Luxury catamaran brands worth considering

[ozolli]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

Fully loaded for ocean cruising (400 litres of water) including everything for ocean passaging the sea water is below the WL (7.8T). If I added an extra 300litres of water I could bring it up to the WL so sailing weight fully loaded about 7.5T**.

Ok so this is what (some) naval architects call DWL or design water line.

[CatAdventure]

Your compromise is a Gunboat, you can have fun sailing and your family will be happy with the accommodation.

[ozolli]

Gunboats are not easy cats. Things can quickly become tense, especially without enough seasoned sailors onboard.

[dwh61]

Xquisite (full disclosure, I own one).

[Jsveb]

I would consider sticking with chartering. However, that is not what you are asking about.

If I was in the market for a cat, I’d be looking at Outremer.

Good luck.

[dwh61]

Outremer is built for performance. It's an excellent ocean going cat. It can have luxury amenities but all are upgrades (water maker, microwave, dishwasher, etc...). Outremer think performance first, which means 'weight' is a big factor.

Xquisite includes those amenities as standard. It's heavier, very solid at sea, can easily be single handed as all working lines run to helm.

[croseus]

Originally Posted by JPK

I'm in the very early stages of research for a possible purchase of a catamaran a couple of years down the road. Up until now I'd been looking at higher-end mono's (X-yacht, Contest, etc.) but after having chartered cats a few times on vacation it's clear that the whole family likes cats better and they're just better suited to our needs. We're not looking for a "blue water" boat (I really do hate that term, FWIW). We're not looking to circumnavigate or live aboard full time. We're looking for a comfortable, luxurious catamaran for Med. cruising (Greece, Croatia, Italy, Turkey) for up to 8-10 family members on board for 1-3 weeks at a time. I want something that we can sail without a professional skipper, so with my skills and experience and available crew that means something not larger than about 55 ft.

The challenge I'm running into is that I'd like something with a level of customization and finishes higher than what's available on the production cats (FP, Lagoon, etc.). But from what I'm seeing, in order to get that level of finishes and customization, I need to either go with something more performance-oriented (HH, Gunboat) or larger (65'-70'+), or both. I don't see much in the 50'-55' range with a high level of finishes. The closest I've come to what I'm looking for is the Sunreef 50. These look like beautiful boats, but there are a concerning number of accounts online of build quality issues with Sunreef.

So, what brands should I be looking at that will give me a Sunreef/HH/Gunboat level of interior fit and finish, with more of a cruising cat ethos (flybridge, large front cockpit, large bedrooms and heads, etc.) and a solid construction quality if I don't want a race boat or a 60'+ cat?

Thanks!

Have you looked at Knysna 550?

[Letterkenny]

Still haven’t seen you comment on the Privilege. Seems to be the best option.

[SVFaith]

I like Balance a lot. Done a fair bit of research on the market. High quality carbon reinforced [the full carbon boats and the cost thereof make them ridiculous] though they will build their boats in carbon if desired...innovative designs, copied by others and good performance / world cruising. Personally I like the 482. They price and weigh their boats with what they consider standard options and weight. Unusual in the sailing inductry generally.

[BYA2014]

Hi, Eric Smith here with ACY in the U.S. and Canada with 4 commissioning locations, including The U.S, Virgin Islands and our own vendors in LaRochelle France. We're the largest FP dealer/distributor in the world, offering FP for over4 35 years--we have developed a team to do custom commissioning--including some custom finishing materials. The basic hardware and outfitting has been continuously improved and currently is competitive with some of the best on the market..

As you know, all boats are compromises. FP's, compared to most of the mass-market cruising cats are purpose built for longer range cruising. Compared to the others, that are purpose built for chartering, they offer: More performance with more sail area and a lower boom for easy access, and lighter weight. They offer the largest % of useful living and storage space for their overall length in the industry today --in fact if you look at my custom volume comparison chart, the 51 Aura that appears to meet your criteria, easily has the volume of most 55-60' cats. Compare here:
https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/revie...0-a4f75f0ceeea

FP has been a leader in developing continuously improved production *processes, like injection molding, low carbon emission production processes and they are leaders in developing hybrid electric and quiet boats--again, this development is facilitated because they can spread their costs across a large production volume of boats.

As the largest builder in the world, for this class boat, the economy of scale comes into play to help keep prices more than competitive.

RE the wood-- the real wood components are created from an environmentally friendly industrial process often chosen by high end custom home and commercial architects as well as custom boat builders for their projects. It's created with a patented process from sustainable forestry.
• Alpi Wood: Overview: ALPI wood Introduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTD_NuBYK6I

Specifics of production:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxOH2KtywYw

So much more to talk about--
Here's a video for a recorded webinar I did looking at all of the considerations on deck for a serious cruiser--going way beyond what would just work ok for a charterer group: https://vimeo.com/407732072


I specialize in virtual meeting planning sessions. Reach me to plan a phone or virtual meeting at: https://calendly.com/eric-smith-acy

[roscheetham]

Note, one big reason for the apparent lower interior quality is to keep weight down. You don't want Cars to sit deep adding water resistance so light weight interior construction is normal.

[CaptainRivet]

What is your budget and how much running costs you can afford?

Single handing definitly max is 44-47ft longterm depending on the rig. short time yes 55ft but everything on a 55ft must be electrical but if you have a power blackout what do you do?
44 till 47 i can still handle manually and alone and depend on noone while 55ft you always depend on minimum a 2 nd person.
Catana 47 or 50 are single handle sailed, luxery but a lot electronics and a huge rig to move the relative heavy cat, balance 45-51 and outremer 51 or 52 are other good ones.

Dean cats also luxery but slower, yes new they hsd Q&A problems but the mostly metriculatly maintained and refited 10 year old Dean 45 or 50 are a lot of luxery and finish for the money you pay for them. Exquiste and Privilege are w other luxery brands with good finish.
Run from sunreef, seams luxery but tons of problems and because they even build boom themself all propertary expensive and duboptimal quality

[Debbies Diamond]

I am listing my Switch 51 for Sale.
Performance Catamaran Switch 51 "Trebuchet"
By Sud Composites France 2000, now Swiss Cats. Sail Mag article review "fast and Luxurious". Owned 5 years Just returned from 2nd Caribbean winter.
Carbon boards, foam core upper hull and interior, Fast, roomy, comfortable. New B&G radar, 12"-MFDs, deck hatches, house bank, 2nd solar, Profurl, more. Recent standing rigging, 5 kw generator, Spectre water maker, Bauer dive compressor, engines rebuilt 2018 8man raft, tramps, jacklines, 2nd spin halyd, Airmar transducers, 2elec winch, etc. Yanmar 56HP 25' beam, 4' draft up much more 475K Sag Harbor NY 914-629-5578

Former owners "Following Tides" sailed her to Europe and wrote a blog about their travels

[Catarama]

[hi, have a look at Portifino. They build semi custom aluminium cats. For a review look up utube channel “Barefoot Doctors”…QUOTE=JPK;3912713]I'm in the very early stages of research for a possible purchase of a catamaran a couple of years down the road. Up until now I'd been looking at higher-end mono's (X-yacht, Contest, etc.) but after having chartered cats a few times on vacation it's clear that the whole family likes cats better and they're just better suited to our needs. We're not looking for a "blue water" boat (I really do hate that term, FWIW). We're not looking to circumnavigate or live aboard full time. We're looking for a comfortable, luxurious catamaran for Med. cruising (Greece, Croatia, Italy, Turkey) for up to 8-10 family members on board for 1-3 weeks at a time. I want something that we can sail without a professional skipper, so with my skills and experience and available crew that means something not larger than about 55 ft.

The challenge I'm running into is that I'd like something with a level of customization and finishes higher than what's available on the production cats (FP, Lagoon, etc.). But from what I'm seeing, in order to get that level of finishes and customization, I need to either go with something more performance-oriented (HH, Gunboat) or larger (65'-70'+), or both. I don't see much in the 50'-55' range with a high level of finishes. The closest I've come to what I'm looking for is the Sunreef 50. These look like beautiful boats, but there are a concerning number of accounts online of build quality issues with Sunreef.

So, what brands should I be looking at that will give me a Sunreef/HH/Gunboat level of interior fit and finish, with more of a cruising cat ethos (flybridge, large front cockpit, large bedrooms and heads, etc.) and a solid construction quality if I don't want a race boat or a 60'+ cat?

Thanks![/QUOTE]

[SV Coronado]

I recommend a trip to the Annapolis Sailboat Show in October. You'll be able to walk through a lot of nice catamarans from a wide array of manufacturers. There isn't a boat show on the West Coast that comes close to Annapolis, especially for catamarans.