Nautitech build quality

[cory_reinking]

Nautitech 44 Open Review

We just returned from a min-June, 7 day charter of a 2023 Nautitech 44 Open in the BVI and I figured I'd share my thoughts with the group and anyone who might be considering this boat. I know there are a lot of strong feelings out there so please know this is just an expression of my opinions and preferences as someone looking to purchase a boat like this for cruising with my wife. Forgive the length of the post!

For background, I'm 49 years old with about 30 years of sailing experience, 20 years of boat ownership experience (all monohulls), and about 5000nm under my belt. I'm retired from a career in technology and I'm currently a part time sailing instructor in San Diego. I'm a former coastal cruiser on a 33' monohull in 2007/2008 - Pacific Mexico). I race on a J/105 as a main trimmer and occasionally as headsail trimmer. I'm definitely not an expert on cruising or sailing performance, but I'm reasonably competent in both areas.

My wife and I returned from a season of cruising in Mexico when we were in our early 30s and had a baby. So that meant putting future plans to cruise on hold for a while. Our intention is to purchase a cruising catamaran in a few years when our daughter leaves the house and spend 5 years +/- cruising the Med, Caribbean, Atlantic Coast of the US, Panama Canal, and Pacific Coast of Mexico again. I love to research boats and after a trip to the Miami boat show in Feb 2024, the Nautitech 44 Open was top of my list. It is a production boat for sure, which helps put it closer to our desired price point, but Nautitech is now focused very much on private ownership. That makes them a little hard to find for charter, but we found what we were looking for in the BVI. We did a bareboat charter with friends on a 2023 - 44 Open owners version and we were generally very impressed with the boat. It has been in charter for about 18 months and was in really great condition. I see many privately owned boats that are only used on the weekends in far worse shape than this boat.

I'll start first with the design and the pros/cons in my opinion as I walk through the boat in my mind. The swim platforms are spacious enough to board comfortably from a dock or the dinghy, as well as for swimming and snorkeling. There was a collapsible swim ladder on the port hull that wasn't nearly as sturdy as the solid, swing down ladders I was more accustomed to, but it seemed to work okay. Since we had 7 aboard and were in the water every day it got a lot of use! There are inboard cleats on either hull that made it easy to tie up the dinghy and I could see these working well for a stern to docking situation. The cockpit shower was the typical type you see on production boats, but the hose fed into a mesh bag inside the port engine room that was a bit on the small side, making the hose a little difficulty to stow (easy fix). The dinghy davits were solid and there was 800W of solar on an arch over/attached to the davits. The solar arch provided a great sturdy handhold when standing in the dinghy to attach the davit hoisting lines. I presume it was the factory option and I'd have wanted the panels up a bit higher if I was designing my own. The bridge deck clearance seems better then average (eyeballing it against other similar sized cats we saw in Miami and BVI, and we never had any slapping in 5' swells). We could not get the dinghy under the bridge deck due to outboard clearance (about 2" shy). I understand that is a descent ballpark measure of adequate clearance. There was no line management solution at the transom where you have the two dinghy hoisting lines, the traveler lines and a double ended mainsheet. It wasn't a problem at at the dock or at anchor, but made for a mess of lines on the cockpit floor when sailing. The boat clearly listed slightly to starboard because there was an area of the cockpit floor to port of the aft most bench seat that never properly drained. The cockpit is symmetrical and the starboard side didn't have this issue. The list wasn't noticeable, other than this constant pool of water after it rained. There is likely more woodwork in the starboard hull with 2 state rooms, additional weight from the galley/refrigeration on the starboard side, and the generator is under the starboard aft bunk. Not a big deal but it still annoyed me. Engine rooms were incredibly spacious, easy to access, and I couldn't see any problems working on the 50 HP Volvo Penta D2-50s. I found it odd that the Victron Multiplus 3000 inverter was mounted in the port engine compartment on the bulkhead separating the engine room from the port aft cabin. All of the other DC infrastructure was just on the other side of that bulkhead under the aft bunk. Starting batteries are not in in the engine compartment, which is a positive. It did seem odd that both starter batteries are in the port hull under the after bunk (as were the house batteries and most of the DC electrical infrastructure). I was a little disappointed to see a mix of vendors for the charging gear. The DC-DC chargers (engine start AGMs to house LFP) were Cristec, battery monitor was Super8 (same as the LFP batteries), and two of the solar charge controllers were Victron and the other 2 were Cristec. There were no communication cables coming from any of the Cristec or Victron gear, so I'm sure the charging was "uncoordinated" and less than ideal, but with over 2000w of solar, maybe efficient charging isn't that big of a concern. We left the inverter (Victron Multiplus 3000) on 24/7 and never saw the batteries below 49% in the early morning. They were always full by early afternoon, even when it was a bit cloudy. The water heater tank is metal and in the port engine room. It was very hot to the touch after the motor was running so something to be cautions of. The insulation above the engine room was laying on the port engine. Clearly the adhesive used affix it to the ceiling wasn't holding in the heat. The starboard engineer room had already had that insulating material removed. It didn't seem like it would be a hard problem to solve but they chose to just remove it. I'd definitely prefer a Yanmar to a Volvo, but one thing I've always loved about Volvo is how smooth and quite they run. I don't think sleeping in the aft bunks while motoring through the night would be an issue at all. The engines are mounted forward of the rudders (as they should be), and the sail drive is forward of the engine. So props are maybe 6-8' from the stern. This also helps to centralize the weight a bit better then you would see on an FP or Lagoon of similar size where they have put the engines all the way at the stern behind the rudder. As far as I know, at least Leopard has yet to make that unfortunate compromise for more interior space... With the aft helm positions, which I know are one of the most contentious design aspects, you do get mechanical steering like a monohull, not hydraulic like you'd have in a bulkhead or flybridge helm location. So the boat retains some feel of water moving over the rudders, which is nice for people that like to sail and hand steer. The little biminis over the helms were good to keep some sun off the helmsman head, but that was about it. They didn't provide any protection from the weather and weren't far enough aft to even provide good sun protection when the sun was coming from the stern. They were also not large enough to provide much protection from the rain. Clearly they weren't intended to provide anything other than a little shade, but there didn't seem to be a good way to design a more comprehensive enclosure if desired. They did look nice, as did just about everything with this boat. The helm positions afforded great visibility of the sails, and I think that is also one reason why the helm biminis were fairly narrow, so they didn't obstruct the view of the sails. This boat had the self tacking jib, which provides a little convenience for tacking and a lot of drawbacks for performance and optimal sail trim. The boat can be ordered with a traditional genoa with traditional fore and aft genoa tracks and cars in leu of the self taking jib. I'd highly suggest considering that option. You also can't see the clew of the jib very easily when you are unfurling it using the jib sheet on the starboard primary winch. The button for the electric primary winch is too far inboard. So you can't easily keep an eye on the sails while you sheet in, hoist main, etc. But having a long neck or hitting the winch button with your foot solves that problem. We also found that the jib sheet, which runs part way up the mast to help make the self tacking possible, would of course have a fair amount of tension and would generate a harmonic vibration that could be heard and felt thought the boat in 16+ knots of wind going to weather. Not a terrible issue but another reason not to have the self tacking jib. We needed to rig a barber hauler to the amidships deck cleat get anything close to descent sail shape when sailing broader then a fairly close reach. Access to main sail was very easy with the boom at thigh height while on the coach roof. Mast is fairly far forward compared to some other cats, which makes for a long boom and a fair amount of swing, even when sheeted in tight. So we needed to use caution when dressing the sail and reefing lines in the bag after dropping the main. I don't have a lot of experience with cats and full battened mains of this size. Seems like a greater quantity of sail cars spaced more closely together would provide better support for the luff of the main and make the flaking of the sail into the lazy bag easier. Not sure how this boat compares to the competition in this respect. Also found the steps to get up to the coach roof could use a handhold. You tend to grab the jib sheet, which can move around. You can reach the diamond stay if have long arms but something on the leading edge of the mast would be ideal. I'm 6'1" and found the molded grab handle in the coach roof perfectly adequate when walking on the decks. My wife who is 5'1" didn't like them because they were not as ergonomic for someone her size. Definitely a proper grab handle, like the coach roof has further after near the helms would be better. Forward sail lockers and deck lockers were nice size and maybe the sail locker in the bow could use a step to make it easier to enter/exit. The anchor windlass is fairly deep in its locker making in a little difficult to get to the wired remote. Also, the bridal cleat was too low so it didn't hold the bridal elevated above the chain when you were deploying or retrieving the anchor. You needed to pull the bridal line taught up on the deck and stand on to keep it out of the way of the chain coming over the roller. We didn't like the anchor roller being so far aft. We anchored every where we could. Dropping was not as big an issue, but retrieving was difficult to ensure we were headed towards the anchor at the right speed. Probably something we just need to work on to get used to, but retrieving from a roller on the bow is much easier. I know there is a weight consideration regarding the placement of the anchor roller, but we felt the drawback of the aft placement and we've anchored hundreds of times. I saw someone state that they were concerned about rust stains at the helm that would wash off but still were concerning. We had some rust color water collect near the helms but it was just water that had been stained brown/rust from the oiled teak steps at the helms. It wasn't rust but could be mistaken for rust. Also, I don't think a rust stain would rinse off easily. May or may not have been a possible cause for the other boat... This boat had the GRP cockpit table and now having spent some time on the boat, I'd opt for the modular cockpit table to make it easier to get to the storage under the seats and to give you easier access to the seating around the table(s). This boat didn't have the cockpit enclosures or sun screens. They definitely weren't needed for warmth in the tropics, but would have kept the cockpit cushions dry from the overnight rain. This boat didn't have interior blinds in the saloon, it had exterior window covers. I like that idea better, but I didn't like that the window covers were in just 3 pieces, making it a 2 man job to put them up. If they were in 5-6 pieces, it would be easier for a single handed install. It would also be nice if you could roll them up to store, but you had to remove the side covers and they have a bolt rope/track at the top which required someone to pull the cover while someone else fed it into the track.

Inside, there was great debate between my wife and I regarding the central bar. She didn't like it aesthetically, but we all found it very useful to setup a buffet for meals and happy hour. Of course we had 7 aboard and might find it less useful with just 2 of us. The galley sink is molded, which I really like, but there was no backsplash behind most of the sink. So it was easy to splash water back behind the counter where the sliding glass door track was. The fridges and freezer had a hard time keeping things cold in the tropical heat, but I think that is going to be common to any boat. We'd buy bags of ice to keep in the freezer for drinks and melt water would leak out of the freezer onto the saloon floor. We were in and out of the freezer all day, so can't put too much blame on the appliances. We just left a towel on the floor. For a boat that has been in charter for 18 months, the floors, counters, woodwork, etc, looked like it was fairly new. There was almost no signs of wear and tear, which I though was amazing. The cabin doors felt heavy and solid, the hardware on the doors and cabinets seem high quality. All of the common wear areas were solid wood with rounded corners. Very pleased with the interior finishings and build quality. I'd heard of complaints of the inadequate fasteners used to hold the ceiling panels up on the Open 46, but I tugged a corner or two of the Open 44 ceiling panels and they felt very solidly attached. The interior seating isn't great, but I realized Nautitech had to compromise there to get a bigger cockpit, which was fantastic. Also, the interior seating would be totally fine for a couple. Nav station was very nice and provided a great view of the water all around. B&G master MFD at the nav station did malfunction on us once. Charter company said it was known issue. It would power up, but screen would stay black. No easy way to truly power off without isolating the house battery. Luckily it resolved itself after some fiddling. From then on we just put it to sleep, never powered it off. Owner hull was really nice. Bed was comfortable and spacious, head compartment was tight but adequate, and the bathroom/shower foreword was really nice and spacious. I know the fresh water pump was a source of complaint on earlier Nautitechs, but the one on this boat was excellent. It was variable speed and provided great, consistent pressure. I'd also heard that some of the older generation models (46 Open) had unbaffled fuel tanks, but not the case with the 44 Open. And tanks were relatively far forward for better weight distribution which is nice. Ventilation was not a strong point, particularly in the aft cabin. The overhead hatch is probably only 10-12", which was too small. There is room to put a larger hatch, like the forward cabins have, but for some reason they went was small ones aft. There is a port light on the outboard side of the aft cabin, but it is fairly far forward. The best way to get airflow in the aft cabin is to open the port light over the bed facing aft, but most of the rain water will make its way to the deck and flow towards the aft helm station. The step over the port light provides some protection from the direct rainfall, but the next step down is at the same level as the port light opening. So as water splashes on that second step from all the drainage from the coach roof and most of the hull drainage cascading over the steps towards the swim steps, it can easily soak your pillow and bed. Definitely one of the biggest design flaws. Yet since is the best placement for letting the warm air escape from the cabin, you have to deal with the danger of rain water with towels or deal with a hot cabin. Headroom was adiquate for someone 6'1", but over 6'3", I think you'd be at the limit. I did hit my head on the bulkhead between the aft bunk and the central hull area, but not a major issue. On the starboard hull, I have two issues. The shower is in its own room with a large sink, but the is no shower door or curtain. So the sink area gets wet unnecessarily. This could be fixed easily with a curtain or shower door. The bigger issue is the light switch placement. Often the light switch was between a wall and open door. Generally, Id say Nautitech isn't good a placing light switches in convenient/logical places!

From a performance perspective, we were very happy with the boat. Under power it was smooth and easy to handle, even motoring slowly with rudder steering (which I know some cats can't do). Maneuverability is tight spaces was no problem at all. Of course my experience is mostly monohull. Some complain that you can't see your opposite bow or traffic on your opposite bow. I found we were only in confined spaces with traffic for a few minutes at a time. I'd just step up on the deck if necessary with my foot on the wheel. Then I could see over the coach roof and under the boom, but could still steer the boat with my foot. It wasn't perfect, but I found the advantages of the aft helm exceeded the drawbacks when it came to both motoring and especially sailing. Coming into or along side a dock was very easy with the aft helm. I could even step off the boat with the stern line, tie off, and step aboard to put it in gear to bring the bow to the dock. I can't see any way to comfortably dock single handed with a bulkhead or fly bridge helm in any amount of wind or current. Picking up a mooring was also easy, I made sure to approach the mooring ball just outboard of my starboard bow. It could be picked up in my view and within easy verbal communication with my crew at the bow. Having the exterior window shade covers on the saloon windows was more of an impairment to visibility at the helm then the superstructure of the boat itself. I expected there to be some glare on the glass doors when the sun was behind the boat, but that wasn't an issue (maybe because the doors were always open due to the warm weather). It wasn't hard to step inboard 2-3 feet to see around any obstructions to look for traffic. The boat had fixed 3-blade props (wouldn't be my choice), self taking jib, and the bottom was "mossy". So I wasn't expecting the kind of performance under sail that I would expect of my own 44 Open outfitted to my preferences. But I was pleasantly surprised. We had two occasions where we were "racing" another boat in good sailing conditions of 15-20 kts true. First was a Lagoon 450S with professional crew. We were both sailing about 70 degrees to the true wind, maybe 55-60 degrees apparent. Might have been all the Lagoon could do to weather, but we absolutely destroyed them. They started well ahead and I'm sure we were at least 2knts faster and we passed them. When they tacked, we did the same and passed them again. We saw the boat later that evening in our anchorage and they commented about how fast we were. I would say it was about 16kts on average and we were doing 8 - 8.5kts of boat speed. Second was a Lagoon 50 with professional crew. This was also sailing to weather but close hauled. For us that was maybe 50 -55 true and about 43-45 apparent. It was a closer race as they had a bigger boat, but we still our pointed them and probably had about 1kt of boat speed on them. It was about 17kts of wind and we were doing about 7 - 7.5kts of boat speed. We could pick up a whole knot of speed by falling off 5 degrees but we didn't need it to out pace the bigger Lagoon. At the peek, of the trip we saw about 19-21 knots of wind and we tried a few different points of sail from close reach to slight broad reach to see where we could hit max speed. I was expecting to hit double digits with full sails up, but we topped out in the low 9s. I think with folding props and a clean bottom, we'd have easily been over 10. Also, I don't think we had great sail trim on the self tacking jib as we came off the wind. But the boat felt very comfortable even sailing to weather in 15-20 with 5' choppy swell. The bow cut through the chop a lot better than a J/105 or Beneteau 331. We didn't loose more than 1kt of speed as we hit an occasional 6'+ steep wave. There was no pounding of the hulls and never did we hear the bridge deck slap. Off course it was far from heavy conditions but the boat felt so solid, comfortable, and capable of far more. There was no stress from our non-sailor guests even sailing close hauled in near 20knots of wind with full sails. So I feel like it would be a very comfortable boat a passage compared to the smaller monohulls I'm more familiar with.

All in all, we returned from the charter with the Nautitech 44 Open still very much at the top of our list.

[dhenline]

that was a really nice write up. I currently own a 44 open. It is a nice compromise between the Charter Cats (FP, lagoon etc) and the performance cats such as Outremer.
all in all it is a nice boat.

don

[sw34]

Originally Posted by cory_reinking

Nautitech 44 Open Review

We just returned from a min-June, 7 day c........

All in all, we returned from the charter with the Nautitech 44 Open still very much at the top of our list.

We likely chartered a 44 Open in the BVI and had nearly all the same reactions - fantastic write up!

Our charter was to determine whether or not to move forward with a 44 Open (new or used) and the one and only reason we did not was because for us we need three separate areas that we can simultaneously work/homeschool for a couple of hours a day and we struggled to find solutions for that.

[Giova]

Regarding self tacking Jib and the chance of ordering the 44 open with a Genoa (which would be my preferred option as well), I read a few comments from the manufacturers and some designers suggesting instead to use the self tacking jib for close hauled/high speed TW being more centered and thus more efficient while for larger angles go for a code 0. Any thoughts?

[dhenline]

I ordered my 44 open with a Genoa and they accidentally delivered it with the Self tacker. I decided to keep it and I have been pleasantly surprised. In high winds when close hauled it performed decently well. Obviously in light winds close hauled, not as much but a code zero flown inside the shrouds would solve that issue.
the self tacker is nice when I will do a bunch of tacks in rapid succession such as going in a canal.
I also have a genaker and an Parasailor.
If I could start with a new order, I would NOT order the Genoa but get the self tacker and maybe a code zero. Just depends on how many sails you want to have hanging around

[Giova]

Thank you dhenline
It would be great if you could provide us some insights when available to know the pros and cons since you own one. Lots of people here eager to know where to put hundreds of $K

I believe one of the questions about sailing is as usual leeway ... when you say you have decent performance close hauled, would you be able to provide some figures (including leeway otherwise we are going to open the usual can of worms)?