Catamaran For Extended Cruising

[Dulcesuenos]

Originally Posted by Dave852

I think you need to up your budget a bit. If you find a 5 year old boat she may be almost ready to go with just some running rigging replaced. Once you get to 10 years you will need to replace standing rigging, sails and quite a few other items unless its been done already. A charter boat will need lots of equipment added. Don't underestimate the cost of getting her ready for such a trip. You can drop $100k before you know it.

Why replace 10 year old rigging? We just replaced 19 year old rigging and the rigger said it probably had 5-10 years left on it. Ins co dont even specify,,

[romanos2b]

For such a long trip you want to do, avoid a chartered boat. Not because of the poor equipment or quality of sails. Just because of the high damage to engines due to idling several hours a day by clients needed fresh beer on board. A 2000 hours engines from a chartered boat is probably a lot more tired than a 2000 hours used in an owner version.
The problems with chartered boat are :
-quality of sails
- tired rigging because mostly uneperienced cruised
- tired engine because poor energy system (solar panel or windgenerator)
- poor equipement (electronics)
- hidden major hull fixing (lot of them hit reefs, if not surveyed, nobody will tell you)
- tired hulls junctions and hatches because chartered boats cruise with limited time and often motor front wind, giving a lots of distortions to the hull.
- VAT excluded

So, unless you have very good knowledeges on surveying a boat, avoid a chartered one !!!
And by the way, your budget is enough to buy a good 40-42 feet catamaran less than 10 years old. Especially in the Caribbean as the hurricane season approches, the sales come soon

[ArtM]

Originally Posted by thelifenomadik

A 38 catamaran easily surpasses any 50 feet monohull in amount of space, so we have learned. We just got our Leopard R&C 38 owner's version. We are a family of four planning to do pretty much what you are guys planning. The boat costs a lot less than your budget.

We haven't sailed yet, nor cruised before, but we heard at boat shows, that the marina fees are not doubled except probably two places in the world. And it is true, we are now at a boatyard fitting the boat for cruising and we are being charged per foot for 38 feet only.

You can check out our blog where i will write updates about our journey:
The Life Nomadik | Chronicles of a Lunatic Voyage

good luck!

The expectation is that cruising locations will become increasingly catamaran friendly, and will likely start favoring catamarans due to their low draft. This probably has started already. Keeping a marina deep is more difficult than keeping berths wide.

[Kashmir cat]

Try to buy a 5 year old or newer cat. There may be a lot of things to replace on an older cat unless the owner has recently refit. This may force you to look for a 38 or 40 footer. Remember, a catamaran has about 50-60 percent more interior space than a monohull of the same length. Our previous boat was a 46 foot monohull. The interior space, deck space, and storage space on our 46 foot catamaran DWARFS our old monohull. There are cabins and lockers I haven't been in for months!

[FLLCatsailor]

There are so many advantages to buying an ex-charter catamaran. The difference in price makes up for the cruising gear missing... Look at a leopard 46 for example... Private never chartered sells just around 500k or so, an ex charter boat can be purchased for as little as 340-350k...

For well under 150k you can repower, new running and standing rigging, sails, cushions, dink/outboard, new genset, new electronics, etc etc.. With factory warranties from yanmar, raymarine, Noreen lights. Cruise air, etc etc....

The only downside in my opinion is 4 cabin over 3 cabin...

Going to apologize for all of the typos ahead of time... I'm offshore typing on my ipad while on watch.

[loowigi]

We are selling our Leopard 38 2000 model that has numerous upgrades. We are a family of 4 and have sailed from South africa. She was more than capable of the trip to the US with plenty of space. There are many different cats you can look at in the charter business, but being in the BVIs for the last month, I can now see why charter boats are so abused when seeing the lack of knowledge people have using them. If you buy any charter boat figure in a huge chunk you are going to have to pay to get her ready for blue water cruising. Not only add ons but repairing the damage people have done over the years.

[FLLCatsailor]

That is why there is the huge difference in price between an ex charter boat and a private boat. I love the idea of saving money on the purchase to replace the gear, and end up with components that are under factory warranty and not dated.

Not to mention a lot of private owners are emotionally attached to their boats, and over value them.

In terms of structural damage to any yacht... That's why you hire an independent marine surveyor to work as your representative.

Don't get me wrong, I love privately owned yachts because they tend to be a bit mo turn key. I'm just saying there is a lot of value in buying an ex charter boat.

[Privleoplag]

I looked at a lot of owners boats a few years ago in the OP exact price range. Everything was a wreck. The charter boats actually looked much better, but maybe looks can be deceiving. The boats that were pristine owners boats were priced much, much higher but were usually outfitted a bit better. Since our goal was to cruise in a few years, we bought into a charter/owners program and now expect to have a nice, well equipped boat at the end of about 5 years. From what I saw, if I am there through the phase out, that should be attained.

Everyone says the charter boats are poorly equipped. Not so much anymore. I felt ours was pretty loaded up.. Solar, generator, air con, electric heads, led lights, upgraded engines, 3 cabin owners layout, etc, etc,. I see also, that because of the location of our boat, it has about 1/3 the gen and engine hrs that boats we have used in other locations have on them. I'm expecting that our sails and rigging has much more use than those boats.

Three more years and counting! I knew time would go fast.. but days when we have a foot of snow, blowing and drifting, and roads closed and freezing temperatures like today.. I wish it went just a wee bit faster!
.

[lucresai]

Australian cats are designed to master extreme weather. Ours a simpson has done over 350000 miles and is still going strong, I have delivered various other French cats but don't want to change ever. s.v. Lambada | The whereabouts of Luuk & Matty Criens on the s.v. Lambada
Think of deck clearance to prevent slamming, Easier sleeping, check for proper mast support, is all bonded or screwed, causing a constant squeeking.

[ArtM]

Cruising boats owners I've seen listing their boats either (a) overvalue their boats (and may not be serious about selling them), or (b) are not using them, have allowed them to rot, and have finally decided to cut their losses after it became beyond their ability to rehabilite them.

Ex-cruising boats have a well-established (though not necessarily "correct") market value, and are known to have been in safe sailing condition at last usage (assuming it was operated by a reputable company)

Sure, you might find a beautifully love boat being sold at just the right time and for just the right reasons, but you definitely will find a large field of ex-charter boats in more-or-less known condition, and at a more-or-less known price,

[Goosebumps]

Is op experienced sailor, he has monohull experience! Experienced with cats? I cannot stress enough go and sail cats, from 34 footers to 50 footers, do gunk holing, and other type of sailing, anchoring, marine visiting you expect to do, want to do. realize that the larger the cat the more difficult to handle, single handed or crewed. My experience, after sailing +40 footers is that lots more excuses are made to motor, as sails get larger and difficult to handle the larger your cat. then the costs, bottom work, re-power, re-rig name it, on 34 footer easy only half cost of 40 footer. look at what sailor builders like Richard Woods do, he built for himself the eclipse a 34 footer. Isn't it better to use the funds you got to make sure your 34 footer is in top nick, rather than to have to scrounge to get +40 footer up to scratch.

Just my view, I have 34 footer, and manage to keep things economic. If you worry about offshore sailing with 34 footer, no problem, actually when things get hot easier sail management, motoring more effect to get you out of trouble as less weight. The carry capacity also for couple enough on 34 footer. if you want more info how I set up mine, on which I live since 2007, I can share. one last but important point my 34 footer has two integral fresh water tanks which centered, and down in both hulls, each 450 liters, yes 900 liter cap, have helped both witness balance of cat and need for water, without waterline going very down.

[vegasandre]

Hi I like your blog site- congrats on the 2001 Leopard 38 ! Looks like it was listed for 165k - would you mine sharing what you got it for and what work it needed and the cost- seems like a pretty good deal.

It would seem there are some good deals to be had on cats if you look hard, research well and are not in a rush

Originally Posted by thelifenomadik

A 38 catamaran easily surpasses any 50 feet monohull in amount of space, so we have learned. We just got our Leopard R&C 38 owner's version. We are a family of four planning to do pretty much what you are guys planning. The boat costs a lot less than your budget.

We haven't sailed yet, nor cruised before, but we heard at boat shows, that the marina fees are not doubled except probably two places in the world. And it is true, we are now at a boatyard fitting the boat for cruising and we are being charged per foot for 38 feet only.

You can check out our blog where i will write updates about our journey:
The Life Nomadik | Chronicles of a Lunatic Voyage

good luck!