilation: Salon ventilation is obviously top notch, but there's one very small (8"?) hatch in each of the hulls. Are the ports in combination with the salon ventilation enough to cool off the hulls? Especially since there's no hatches that would force airflow to actually pass over the beds? The Balis were all air-conditioned at the show, and I feel like that might be their natural state. This is definitely our number one concern with the boat.

The rubbery dashboard material on top of the cabinetry in the salon: It looks great. It feels nice to the touch if a little floppy. But there's a slab above the nav station with seams on either side that appears it might suffer shrinkage or deformation at the seams after a few years. I'm not so sure about the longevity of this material baking in UV day after day without knowing what sort of material it actually is and getting some assurances.

There's a lot to like, I go back and forth on wether it deserves a spot on our short-list. Mostly based on the ventilation concerns. For a coastal cruiser or weekend boat I'd probably move it up the list.

[theDangerz]

Originally Posted by bibbjs

Yes! We took delivery a little over a week ago. We are out working on our new adventure and currently sailing the Chesapeake!

J.

We purchased a Bali 4.0 and would love to hear how you're finding the boat (publicly or privately), especially as it relates to details like power draw for the fridge and other "standard" draws onboard!

We are currently working on fitting out the boat before moving aboard and given the very small number of Bali liveaboard owners its really tough to get any rough numbers so that we can figure out our solar and battery needs.

thank you!!

[rmomplet]

Hi all,

I'm considering the purchase of a Bali 4.5.
This boat doesn't have connection from the forward double berths to the single bow berths.
Has any one added these openings to a finished boat? Does any one know if it is possible?
Thanks

[austin2103]

We are looking at a Bali 4.5 to live aboard. Can someone tell me the owners bed dimensions (length, min width, max width)?

How’s the ventilation in the bedroom with hatches open?

Thanks

[austin2103]

Bali 4.5 owners... I'm concerned about the bedroom ventilation since there are minimal overhead hatches. How good is the ventilation in the bedrooms? Do you need to keep the salon windows open to help the bedrooms? Are fans a must?

Thanks
Bryan

[theDangerz]

Originally Posted by austin2103

Bali 4.5 owners... I'm concerned about the bedroom ventilation since there are minimal overhead hatches. How good is the ventilation in the bedrooms? Do you need to keep the salon windows open to help the bedrooms? Are fans a must?

Thanks
Bryan

I can't speak to the 4.5 specifically, but overall our 4.0 has the best airflow of any catamaran (or any boat) we've stepped aboard. Largely due to the guillotine window, but airflow is great throughout.
It's actually very common that owners of other catamarans of all shapes and sizes come onboard and comment about the great airflow compared to their boat.

That said... I will never understand why Bali chose not to put hatches over the berths.

Airflow still isn't horrible but I just can't understand why the decision was made not to add the hatch when it exists and functions in so many others. If I could get an engineer to sign off on it, it would easily be the first change I made to the boat.

[yeloya]

We have one Bali 4.1 from 2020 in our charter fleet. Finish is mediocre, not bad, spaces are gorgeous , ventilation is poor in all but particularly the aft cabins, helm station offers a good view and has a decent fly bridge for her size.. The boat's worst part is the sailing ability which is close to none.. Very slow with tiny main an small self tacking gib and its impossible to sail in a less than 10-12 kts of apparent. For some reason I found the Yanmar 40 HP engines are quite noisy, maybe poor insulation ??

Overall, good value for money..If you are keen to motor most of the time, she might be for you.

BTW, 4.1 will fade out by the end of this year and be replaced by 4.2 which has an opening door to fore deck.
Lastly, you may like her or not, but Bali has had a great success in the market having sold this year 150 boats and they are planning to expand their capacity to 250 for next year. Obviously we don't know if they can ever do that because of Covid, but they are certainly selling very well.

Cheers

Yeloya